The US defied Beijing by sending a warship close to one of China’s man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea, and announcing future patrols. DW examines Washington’s position in the dispute and the risks involved.
Category Archives: Viva!
Turkey now a country ‘with no interest in rule of law,’ experts say after raid
Just days before the election, the agenda in Turkey has switched to the Koza Ipek Holding after its media group was raided for allegedly supporting a terrorist group.” Aram Duran reports from Istanbul.
Annual tuberculosis deaths drop by nearly half in 25 years
Health officials recently announced the global death rate for tuberculosis (TB) in 2015 is almost half compared to the figure from 1990.
Since 2000, the year officials established the Millennium Development Goals, an estimated 43 million lives have been saved by better diagnosis and treatment.
Despite the encouraging news,
TB is still one of the leading causes of death around the world, and 1.5 million people died from the disease in 2014. According to the
2015
Global TB report, which was released by the World Health Organization (WHO), many of these deaths were avoidable.
To further reduce the overall burden of TB, gaps in detection and treatment need to be closed. There also needs to be novel diagnostics and better funding, new vaccines and innovative drugs.
“The report shows that TB control has had a tremendous impact in terms of lives saved and patients cured,”
WHO Director-General
Margaret Chan said. “These advances are heartening, but if the world is to end this epidemic, it needs to scale up services and, critically, invest in research.”
“A few weeks ago I was sitting in the Saratoga library doing…
“A few weeks ago I was sitting in the Saratoga library doing some sketches, and one of the librarians started looking over my shoulder. Then suddenly she asked if she could show the sketches to one of her colleagues. Next thing I know—they are asking me to do a series of Halloween sketches to hang in the library. It wasn’t my first time in the limelight. I’d read some poetry before on a public access television show in Queens. But seeing my art publicly displayed like that was extraordinary. I felt super. I felt great. I still feel great!”
King James Bible, Pure Cambridge Edition
Title: King James Bible, Pure Cambridge Edition
Author: Domain, Public
Publisher: KingJamesBible.info
Language: English
Subjects: Non Fiction, Religion, Bible
Collection: Christianity
Description: Presenting the King James Bible, Pure Cambridge Edition. Easily navigate through individual books and chapters of the Bible.
Proofy – a new app from the Inoreader team
You may have guessed by now – our team is involved in many different projects beside Inoreader. But this is the first time we want to share one of our new apps with you. Prepare to meet Proofy!
As we all know, the Internet is a place where lots of fake pictures circulate, so you sometimes raise suspicions even if your photos are real – it’s not you, the whole Internet has a trust problem. We created Proofy so you can once and for all convince those around you that your stories are true and your photos are genuine.
Proofy is a free app for iOS and Android smartphones that verifies user’s photos and proves the exact time when a picture was taken. Verifying a picture with Proofy is easy – users just need to install the app, snap a picture with it and wait a few seconds for the photo to pass the verification process.
Proofy verifies the photos the moment they’re created, as it is most reliable to check the shot right at the source. The app algorithm stores the photo certificate and when the user decides to share their picture, the shot is checked against the original information. If all is fine, the photo is uploaded to the website getproofy.com with a unique URL for future reference. In this way the picture can easily be viewed by anyone the author decides to share it with.
We started developing the app with only a couple of use cases in mind, but gradually we found more and more ways that Proofy can help people tell their stories. You can document an important event or accident, brag about meeting a celebrity, show that a task was completed on time. Proofy can be of service to citizen journalists or help with proofs to insurance companies.
Proofy is completely free and it’s available on the App Store and Google Play – check it out and tell us what you think! If you’re interested in covering the news about Proofy, you’ll find more in our press kit.
Denmark has record number of child refugees
New immigration figures show that the number of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in Denmark more than doubled in September and has already surpassed 2014’s totals.
“I’m tired of being made sick by this smoke”
22 year old Indonesian student, Rahmi Carolina has spent her entire life living with the haze. Each year, as the fires rage and grow more intense, so does she. So she’s using social media and doing something about it.
Elementary students under a heavy haze in Central Kalimantan province, Borneo Island
When I was young my friends and I would visit our local river, just a short walk from our small town in Pangkalan Kerinci, upstream of Riau’s peatland coast in Sumatra. On days when we needed to cool down from the heat, we would spend hours swimming and getting lost in the shade of the trees, chasing birds and sleeping.
My parents instilled in me the importance of the environment. Growing up, forests fascinated me – how trees nurture and protect us, the beauty of bark, the way in which roots weave like tangled hair knots. But deep down, I’ve always had a foreboding feeling about forest fires. For the past 18 years during the dry season, ever since the palm oil plantations began, the haze has always been lurking.
Rahmi Carolina holding up a sign that says “Fight!!”
Every day all I would hear were complaints – from the media, from my friends, from my family. Even though I’m just one individual I knew I had to do something. But when fires are burning through the forests you can’t chain yourself to a tree.
Instead I’ve taken my voice to the streets, to social media, posted on my blog, and even appeared on TV. In August, myself and three other friends started a petition addressed to Mrs. Siti Nurbaya Bakar, the Minister of Environment and Forestry to demand the right for clean air from the government. At first, getting signatures was slow – initially it was just our friends who signed. But eventually the word spread via Twitter and the momentum started to build. At last count it stood at more than 22,000 supporters!
In late September I received a response from the Minister. She wrote that they are investigating 139 companies, with 26 under criminal investigation. But if this is the case then why has the government not yet named and shamed the companies involved, and why has it taken so long?
The haze, taken from Pekanbaru city in Riau
Recently, President Jokowi said that there would be “no new concessions on peatlands”. Decades of forest and peatland destruction from palm oil and pulp companies have caused today’s fires. Now, it is vital for the government to hold on to that promise and enforce the law.
Over the years, young people in Indonesia have become so accustomed to the haze that we don’t even wear masks. But this year, we’re turning our complaints into action. We’re using social media, we’re posting what we’re seeing and we’re telling the world!
People washing and bathing in the bank of Kapuas River under the haze from forest fires
In Indonesia there is a saying: “Bagai pungguk merindukan bulan.” Like an owl pining for the moon. It means: “to wish for something impossible.” I know that if we restore peatlands and forests and stop the fires, we can turn things around. If we had acted earlier and gotten serious about protecting forests and peatlands, maybe today Riau and other provinces wouldn’t be smothered in smoke. We need time to make things right, but this is not impossible. We will not be silenced. We will keep on fighting.
Rahmi Carolina is a 22 year old Indonesian university student, writer, activist and poet. She is currently studying English Education at the Universitas Islam Riau. She loves nature.
Take action. Stand with Rahmi and sign here
Activist cuts Uluru safety chain in protest at tourists continuing to climb rock
Indigenous elder praises man’s actions and says chain should not be restored
An activist who claims he cut chains on Uluru in a protest at tourists climbing it against the wishes of the traditional owners has been praised by a Mutitjulu elder.
Hundreds of visitors, delegates and politicians gathered at Uluru and the nearby community of Mutitjulu on Sunday and Monday to note the 30th anniversary of the land title being returned to the the Pitjantjatjara and Yankuntjatjara people.
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