World’s forests “in emergency room” after years of losses

London Thomson Reuters Foundation The world lost 12 million hectares of tropical tree cover last year – the equivalent of 30 football pitches a minute – researchers said on Thursday, warning the planet’s health was at stake. It was the fourth highest annual decline since records began in 2001, according to new data from Global […]
More than 50 dead in South Africa after heavy rains

Durban, South Africa Reuters Rescue workers were digging through collapsed buildings along South Africa’s eastern coast, where more than 50 people were killed when heavy rain caused flooding and mudslides, authorities said on Wednesday. Hundreds have been displaced, mainly in the port city of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province. Flooding also killed at least three people […]
Thousands gather for Anzac Day in Australia, New Zealand amid heightened security

Wellington, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia Reuters Tens of thousands gathered in Australia and New Zealand at Anzac Day memorials on Thursday amid heightened security following the shooting massacre at Christchurch mosques and deadly suicide bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. A Sri Lankan Government minister says the bombings on Easter Sunday were […]
ARETHA FRANKLIN: NEW DOCUMENTARY SHINES A LIGHT ON THE MAKING OF SINGER’S GOSPEL ALBUM ‘AMAZING GRACE’

ADELLE M BANKS, of Religion News Service, reports from the US about a new documentary looking at the making of Aretha Franklin’s 1972 live Gospel album, ‘Amazing Grace’…
Six years after Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza disaster, fashion brands urged to pay more

Thomson Reuters Foundation Garment workers in Bangladesh face lower wages and exploitation as fashion brands have failed to compensate factories for safety improvements backed by big labels, labour leaders said on Wednesday, six years after the deadly Rana Plaza disaster. The collapse of the factory on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, in April, 2013, […]