By Maad al-Zikry, Maggie Michael, and Ahmed al-Haj28 January 2017 ADEN, Yemen (Associated Press) – After reaching Yemen’s shores in a packed migrant boat, the young Ethiopian coffee farmer was plunged into a living hell. The smugglers wanted thousands of dollars in ransom from the migrants, and they used him as an example of what […]
SANA’A, 10 February 2017 (World Food Programme) – The number of food insecure people in Yemen has risen by three million in seven months, with an estimated 17.1 million people now struggling to feed themselves, according to a joint assessment by three UN agencies. Of the 17.1 million food insecure people, about 7.3 million are […]
6 February 2017 (Mongabay) – Most of the attention around palm oil production has focused on where the crop has the largest footprint: Southeast Asia. Yet oil palm plantations are rapidly mushrooming throughout the tropics, from the species’ ancestral home in West and Central Africa to Pacific islands to Latin America. A new film, Appetite […]
5 February 2017 (AFP) – The death toll from three days of heavy snow across Afghanistan rose to 54 on Sunday and there were fears the toll could rise as rescuers began clearing roads to remote areas. Avalanches destroyed scores of homes and blocked roads in central and northeastern provinces, a spokesman for the ministry […]
By Russell A. Mittermeier and Anthony B. Rylands24 January 2017 (mongabay.com) – The Year of the Monkey has just ended, and won’t come around again for another 12 years. In the meantime, what is happening with our closest living relatives, the nonhuman primates? A recent paper in Science Advances by 31 of us indicates that […]
By Andrea Thompson26 January 2017 (Climate Central) – Across a vast swath of Europe and Asia, rain is increasingly falling in the short, localized bursts associated with thunderstorms, seemingly at the expense of events where a steady rain falls over many hours, a new study finds. The study, detailed Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, […]
Washington, DC, 12 January 2017 (Human Rights Watch) – The rise of populist leaders in the United States and Europe poses a dangerous threat to basic rights protections while encouraging abuse by autocrats around the world, Human Rights Watch said today in launching its World Report 2017 [pdf]. Donald Trump’s election as US president after […]
9 January 2017 (United Nations) – Despite attempts to increase food aid in Afghanistan, children bear the brunt of the country’s nutritional crisis, the United Nations humanitarian arm today reported, warning that the ongoing fighting has also led to record number of children at risk of abuse and exploitation. According to the recently-issued Humanitarian Needs […]
28 December 2016 (AFP) – Chinese customs seized over three tonnes of pangolin scales, state media said, in the country’s biggest-ever smuggling case involving the animal parts. Shanghai Customs found around 3.1 tonnes of pangolin scales mixed in with a container of wood products imported from Nigeria, state broadcaster CCTV reported Tuesday. It estimated up […]
By Olga Gertcyk20 December 2016 (The Siberian Times) – In just two years, since the sponge was last surveyed, it has entirely vanished in the area around popular tourist resort Listvyanka and Cape Tolsty, in Irkutsk region, and over a wide area in the north of the crescent-shaped lake which contains around 20% of the […]
