From cashless payments to smartphone apps offering everything from taxis to take-out food – Africa’s digital revolution is gathering pace as average citizens take an active role in public discourse. “You’re seeing a lot of the people changing the way …
Month: June 2017
China is probing the loan practices of a group of big private sector conglomerates who have been on a high-profile global spending spree over the past few years. And although the review targets only a few of the country’s most …
Ron Finley has been called a “guerrilla gardener” and the “gangsta gardener,” an edgier description of a man who once defied local authorities to bring nature to the inner city. Finley’s efforts to plant edible gardens on public property have …
China let through the first shipments of beef from the United States in 14 years on Friday, after the two nations agreed to resume the trade in May, state media reported. The imports were brought in by Cofco Meat Holdings …
A new study by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says that safe burial practices may have helped prevent the transmission of thousands of cases of Ebola during the epidemic in West Africa between 2013 and …
Farming on empty land in one of America’s biggest cities used to be discouraged. But urban gardeners in Los Angeles spent years pressing local politicians to let them grow food in vacant lots, and now their efforts are bearing fruit. …
One of the challenges to designing prosthetics, or exoskeletons for the disabled, is that everyone is different. Technology designed to help a person walk or get around doesn’t work very well when it is built to be one-size-fits-all. But scientists …
Demeaning images in advertising of women doing domestic chores or scantily clad act as stubborn obstacles to gender equality, the head of U.N. Women said Thursday, urging the global ad industry to become a weapon for good. Advertising has the …
Minnesota’s government and businesses will continue to engage with Cuba in the areas they can, like agricultural trade, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s partial rollback of the detente, Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith said on Thursday. The first U.S. state representative …
Grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park will be stripped of Endangered Species Act safeguards this summer, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced on Thursday in a move conservation groups vowed to challenge in court. Dropping federal protection of …
JetSmart, a low-cost airline set to launch this year in Chile, said on Thursday it will offer one-way tickets for less than $2, as the nation’s passenger air market becomes increasingly competitive. “We will have 30,000 tickets for 1,000 pesos …
Ubiquitous drones and a faster Internet are coming sooner than you might think, and governments are staring into the unknown as they face the prospect of regulating the coming technological revolution in a way that fosters innovation, while at the …
The United Nations reports about 250 million people, or 5 percent of the global adult population, used drugs in 2015, and of those, about 29.5 million suffered from drug-use disorders, including addiction. The World Drug Report 2017 launched Thursday by …
A booming plastics and packaging industry in Asia – including China – is being driven by rising incomes and consumption, with analysts saying a growing middle class will add to the rise in plastics demand across the region. But it …
There’s good news for pesto lovers. The airport in Genoa, Italy, home of the famous sauce, is allowing passengers to take pesto with them on flights, providing they make a small donation of less than a dollar to the Flying …
The benefits of a Mediterranean diet are widely chronicled, but new research shows extra-virgin olive oil, a key part of the diet, may protect “against cognitive decline.” Specifically, researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia say extra-virgin olive oil “protects memory …
Simplice Lenguy told his wife to leave him behind as people fled when fighting broke out in Central African Republic’s capital. “I said, ‘Take the children. You go to the camp. I am handicapped. I can’t flee like the …
Federal officials say Russian cyber-operatives targeted voting systems in 21 U.S. states last year and had varying degrees of success in penetrating them. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, that testimony before House and Senate panels Wednesday revealed significant tensions between state …
A rapidly-growing robotics industry in India is helping usher in automation technology in companies. But at a time when the country is struggling to create jobs for millions of young people, the World Bank has warned that automation could put …
European Union leaders open a two-day summit in Brussels Thursday to address everything from Britain’s planned exit from the regional economic bloc to the resurging economy. British Prime Minister Theresa May’s remarks at the two-day meeting are expected to include …
An estimated 8-12 million Americans have a medical condition called Peripheral Artery Disease or PAD. The condition is caused by plaque buildup in the arteries and can be extremely painful. But some space age technology could provide relief. VOA’s Kevin …
Every 45 seconds or so, a neatly wrapped VanHeusen dress shirt destined for a J.C. Penney store in the United States drops off a new production line at a factory north of Vietnam’s capital. Next door, rice paddies the size …
Researchers at a British University have embarked on a decade-long experiment that will pump a forest full of carbon dioxide to measure how it copes with rising levels of the gas, a key driver of climate change. The Free Air …
The first total solar eclipse across the continental United States in a century is expected to spark watching parties and traffic jams as it darkens skies from Oregon to South Carolina, authorities said Wednesday. During the August 21 eclipse, the …