1.5 million children in imminent danger of starvation in West Africa due to climate change, conflict, and poverty

By Rohit Kachroo, NBC News in Niger, West Africa19 June 2012 One-and-a-half-million children are in imminent danger of starvation in West Africa, according to The United Nations Children’s Fund, despite recent pledges of international aid. As world leaders gathered for the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, aid workers warned there were only four weeks left […]

U.S. cities struggle with blighted bank-owned homes

By Tim Reid, Reuters8 June 2012 LOS ANGELES – The smell of rotting food and decay inside 10956 South Wilmington Avenue, Los Angeles, was overwhelming. A burst pipe in the kitchen ceiling leaked water onto a floor littered with half empty cans, razor blades, odd shoes, stained clothing and an upturned, mold-ridden sofa. Windows were […]

Western banks ‘reaping billions from Colombian cocaine trade’

Anti-Drugs Policies In Colombia: Successes, Failures And Wrong Turns, edited by Alejandro Gaviria and Daniel Mejía, Ediciones Uniandes, 2011 By Ed Vulliamy, www.guardian.co.uk 2 June 2012 The vast profits made from drug production and trafficking are overwhelmingly reaped in rich “consuming” countries – principally across Europe and in the US – rather than war-torn “producing” […]

Secret Central Bank aid props up Greek banks

By Ralph Atkins21 May 2012 Frankfurt – There has been no official announcement. No terms or conditions have been disclosed. But Greece’s banking system is being propped up by an estimated €100 billion or so of emergency liquidity provided by the country’s central bank — approved secretly by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. If […]

Baby boomers’ money troubles: Worse than we thought

By Bruce Watson 2 May 2012 Over the past few years, high unemployment, the housing market implosion and falling wages have driven many American families closer together — both financially and literally. Parents are supporting their adult children, children are supporting parents, and generations are helping each other to weather the economic storms. In some […]

Review: The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future Of Our Economy, Energy, and Environment

By John Atcheson28 Apr 2012 The first thing to say about The Crash Course is that it is an impressive work of scholarship. It is reminiscent of Guns, Germs and Steel in terms of the scope and breadth of knowledge brought to bear by the author in support of his thesis – which is basically […]

‘We have seen the enemy’: Bangladesh’s war against climate change

By John Vidal in Gazipara, www.guardian.co.uk 9 May 2012 Rebecca Sultan’s life has been shattered twice in a few years. First, the 140mph winds of Cyclone Sidr ripped through her village, Gazipara, flattening houses, killing 6,000 people and devastating the lives of millions as it slammed into southern Bangladesh in 2007. Then, 18 months later, […]

For chronically unemployed, more bad news in California

By TRACIE CONE, Associated Press 6 May 2012 MERCED, California (AP) – With her anti-poverty budget stretched beyond its limits, Brenda Callahan-Johnson is braced for next Saturday: the day California’s chronically unemployed will be cut off from the nation’s jobless benefits. A drop in the state’s unemployment rate to 11 percent — its lowest mark […]

Limits of development: Interview with Habib Ayeb, co-director of ‘Green Mirages’

By Louise Sarant3 April 2012  Habib Ayeb is a Tunisian geographer and professor at the American University in Cairo’s Social Research Center. His domain of research includes social-geography, governance, poverty, marginality, hydro-politics and geopolitics. He shares his work between Tunisia and Egypt, where he has spent 15 years of his life, studying Egyptian farmers and […]

Photo gallery: The poorest county in each U.S. state

Most are rural, many are tiny, and a few are huge and urban. The median household income for these 50 counties also varies widely. By Kali Geldis, MainStreet19 April 2012 Poverty on the rise The number of Americans living in poverty has been on the rise since the onset of the Great Recession, as many […]

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