By Keith Bacongco8 April 2016 ARAKAN, Philippines (UCA News) – Swathes of corn stand withered on the parched rolling hills near the farming town of Arakan in the southern Philippines, while shallow cracks scar what were once fertile rice paddies. El Nino is wreaking havoc in agriculture-rich Cotabato province. Allan Salon, a member of the […]
By Francisco Lara Jr.10 April 2016 (Philippine Daily Inquirer) – People prayed for rain these past few months in North Cotabato. Drought plagues the province like no other in Mindanao, laying waste to tens of thousands of hectares of rice farms planted in time for the March harvest season. The harvest would have brought food […]
By F. Brinley Bruton 9 April 2016 WANA, Iraq – The possibility of annihilation hangs over Saddeq Hassan and his neighbors. Their town of Wana is just 7 miles downriver from the troubled Mosul dam, which U.S. officials warn is in danger of failing — which could kill between 500,000 and 1.47 million people. A […]
By Joe Cochrane5 April 2016 NYARU MENTENG, Indonesia (The New York Times) – Katty, a docile, orange-haired preschooler, fell from a tree with a thump. Her teacher quickly picked her up, dusted off her bottom, refastened her white disposable diaper and placed her back on a branch more than seven feet off the ground. Katty […]
By The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists 3 April 2016 (ICIJ) – A new investigation published today by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other news organizations around the globe, reveals the offshore links of some of the planet’s most prominent people. In terms of size, […]
By David Campanale2 April 2016 One of the strongest El Niño weather events ever recorded has caused heatwaves, water shortages and forest fires around the world. Now deaths linked to protests over food shortages have been reported in Cotabato province in the southern Philippines, where thousands of drought-hit farmers have clashed with police over […]
By Joshua Berlinger1 April 2016 (CNN) – The obesity epidemic has gone global, and it may be worse than most thought. A new study in The Lancet says that if current trends continue, 18% of men and 21% of women will be obese by 2025. In four decades, global obesity has more than tripled among […]
HANOI, Vietnam, 17 March 2016 (AP) – Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta, the country’s main rice growing region, is experiencing the worst drought and saline intrusion in recent history that has affected more than half a million people, officials said Thursday. The drought could result in the loss of up to 1 million tons of rice, […]
By Joanna Chiu10 March 2016 ULZIIT, Mongolia (Irin) – Daashka and his brother tear across the Mongolian steppe on a motorbike in a desperate search for somewhere to graze their herds. Pastureland is dwindling rapidly as the country is beset by a cycle of drought and harsh winter that is killing off livestock in droves. […]
By David Shukman 9 March 2016 (BBC News) – The mass slaughter of rhinos has increased for the sixth year in a row, according to grim new figures from international researchers. At least 1,338 of the iconic animals were killed for their horns in Africa last year. This is the greatest loss in a single […]
