U.N. accepts role in deadly Haiti cholera outbreak for first time
By Nick Miroff
Engineer Shubhendu Sharma dreamed of making trees grow in the heart of India’s ever-expanding cities. He started in 2011 by cultivating his very own small forest on land he owned in Kashipur, in northern India. Since then, he has become a regular Johnny Appleseed and made a business of planting trees across India. He’s also inspired others to follow in his footsteps.
A few months after he had planted his own 270-tree forest, Sharma launched a business specialised in creating small forests. Since then, his company Afforestt has created 75 forests, 70 of which are in India. He has also planted forests in Singapore, Pakistan, the Netherlands and the United States.
Using Sharma’s method, a forest can be grown in just two years. This is important in a place like India, where about 45% of land has been degraded by deforestation, unsustainable farming methods and excessive groundwater extraction. India does still have about 68 million hectares of forested land, which makes it no. 10 on the list of the most forested countries in the world.
By Nick Miroff
Blue-helmeted U.N. “peacekeepers” sent to conflict zones have long suffered from a reputation for passivity. But the acknowledgment this week by U.N. officials that its troops bear responsibility for Haiti’s cholera epidemic comes at a time when the organization is already facing criticism for undermining countries it has been sent to stabilize.
The United Nations’ admission that its forces played a role in triggering Haiti’s 2010 cholera outbreak is seen as a long-overdue official recognition of somethingthat has been widely known — but stubbornly denied by U.N. leaders — for years.
It follows accusations this year that U.N. peacekeepers have committed rape and murder in the Central African Republic, and more recently that they failed to defend aid workers against brutal attacks in South Sudan.
Aleppo doctor: 'Shedding tears for the injured children of Syria is not enough'
A medical emergency has been unfolding in slow motion in Syria for five years, says a critical care physician from Chicago who has worked in Aleppo
Warning: this article contains images that readers may find distressing
Zaher Sahloul
Dr Zaher Sahloul has worked in Aleppo and seen the horrific affect of airstrikes. He says incidents like that which left Omran Daqneesh stunned and bloodied are all too common in a city under siege
The pictures of the injured five-year old Omran Daqneesh have shocked the world, but doctors in Aleppo see dozens of desperate children like him every week, often with worse injuries and many entirely beyond help.
Perhaps his individual tragedy will have a small silver lining if it reminds people far beyond Syria of the tragedy that has been unfolding there for years. Every time I work there I treat children, often so terribly wounded and traumatised that I wonder if the ones who survived were unluckier than the ones who died.Muslim woman removed from Donald Trump rally 'for handing out pens'
Rose Hamid had been handing out pens in the shape of flowers displaying the word 'peace'
A Muslim woman has been ejected from a Donald Trump rally after handing out pens inscribed with the word “peace”.
Rose Hamid said a member of the Republican Presidential candidate’s security staff removed her from the event in Charlotte, North Carolina, because she was causing a “disturbance”.
“I just wanted to let people know that Muslims who don’t support Trump can get along with people who do support Trump,” she toldWBTV News on Thursday, saying she had positive conversations with Trump supporters.
The man planting small forests in India’s urban jungle
Engineer Shubhendu Sharma dreamed of making trees grow in the heart of India’s ever-expanding cities. He started in 2011 by cultivating his very own small forest on land he owned in Kashipur, in northern India. Since then, he has become a regular Johnny Appleseed and made a business of planting trees across India. He’s also inspired others to follow in his footsteps.
A few months after he had planted his own 270-tree forest, Sharma launched a business specialised in creating small forests. Since then, his company Afforestt has created 75 forests, 70 of which are in India. He has also planted forests in Singapore, Pakistan, the Netherlands and the United States.
Using Sharma’s method, a forest can be grown in just two years. This is important in a place like India, where about 45% of land has been degraded by deforestation, unsustainable farming methods and excessive groundwater extraction. India does still have about 68 million hectares of forested land, which makes it no. 10 on the list of the most forested countries in the world.
In Afghanistan two deadly enemies reunite, as father and son
Zahra Nader and Mujib Mashal
Kabul: Around 20 guests gathered in a dusty corner of northern Afghanistan on Sunday night to break bread in celebration of a miraculous truce: the coming together of two bitter enemies who had been on opposite sides of the war.
The centrepiece of the meal was roasted goat, a sacrifice by a father offered upon the return of his son, for that was what was happening.
Just three months before, the host, Abdul Basir, a government militia commander, had fired his rifle in the dark of the night at his son Said Muhammad, a hardened Taliban fighter, and was sad not to have killed him.What's the real size of Africa? How Western states used maps to downplay size of continent
Updated 0756 GMT (1556 HKT) August 19, 2016
On a typical world map, Canada is a vast nation.
Home to six time zones, its endless plains spread from ocean to ocean, dominating great swathes of the northern half of the globe.
But, in reality, three Canadas would comfortably fit inside Africa.
Our world map is wildly misleading.
It's all down to the European cartographer Geert de Kremer, better known as Mercator, and his 16th century map projection.
While a convenient way to chart the world, the map distorts the true size of countries.
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