On April 15, 2013, two homemade bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed and more than 260 injured, including Jeff Bauman, who lost both his legs. Hours later, when he awoke from surgery, Bauman helped identify one of the terrorists. Now, the film …
your ad hereCalifornia Condor, a Rare Environmental Success Story
At their low point in the late 1980s, there were 22 California condors left in the world. But in 1992, after dedicated efforts to save them, the condors began rebounding. Today, these magnificent raptors are coming back. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
your ad hereFor Africa’s Poorest, Cutting-edge HIV Drugs for $75 a Year
In a landmark deal, HIV patients in Africa will now have access to the latest drugs for $75 a year. The arrangement is a major victory for the poorest nations fighting AIDS, a health epidemic with unrestrained global reach. …
your ad hereMercedes-Benz to Invest $1 Billion in US Electric Car Plant
German carmaker Mercedes-Benz has announced plans to invest $1 billion to start making electric vehicles at its manufacturing plant in the southern U.S. state of Alabama. The luxury automaker said it will manufacture electric SUVs under Mercedes’ EQ subbrand at the plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in just more than three …
your ad hereAs Africa Warms, Mosquito Carrying Zika, Dengue More Likely to Thrive
From deadly droughts and destroyed crops to shrinking water sources, communities across sub-Saharan Africa are struggling to withstand the onslaught of global record-breaking temperatures. But the dangers do not end there. Rising heat poses another threat, one that is far less known and studied but could spark disease epidemics across …
your ad hereDeep Sleep: Even Jellyfish Need Their Slumber
Even a jellyfish — one of Earth’s first and most ancient animals — needs its sleep. Scientists said on Thursday they have demonstrated that a primitive type of jellyfish called Cassiopea goes to sleep nightly. While sleep has been confirmed in other invertebrates such as worms and fruit flies, the …
your ad hereHuman Frontiers: How Much Heat Can the Body and Mind Take?
What Christian Clot remembers most vividly from his days in Iran’s boiling Dasht-e Lut desert was having to stay completely still for 12 hours a day — or die. “It was so hot I had to lie down behind some rocks between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Staying in a …
your ad hereNext Round of NAFTA Talks Take on Thornier Issues
The United States will present new proposals and begin to weigh into thornier issues of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the third round of negotiations starting in Ottawa Saturday, U.S. chief negotiator John Melle said Thursday. The stepped-up negotiations come with four more rounds of talks left after …
your ad hereRohingya Crisis Dents Myanmar Hopes of Western Investment Boom
When officials from Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon toured six European countries in June, they were hoping to drum up investment in transport, energy and education. Instead, they were bombarded with questions about the country’s treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority, who have long complained of persecution by the Buddhist majority …
your ad hereUS Deaths from Drug Overdoses Set Record in 2016
U.S. deaths from drug overdoses set a record of more than 64,000 in 2016, driven by an intractable opioid crisis, U.S. Attorney General said Thursday, citing preliminary government data. Provisional data released last month by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) showed that there were 64,070 drug overdose deaths …
your ad hereIn Glossy Bollywood, Stories of Ordinary Indian Women Shine
An elderly woman seeks a romance with her swimming coach in the Hindi film Lipstick Under My Burqa, which battled the Indian censors ahead of its release in theaters last month and is now going strong on streaming service Amazon Prime. In another Bollywood film this year, Anaarkali of Aarah, …
your ad hereStudy: Daily Half Hour’s Exercise Could Prevent 1 in 12 Early Deaths
People who exercise five days a week for 30 minutes significantly reduce their risk of dying early and of developing heart disease, even if a sports club or gym is not an option, according to a new international study. Tracking 130,000 people in 17 countries, both rich and poor, the …
your ad hereNew African Art Museum Aims to Provoke, Question
The new Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa is, in a word, ambitious. The museum opens its doors Friday, Sept. 22, 2017. The building is itself a work of art, a century-old grain silo on Cape Town’s historic waterfront that has been slickly overhauled by star British architect Thomas Heatherwick …
your ad hereChina’s Small Factories Fear ‘Rail Armageddon’ with Orders to Ditch Trucks
Thousands of small factories in China, making everything from steel to chemicals, are scrambling for access to the country’s clogged rail network as Beijing curbs the use of diesel trucks in an effort to tackle air pollution. The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) last month gave tens of thousands of …
your ad hereTrafficking, Debt Bondage Rampant in Thai Fishing Industry, Study Finds
More than a third of migrant fishermen in Thailand clearly were victims of trafficking over the past five years, and even more workers in the industry were possibly trafficked as well, according to a report published Thursday. Routinely underpaid and physically abused, three-quarters of migrants working on Thai fishing vessels …
your ad hereGasoline Lines Get Longer in Venezuela
Venezuelan drivers are facing growing queues to buy gasoline despite having the world’s largest oil reserves, adding to the OPEC country’s woes as its refineries sputter and its socialist economic system crumbles. The queues and shuttered service stations have been intermittent problems for much of this year, most notably outside …
your ad hereSix Decades Later, Japan Victims of Mercury Poisoning Still Fight to Be Heard
Shinobu Sakamoto was just 15 when she left her home in the southern Japanese fishing village of Minamata to go to Stockholm and tell the world of the horrors of mercury poisoning. Forty-five years on, she is traveling again, this time to Geneva, to attend a gathering of signatories to …
your ad hereTop Cocoa Producers to Create Buffer Stock to Influence World Prices
Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world’s top cocoa producers, plan to create a buffer stock of beans with the aim of exerting more influence over world prices, a senior Ivorian government official told Reuters on Thursday. The two West African neighbors produce over 60 percent of the global supply of …
your ad hereIraqis Track Abandoned Homes With Digital Tools
In camps across northern Iraq, people forced from their homes by Islamic State militants are using their phones to track what is happening to their properties, according to researchers who say returning home is crucial for building a safe future in the war-torn nation. More than three million Iraqis have …
your ad herePlay Brings Syria’s Heartbreak to American Kitchens
Twenty strangers have gathered in the dining room of a New York City apartment as a woman with long dark curly hair putters around the kitchen, putting a package of meat in the fridge, sauteing pine nuts. They settle into chairs, and she begins to speak. “Since I came back,” …
your ad hereFacebook to Release Russia Ads, Beef Up Election ‘Integrity’
Facebook is slowly acknowledging the outsized — if unintended 0151— role it played in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Bowing to pressure from lawmakers and the public, the company said it will provide the contents of 3,000 ads bought by a Russian agency to congressional investigators, while also pledging …
your ad hereFeeling Crabby: Plant-eating Dinosaurs Snacked on Crustaceans
Some plant-eating dinosaurs apparently liked a side order of crabs to go with their usual salad. Scientists said Thursday that fossilized dung thought to have come from herbivorous duck-billed dinosaurs that inhabited southern Utah 75 million years ago contained pieces of crustacean shells along with vestiges of vegetation. The discovery …
your ad hereBrigham Young University Ends Ban on Caffeinated Sodas
For the first time in more than 60 years, the Mormon church-owned Brigham Young University will sell caffeinated soft drinks on campus. BYU, the largest private religious university in the U.S., announced the decision Thursday by posting a picture of a can of Coca-Cola on Twitter and just two words: …
your ad hereFergie Says She and Josh Duhamel Still ‘Great Friends’
Fergie says even though she and husband Josh Duhamel are splitting up, they’re still “great friends” who love one another and their young son. The singer talked about her marriage at a screening Wednesday for her new visual album, “Double Dutchess,” at iPic Theaters Fulton Market in New York. She …
your ad hereReview: iTunes Video Upgrade Makes New Apple TV Worth It
It might seem odd to review the new Apple TV streaming device — one specifically designed to display super-sharp video known as 4K — without actually owning a 4K TV. But in a way, that’s the point. Most people still don’t have 4K TVs, so the new Apple TV model …
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