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undp.org - theglobalobservatory.org - by Michael R. Snyder - May 14, 2015

Video: President Obama met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, a day before the Gulf Cooperation Council summit meeting. By Associated Press on Publish Date May 13, 2015. Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times.

nytimes.com - May 13, 2015 - David E. Sanger

When President Obama began making the case for a deal with Iran that would delay its ability to assemble an atomic weapon, his first argument was that a nuclear-armed Iran would set off a “free-for-all” of proliferation in the Arab world. “It is almost certain that other players in the region would feel it necessary to get their own nuclear weapons,” he said in 2012.

reuters.com - by Joseph D'Urso

. . . For a two week trial, researchers employed locals to scoot around the province on small motorbikes known as okadas, collecting household, health and population data from villages on simple smartphones.

They travelled in pairs, one riding the motorbike and one using a GPS-enabled smartphone running an Android operating system, preloaded with a specially designed, simple programme for storing the necessary information.

When they arrived in a village they interviewed a village leader or representative to gather as much information as possible, and log GPS coordinates, essential in a region where village names are often duplicated or spelt differently.

Nic Lochlainn said it takes a long time to learn to use the sophisticated satellite devices usually used for mapping but users could master this software in hours and the data let experts assign Ebola cases to specific villages more accurately.

The scheme covered 950 villages in two weeks, and the cost was "very modest" compared with sending foreign aid workers into the field or commissioning detailed satellite imagery, she said.

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cnn.com - by Greg Botelho and Jethro Mullen - May 12, 2015

Just over two weeks after thousands died in a mammoth earthquake, Nepal got hit hard again Tuesday -- with another powerful tremor that has left dozens more dead, more than 1,000 injured and questions about what's next for the already traumatized Asian nation.

The fact that Nepal just endured a similar horror, not to mention waves of aftershocks that followed, didn't diminish Tuesday's damage or shock. More buildings collapsed, more landslides rumbled, and more people scrambled for their lives.

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(ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLES IN THE LINKS BELOW)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/12/us-quake-nepal-idUSKBN0NX0JO20150512

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/12/us-quake-nepal-idUSKBN0NX0JO20150512