There’s a heavy toll to pay for Zimbabwe’s decrepit roads
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The state of Zimbabwe’s roads is the stuff of legend. From whole trucks submerged in water-filled craters right in the central business district to gruesome road accidents, motorists must navigate hazards like these every day.
Manila finds marker with Chinese writing, buoys in disputed waters: sources
PUERTO PRINCESA, Philippines (Reuters) – The Philippine navy recently found a large steel marker bearing Chinese inscriptions and hundreds of yellow buoys in waters near the Reed Bank, an area of the South China Sea where Manila has long explored for o…
In Ecuador, Pope Francis appeals for more inclusive Church
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (Reuters) – Pope Francis used his first Mass in Ecuador on Monday to ask for support in his efforts to reach out to Catholics who feel shunned by the Church when the world’s bishops gather at the Vatican in October.
Governments need to do more to regain citizens’ trust, OECD says
WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Advanced countries need to do more to address breaches of integrity by public officials and help win back citizens’ trust in national governments, a survey by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Devel…
Islamic State takes ground from Syrian Kurds after air strikes
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Islamic State fighters stormed a Syrian town held by Kurdish-led forces near Raqqa city on Monday, part of a wider offensive by the militants two days after their de facto capital was hit by some of the heaviest U.S.-led air strikes …
Air attack possible lead in 1961 U.N. chief plane crash: inquiry
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A United Nations inquiry into a 1961 plane crash that killed then Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold found that new information pointing to an aerial attack or threat bringing down the aircraft warrants further investigation….
Four teachers among six Israeli-Arabs charged for promoting Islamic State
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s Shin Bet undercover internal security agency and police said on Monday they had arrested and charged six Arab citizens, including four school teachers, with supporting and spreading the ideology of Islamic State.
800 million still hungry and poor despite progress of millennium goals: U.N.
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – About 800 million people still live in dire poverty and suffer from hunger despite the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) being the most successful anti-poverty push in history, the U.N. said on Mon…
Oil palm plantations destroying SE Asia’s peatlands: researchers
BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Drainage of peatlands to cultivate oil palm in Malaysia’s Rajang Delta is causing land subsidence that will bring large-scale floods in coming decades, making the land unusable, a problem also expected to affect…
Iranian nuclear deal set to make hardline Revolutionary Guards richer
VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have done very well out of international sanctions — and if a nuclear deal is done in Vienna this week under which those sanctions are lifted, they are likely to do better still.
