World Touch Archives - Page 60 of 71

Asia

Asian Poverty Line At $1.35 Per Day

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has adopted a new benchmark for poverty line that is more accurate and more relevant to the Asia-Pacific region. The new benchmark, called the Asian Poverty Line, has been fixed at an income of $1.35 per day, the Manila-based regional lender said in a press release while presenting its annual statistical publication – Key Indicators 2008. ADB estimated that according to the new evaluation system, there were probably 843 million people in Asia who lived under the poverty line in 2005.

Asia

Popular Wisdom Can Fight Food Crisis

Ever since the wheel was invented, perhaps nothing so boosted technology as the discovery of oil. The black gold minted the petrodollar, and helped topple the Soviets, ignite Gulf wars and restore Russia. But power still flows down umbilical pipelines! After burning 150 trillion barrels of oil since the world’s first oil-well was drilled 149 years ago, oil-guzzling industrial nations now panic they will need equal quantities just for the next 25 years. West Asia’s role in the equation compounds the panic. Thus, greed fires a green gold rush. The world’s irrigated land area tripled in the past 50 years, but grain demand for agro-fuels has doubled in three years, leaving less grain for food. With the World Bank saying grain price hikes may spread food riots to 33 nations, the U.N. secretary general called a food summit in Rome.

Hector Welgampola | Journalist

China

Global Trade Agreement Collapses

China and India rejected accusations that, with the United States, they are responsible for the collapse of talks in the World Trade Organization (WTO), failing to reach an agreement on more open import rules, lower domestic subsidies and import duties. “In the face of a world economic downturn, serious inflation and imminent financial risks, the failure will have a major impact on the fragile multilateral trading system,” said China’s Minister of Commerce Chen Deming.

Asia News

Malaysia

An Upcoming Vaccine

A type of malaria vaccine for humans is to be tested, following the success of trials undertaken with animals. There is currently no vaccine for the illness which kills between two and three million people every year. Oxford University scientists, part of an international team, reported, in the journal Nature Medicine, that its virus-based jab worked well in mice.

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Indonesia - Malaysia

Orangutan Risks Extinction By 2011

The number of orangutans in Indonesia and Malaysia is in rapid decline, above all, because of illegal deforestation and the expansion of palm oil plantations. The ape risks extinction within a few years, if adequate measures are not taken, says a study that has appeared in the scientific journal Oryx.

Asia News

Vatican

Water Is A Universal And Inalienable Right

There is a “right to water,” based on the dignity of the human person, and it is not simply an “economic good,” the Pope affirmed in a message to the international exposition on “Water and Sustainable Development” under way in Zaragoza, Spain. The Holy Father, who sent his message through Cardinal Renato Martino, the Holy See’s representative at the expo, stated: “Because of the […] pressure of multiple social and economic factors, we must be conscious of the fact that today water must be considered a good that must be especially protected through clear national and international policies, and used according to sensible criteria of solidarity and responsibility.”

www.zenit.org

Africa

Millions At Risk Due To Drought, Rising Food Prices

More than 14 million people located in the Horn of Africa are in need of urgent food aid and other humanitarian assistance. This was what a report from the Regional Humanitarian Partnership Team said. The crisis is being caused by the drought conditions in the area and the rising food prices.

www.fides.org / Agencies

Food Crisis

Wrong Solutions

“The structural solution to the problem of world food security is an increase in productivity and production in the low-income food-deficit countries. This would require, in addition to official development assistance, innovative new solutions. To this effect, it is necessary to develop partnership or joint-venture agreements between, on one hand, those countries that have the financial resources and, on the other, those that possess land, water and human resources”, writes Jacques Diouf, director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Iraq

Christians Rebuild Churches

The Christian communities of southern Iraq launched a campaign for the restoration of churches that have been damaged due to negligence and the war.

Tourism

The Guilty Gain

International tourism is undergoing very rapid changes. New traveling habits, an increased awareness of price, short notice and short-term holidays – and the wish for more flexibility and individuality as well as rising energy prices are constantly creating new challenges for the tourism industry. Unpredictable incidents have added to this: terrorist attacks (New York, Bali, Djerbra, Morocco, Egypt, Istanbul, Madrid, London), risks of epidemics (SARS), and regional wars. However, in the future, one factor in particular will affect the tourism industry in the long term: climate change.

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