You are here

Global

Counting the Cost of Calamities

submitted by Toan Phan

       

economist.com - January 14, 2012 - ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS AND WASHINGTON, DC

Death rates from natural disasters are falling; and fears that they have become more common are misplaced. But their economic cost is rising relentlessly

THE world’s industrial supply chains were only just recovering from Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in March when a natural disaster severed them again in October. An unusually heavy monsoon season swelled rivers and overwhelmed reservoirs in northern Thailand. The floodwaters eventually reached Bangkok, causing a political crisis as residents fought over whose neighbourhoods would flood.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Scottish Anthrax Outbreak 'Worst in UK in 50 Years'

The anthrax outbreak claimed 14 lives in Scotland

BBC News - January 5, 2012

An outbreak of anthrax among drug users in Scotland between 2009 and 2010 was the largest in the UK for 50 years, according to an official report.

Health Protection Scotland (HPS) said there were 119 cases of anthrax and a total of 14 deaths during the outbreak.

Its report also recorded it as "the first documented outbreak associated with heroin use anywhere in the world".

HPS warned that as long as there was an illegal drug trade there was a risk of a similar outbreak.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

CTPL Course - Global Health Policy: The Role of Diplomacy

submitted by Albert Gomez

Location: 
Centre for Trade Policy and Law, Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive, Dunton Tower

Ottawa, ON

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

BANGLADESH: Trying to Stay Polio-Free

submitted by Stuart Leiderman

      

A six month old child receives his Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) on the 17th NID against polio  Photo: Contributor/IRIN

BANGKOK, 11 January 2012 (IRIN) - Mobile health teams in Bangladesh are conducting “child-to-child” searches to reach the remaining half million children not vaccinated during a nationwide polio immunization campaign launched on 7 January.

The campaign’s goal was to vaccinate 22 million children under five. Only 560,791 children short of reaching it, mobile teams have been conducting house visits, concluding on 11 January, to vaccinate the remainder, Arun Bhadra Thapa, World Health Organization’s country representative, told IRIN.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

A six month old child receives his Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) on the 17th NID against polio
©

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

With Work Scarce in Athens, Greeks Go Back to the Land

by Rachel Donadio - The New York Times - January 8, 2012

       

Vassilis Ballas and his wife, Roula Boura, extracted the gum from a mastic tree on their 400-tree farm in Chios, Greece.  Eirini Vourloumis for The New York Times

CHIOS, Greece — Nikos Gavalas and Alexandra Tricha, both 31 and trained as agriculturalists, were frustrated working on poorly paying, short-term contracts in Athens, where jobs are scarce and the cost of living is high. So last year, they decided to start a new project: growing edible snails for export.

As Greece’s blighted economy plunges further into the abyss, the couple are joining with an exodus of Greeks who are fleeing to the countryside and looking to the nation’s rich rural past as a guide to the future.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

WILL Interactive Launches '$500,000 Simulate a Better World Challenge' to Promote Social Change

submitted by Theresa Bernardo

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- WILL Interactive, Inc., the nation's most experienced developer of computer-based interactive training simulations, today announced the launch of the $500,000 Simulate a Better World Challenge.

The winner of the Challenge will have the unique opportunity to select the subject matter and help guide the creation of an interactive simulation.  The finished program will be distributed nationally to address an issue of major societal importance in an effort to create real, sustainable change. The competition is open to applications from all organizations and individuals through February 29, 2012. Learn about the Challenge.

(READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

USUN - Passage of the Fifth Committee Regular Budget for the 2012-2013 Biennium

        

New York, New York - December 29, 2011

The United States is proud to have negotiated, alongside our international partners, a strengthened, more efficient, and more effective United Nations budget that saves the American taxpayers millions of dollars and sets the United Nations on the path of real fiscal discipline and continued reform. Highlights of the 2012-2013 biennium budget include:

· A 5% overall cut in the size of the UN budget. The total budget of $5.153 billion represents the first time in 14 years – and only the second time in the last 50 years – that the General Assembly has approved a regular budget level below the previous biennia’s final appropriation ($5.41 billion in 2010-2011). When factoring in the difference between the likely budget level based on historic patterns and the budget approved last week, this budget represents a savings to American taxpayers of as much as $100 million.

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Video - Dr. Upmanu Lall - Water Shortages

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Will the Next War Be Fought Over Water?

by Megan Erickson - bigthink.com - December 23, 2011

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

The Next 5 in 5 - Innovations That Will Change Our Lives in the Next Five Years

submitted by Albert Gomez

ibm.com

Science fiction becomes reality. Worlds collide. The future is now...or within five years, at least.

At the end of each year, IBM examines market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM's global labs, to develop a multi-year forecast called The Next 5 in 5.

IBM predicts that over the next five years technology innovations will change the way we work, live and play in the following ways:

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Pages

Subscribe to Global
howdy folks
Page loaded in 1.220 seconds.