Climate change is about to hit the world in the stomach, according to the United Nations. A new scientific report from the world body that examines land degradation concludes that climate change will imperil crops and worsen hunger.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has the story.   …

The way we use land could be the key to adapting to climate change — or the final nail in the planet’s coffin, according to a landmark climate assessment from the United Nations on Thursday.Human use directly impacts 70 percent of the ice-free land on Earth, and we’re degrading about …

BARCELONA, SPAIN – A Spanish nature conservation center says that the first baby lynx has been born in the Pyrenees in nearly a century.    The Eurasian lynx is considered extinct in the Spanish and French Pyrenees, and the last time it was witnessed in these mountains was in the …

On the ground, climate change is hitting us where it counts: the stomach — not to mention the forests, plants and animals.A new United Nations scientific report examines how global warming and land interact in a vicious cycle. Human-caused climate change is dramatically degrading the land, while the way people …

Medical experts in Kenya are banking on human breast milk to save the lives of newborn babies.  Nairobi’s Pumwani Maternity Hospital has set up East Africa’s first breastmilk bank, the second in Africa, to provide donated milk to babies in need. As Sarah Kimani reports from Nairobi, the milk bank …

The first step in a sweeping crackdown on crime ranging from drugs to sex trafficking in a notorious San Francisco neighborhood yielded 32 arrests of mostly Honduran nationals tied to two international operations that poured heroin and cocaine into the community, U.S. prosecutors announced Wednesday.It’s not uncommon to see people …

Researchers in Uganda this week launched a trial for a new Ebola vaccine. Eight hundred health workers involved in the fight against the Ebola virus are receiving doses of the two-part vaccine.  Halima Athumani reports from Mbarara in western Uganda. …

Derrick Campana became a man on a mission to make animals his life’s work after the first time he was asked to create a prosthetic for a dog who didn’t have one of his front legs.  At that time he was only building artificial limbs for humans. About 15 years ago, …

Prescriptions of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone are soaring, and experts say that could be a reason overdose deaths have stopped rising for the first time in nearly three decades.The number of naloxone prescriptions dispensed by U.S. retail pharmacies doubled from 2017 to last year, rising from 271,000 to 557,000, health …

Small-satellite launch firm Rocket Lab announced on Tuesday a plan to recover the core booster of its Electron rocket using a helicopter, a bold cost-saving concept that, if successful, would make it the second company after Elon Musk’s SpaceX to reuse an orbital-class rocket booster.”Electron is going reusable,” Rocket Lab …

Deo Bakulu has been washing his hands every chance he gets since Ebola reached eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s main city of Goma last month.But the washing station set up by local authorities near his home is only open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., from Monday through Saturday, and …

A Marine veteran struggling with PTSD and a woman fighting cancer became some of the first people to purchase medical marijuana in Louisiana on Tuesday, as the state became the first in the Deep South to dispense therapeutic cannabis, four years after state lawmakers agreed to give patients access to …

The Philippines stood firm Tuesday on its ban on the world’s first dengue vaccine while declaring a nationwide epidemic from the mosquito-borne disease that it said has killed hundreds this year.Dengue incidence shot up 98% from a year earlier to 146,062 cases from January 1 to July 20, causing 662 …

Ferdinand Magellan set off from Spain 500 years ago on an epoch-making voyage to sail all the way around the globe for the first time.The Portuguese explorer was killed by islanders in the Philippines two years into the adventure, leaving Spaniard Juan Sebastian Elcano to complete the three-year trip. But …

Deforestation in Brazil’s rainforest has jumped around 67% in the first seven months of the year, according to preliminary data from Brazil’s space research agency, which the government has attacked as misleading and harmful to the national interest.The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) monitoring system registered destruction of 4,699 …

Uganda has started its largest Ebola vaccine trial to date, health authorities announced Monday, in an apparent effort to prevent the disease from spreading. An epidemic across the border in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo has killed over 1,800 people, making this outbreak the second-deadliest to date, with fatality rates nearing …

A “test and treat” HIV program is getting results in Botswana after the southern African country recorded a decline in cases of the virus among participating communities.  But the rate of the deadly virus remains among the highest in the world, according to a recent study by the Botswana-Harvard AIDS …

Another scientific study has confirmed that trees can have a far-reaching effect in stemming global warming by removing large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. Tree-planting advocates say this is something they’ve known for decades, and the world is finally getting the message. Mike O’Sullivan has more from Los Angeles. …

There are 48 insects included on the U.S. Endangered Species List, and the only way any insect has ever come off the list is through extinction. This is especially troubling for the world’s butterfly populations, which have declined by 20% in the last decades. Erika Celeste takes us to visit …

Officials have declared a public health emergency over the rising number of hepatitis A cases in Florida, the latest part of the country dealing with outbreaks of the liver disease.Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees declared an emergency Thursday to allow the state to spend more on testing and treatment, saying …

Indian doctors removed a tumor with a record number of 526 teeth inside a seven-year-old boy’s mouth, the medical team in the southern city of Chennai said on Friday.The 200 gram (7 ounce) growth was lodged in the boy’s lower right jaw, said Senthilnathan P., a doctor at Saveetha Dental …

Peering through the darkness under the faint light of a peach-colored moon, wildlife biologist Jason Davis spots a telltale green flash in the bushes.Quick as a flash himself, Davis arcs a long-handled mesh net through the humid coastal air, ensnaring his tiny target.Ignoring the mosquitoes, Davis heads to the open …

Researchers in Uganda are launching the largest-ever trial of an experimental Ebola vaccine that is expected to be deployed in neighboring Congo, where a deadly outbreak has killed over 1,800 people.The trial of the Janssen Pharmaceuticals vaccine involves up to 800 people and is supported by Doctors without Borders and …

U.S. drug overdose deaths, which have been concentrated in Appalachia and other rural areas for more than a dozen years, are back to being most common in big cities again, according to a government report issued Friday.The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the urban overdose …

Astronomers have created the most precise map to date of the Milky Way by tracking thousands of big pulsating stars spread throughout the galaxy, demonstrating that its disk of myriad stars is not flat but dramatically warped and twisted in shape.The researchers on Thursday unveiled a three-dimensional map of the …