BASEY, the Philippines — When Typhoon Haiyan hit this coastal town, residents ran for Saint Michael the Archangel Church. Now, 10 days later, more than 100 of them remain.
Author: WHES
Polio drive to target millions in Horn of Africa
Efforts to stop the spread of polio in the Horn of Africa region are being ramped up with major immunization campaigns underway, targeting millions of vulnerable children.
Growing clamor about inequities of climate crisis
WARSAW — Following a devastating typhoon that killed thousands in the Philippines, a routine international climate change conference here turned into an emotional forum, with developing countries demanding compensation from the worst polluting countries for damage they say they are already suffering.
Caught in unemployment’s revolving door
On a cold October morning, just after the federal government shutdown came to an end, Jenner Barrington-Ward headed into court in Boston to declare bankruptcy.
Blighted cities prefer razing to rebuilding. Half of the nation’s 20 largest cities in 1950 have lost at least one-third of their populations
BALTIMORE — Shivihah Smith’s East Baltimore neighborhood, where he lives with his mother and grandmother, is disappearing. The block one over is gone. A dozen rowhouses on an adjacent block were removed one afternoon last year. And on the corner a few weeks ago, a pair of houses that were damaged by fire collapsed. The city bulldozed those and two others, leaving scavengers to pick through the debris for bits of metal and copper wire
A jolt to complacency on food supply
For a look at what climate change could do to the world’s food supply, consider what the weather did to the American Corn Belt last year.
20 milion in Mideast to get polio vaccine
Health officials will try to get polio vaccines to more than 20 million children across the Middle East to contain a major outbreak there, the World Health Organization and Unicef announced last week. The region was polio-free for 10 years, until a Pakistani strain was detected in sewers in Egypt in January. It has since been found in sewers in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Last month, 10 paralyzed children in Syria were confirmed to be polio victims.
Mauritania confronts a long legacy of slavery
BOUTILIMIT, Mauritania — The protesters gathered in front of the low-slung police station, yelling “No to Slavery” and “Freedom.” They had come from across the country to demand the arrest of a family accused of holding a slave since childhood, but they elicited little more than dispassionate stares from the police officers sitting silently before them. The subprefect of the district went to take a nap in the afternoon heat.
Too much of too little: A diet fueled by food stamps is making South Texans obese but leaving them hungry
McAllen, Tex. — They were already running late for a doctor’s appointment, but first the Salas family hurried into their kitchen for another breakfast paid for by the federal government. The 4-year-old grabbed a bag of cheddar-flavored potato chips and a granola bar. The 9-year-old filled a bowl with sugary cereal and then gulped down chocolate milk. Their mother, Blanca, arrived at the refrigerator and reached into the drawer where she stored the insulin needed to treat her diabetes. She filled a needle with fluid and injected it into her stomach with a practiced jobs
Philippine typhoon death toll feared in thousands
MANILA — The powerful typhoon that swept across the Philippines on Friday, one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall, cut a path of destruction through several central islands, leaving the seaside city of Tacloban in ruins and leading to early, unconfirmed estimates of as many as 10,000 dead.
