Dutch Dialogues: Virginia life at sea level

Arial view over the Elizabeth river looking into the Norfolk Freemason
community. photo: abhi ahmadadeen/BMLTV©

Visionary plan adds more green space, innovative land use concepts

(BMLTV) NORFOLK, VA. - Slover library was buzzing with innovative ideas that inspired city officials in Norfolk and Hampton to advance regional agenda as Dutch Dialogues: Virginia Life at Sea Level wrapped up.

CLIMATE DEBATE GOING FORWARD?: An exciting and tumultuous time, fraught with inherent risk if we do not act boldly today, decisively in our Era

Code Pink activist at the Peoples Climate March New York City, September 20, 2014
photo: abhi ahmadadeen/BMLTV©

(BMLTV) NEW YORK CITY, September 24, 2014 - We live, work, and exist in an exciting, tumultuous time which poses many current and future risks and threats to our well-being, ability to thrive and prosper; and thus far we don't seem to have had the political will to mobilize an effective strategy against a great deal of these risks and threats to our society. In particular, most - nearly all - experts agree now that the largest threat to our current and future well-being as a species as well as the stability of the entire biosphere climate is in fact humanity's influence on climate change.

Ebola Outbreak: 6 Nonprofits team up to fill a 737 with 15,000 pounds of medical supplies

Emergency medical supplies from Direct Relief loaded onto 737 charter flight for Liberia. Photo: prnews/Direct Relief

(PRN/USN) FORT WORTH, Texas, August 25, 2014 - In collaboration with Airlink and Fort Worth-based ATX Air Services, LLC, Direct Relief today loaded a charter jet with emergency supplies bound for health workers on the frontlines of the Ebola epidemic in Liberia. This shipment, which includes several thousand pounds of urgently requested gloves, masks, gowns, and other medical resources, follows five others from Direct Relief to the region.

U.S. Postal Service honors groundbreaking singer Janis Joplin on limited-edition Forever Stamp

The U.S. Postal Service unveiled the Limited-Edition Janis Joplin Forever stamp at the Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco on August 8, 2014.

photo:prnewsfoto/u.s. postal service

SAN FRANCISCO, August. 11, 2014 - The U.S. Postal Service on August 8th. added legendary singer Janis Joplin to its Music Icons Forever Stamp series during a first-day-of-issue ceremony at the Outside Lands Music Festival at Golden Gate Park.

Alarm over post-Haiyan evacuation center shortage

Shelter Relief for survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines in November 2013, has been limited in some areas. photo: ana p. santos/IRIN©
 
(IRIN) MANILA, June 23, 2014- A shortage of viable evacuation centres in areas hit by Typhoon Haiyan (locally named Yolanda) has humanitarians and officials in the Philippines concerned that survivors will not have alternative accommodation in case of another one. The typhoon season usually lasts from June to November.

Soldiers in schools: The impact of military occupations on education

Female student leaves al-Furadh School at the end of the day in Yemen. Soldiers relax outside the school walls. They lived in third-floor classrooms for several months. priyanka motaparthy/Human Rights Watch©

 
(IRIN) BANGKOK, June14, 2014 - Schools are targeted in conflicts around the world - they might represent ideas viewed as controversial, the destruction of a civilian building that is important to a community inflicts terror, and a school reduced to rubble can rob an entire generation of education. But attacks are only part of the problem, as significant harm can also be done when educational buildings remain intact and armed forces move in.

Displaced CAR youths in Chad desperate for school

A volunteer teacher holds a class under the trees in Doyaba transit camp in Sarh, southern Chad, May 2014. Some 3,200 primary and pre-primary school age children are enrolled in the school, set up by displaced teachers from CAR.

photo: gnata salomon yngamaye/UNICEF©

 
(IRIN) DOYABA/SIDDHO/N’DJAMENA, May 27, 2014 - Some 40,900 children and thousands more youths displaced by the violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) are stuck in transit camps in southern Chad with no formal school to attend, few to no training opportunities, and no jobs, leaving them with no sense of what the future will bring.

IU, Paradigm team up to test genomic sequencing for women with aggressive form of breast cancer

(PRN) INDIANAPOLIS, May 20, 2014 - Indiana University cancer researchers are testing whether therapy incorporating advanced genomic technology will provide better outcomes than current treatments for those with an aggressive form of breast cancer.

Chasing bullets in the DRC

An investigator with the NGO, Conflict Armaments Research, sifts through bullets left behind at an armed group's base, after the DRC national army over ran the position in the Virunga National Park. photo: guy oliver/IRIN©
 
(IRIN) VIRUNGA NATIONAL PARK, May 13, 2014 - Her job is to track and trace small arms and ammunition in Africa’s conflict zones.

Global sugar demand leaves Cambodian farmers landless

A farmer cuts sugar cane at a plantation of Srei Ambel, Koh Kong, Cambodia. Thousands of people have been forced off their land to make room for sugar production, activists say.
photo: thomas cristofoletti/IRIN©

 
(IRIN) PHNOM PENH, May 12, 2013 - Song Kong, a 56-year-old farmer in Cambodia's southern Koh Kong Province, vividly recalls the day in 2006 when a bulldozer arrived and began clearing his paddy field to make room for a sugar plantation. Since then, life has become much worse for him and 456 other families who also lost their land in Sre Ambel District.

Blacks in U.S. more likely to receive unnecessary and dangerous surgical blood transfusions, UAlbany study finds

Overuse of blood transfusions, a study concluded, may pose serious health risks, specifically in black patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery and total hip replacement surgical procedures. photo: abhi ahmadadeen/BMLTV©

(PRN/USN) ALBANY, N.Y., May 9, 2014 - Black patients in the United States are more likely to receive perioperative red blood cell (RBC) transfusions for two of three frequently performed surgical procedures, posing a risk for favorable outcomes, a study by University at Albany School of Public Health researcher Feng Qian finds.

Drug policy shift no panacea for victims of the war

Mexican woman points gun in light of showing no fear in order to protect herself in the midst of the drug war in her region.  photo: nacho betancourt©
 
(IRIN) NEW YORK, May 9, 2014 - Easing up on drug prohibition will not solve the plight of the thousands of people displaced by the drug wars in Colombia, Mexico and other countries.

Mental health woes for southern Thai women

Two women outside their home in southern Thailand. Many women have been impacted by the conflict and in need of social support. photo: contributor/IRIN© 

(IRIN) PATTANI, April 30, 2014 - Activists and academics in southern Thailand are calling for improved assistance, including mental health services, for women affected by the decade-long armed conflict between government forces and Muslims seeking greater autonomy.

Attempt murder suspect, Alfred Tapia, taken into custody

LACSD press conference regarding the apprehension  Alfred Tapia.
photo: lacsd

(BMLTV) LOS ANGELES, April 18, 2014 - In December 2013, 34-year-old Alfred Tapia, a known gang member from the Whittier area of Los Angeles County had been identified as being responsible for three separate vicious stabbing attacks in the cities of Pico Rivera, Whittier, and Chino.

Women paying the price: Latin America drug wars

Caught between the  Drug War, two women  die from apparent gunshot injuries.  

photo: felix marquez/AP

 
(IRIN) NEW YORK, April 15, 2014 - As growing numbers of women languish in Latin American jails on drug-trafficking charges, their role in organized crime is under the spotlight - as is the prison system that incarcerates them, and the patriarchal society that appears to be failing them.

New US Farm Bill provides hope for food aid reform

Men unload sacks of rice to store in the World Food Program warehouse in Gao, Mali. The rice is used to respond to emergency food and nutritional needs in conflict-affected areas, such as Gao in northern Mali, which fell under occupation of armed groups in 2012.
tanya bindra/IRIN©

(IRIN) NEW YORK, April 14, 2014 - Efforts to improve the way the US government distributes roughly US$2 billion in international food aid each year achieved some successes in the recently enacted Agriculture Act of 2014 - commonly referred to as the Farm Bill - but the food aid mechanism used by the world’s largest donor continues to prioritize the needs of US commercial interests.

Rebuilding in Jakarta: learning what works

Tracks of houses in the slums outside of Jakarta, jammed close together up against a public dumping area. jefri aries/IRIN©
 
(IRIN) DAKAR, April 8, 2014 - A whole industry has emerged to foster humanitarian learning and, in the main, actors are increasingly collaborative and open when it comes to learning lessons from emergencies.

Growing up in war - the DRC's child soldiers

Pictured is a  boy at  the age of 11-years-old when he became a child soldier with an armed group. photo: guy oliver©/IRIN

(IRIN) KIWANJA (NORTH KIVU PROVINCE), April1, 2014  - When he was seven Dikembe Muamba* became a soldier on the orders of his uncle, a chief in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) North Kivu Province.

Leading organizations team up with Avon Foundation Global Ambassador Fergie to launch initiative which addresses gender-based violence

Avon Foundation Global Ambassador Fergie in Washington, D.C. where she announced the new Justice Institute on Gender-Based Violence with the Avon Foundation, Vital Voices, and the U.S. State Department on March 20, 2014. photo: prn

(PRN) WASHINGTON, D.C., March 22, 2014 - The Global Partnership to End Violence Against Women, a collaboration of Vital Voices Global Partnership, the Avon Foundation for Women and the U.S. Department of State, this week presented a new initiative to address gender-based violence: the Gender-Based Violence Emergency Response and Protection Initiative.

Ukraine clouds global food price forecasts

The US Grain Council said in a recent statement that shipments from the Ukraine, which exports to North Africa, the Middle East and China, are “becoming increasingly difficult”.
photo: courtesy of usda nrcs

(IRIN) JOHANNESBURG, March 20, 2014 - The political crisis in Ukraine, the world’s third biggest exporter of maize, could affect global prices of the grain and global reserves in the 2014-2015 season, say experts.