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• Hong Kong maids sleep in toilets, closets, on balconies: Rights group

  HONG KONG: Domestic workers in Hong Kong are being forced to sleep in toilets, tiny cubbyholes, and on balconies, activists found in an investigation that uncovered the "appalling" living conditions of maids in the wealthy financial hub. In the city that employs 350,000 maids, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia, three out of five domestic workers are made to live in unsuitable accommodation that sometimes threatens their health and safety, said rights group Mission for Migrant Wokers (MFMW). In a survey of 3,000 maids, MFMW found 43 per cent of the respondents said they do not have their own room…... [read more]

• Satellites find hidden forests helping fight against global warming

  Thanks to the new method using new technology to analyse high-resolution images from Google Earth and map forest coverage in drylands worldwide 'hidden' forests were found on every continent. - Reuters picMILAN, May 12 - Vast tracts of land previously considered barren are actually covered by forests "hiding in plain sight", scientists said today, a discovery that could help the fight against climate change and desertification. An international team of researchers led by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) used new technology to analyse high-resolution images from Google Earth and map forest coverage in drylands worldwide. They found that…... [read more]

• Maids in Hong Kong forced to sleep in toilets, cubbyholes, survey says

  Domestic helpers and their supporters carry pictures of injured helper Erwiana Sulistyaningsih during a march to demand an investigation into her abuse, in Hong Kong January 19, 2014. A survey found that maids in Hong Kong are being forced to sleep in toilets and cubbyholes. - Reuters picKUALA LUMPUR, May 12 - Domestic workers in Hong Kong are being forced to sleep in toilets, tiny cubbyholes, and on balconies, activists found in an investigation that uncovered the "appalling" living conditions of maids in the wealthy financial hub. In the city that employs 350,000 maids, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia,…... [read more]

• Indias top court reviews Islams triple talaq divorce, women cheer

  MUMBAI: India's top court on Thursday began examining whether it is legal for a Muslim man to dump his wife by saying 'I divorce you' three times, raising hopes among women campaigners of a long-awaited end to the 'quickie' divorce. The practice of "triple talaq" is banned in most Muslim countries, but allowed under India's constitution that lets most religions, including Muslims - the biggest religious minority - regulate matters like marriage and divorce through civil codes. But the Islamic instant divorce has come under increasing criticism as unconstitutional by violating the right to equality. Reports have emerged of men…... [read more]

• Maids in Hong Kong forced to sleep in toilets, cubbyholes - survey

  KUALA LUMPUR - Domestic workers in Hong Kong are being forced to sleep in toilets, tiny cubbyholes, and on balconies, activists found in an investigation that uncovered the "appalling" living conditions of maids in the wealthy financial hub. In the city that employs 350,000 maids, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia, three out of five domestic workers are made to live in unsuitable accommodation that sometimes threatens their health and safety, said rights group Mission for Migrant Wokers (MFMW). In a survey of 3,000 maids, MFMW found 43 percent of the respondents said they do not have their own room…... [read more]

• How to milk the coconut boom? Philippine farmers check their phones

  BANGKOK - Generosa Gonato's mobile phone beeped with a warning for the coconut farmer in the southern Philippines to be vigilant against bud rot, a common disease that is fatal for coconut trees. The message included the symptoms and how to treat it. "So I monitored my trees and discovered some have it," Gonato told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. She followed the advice - cutting down and destroying the affected trees quickly to stop the disease becoming an outbreak. Gonato started receiving messages in October, telling her when and how to put down salt - a cheap way…... [read more]

• Sex for fish: Womens reluctant trade on Kenyas Lake Victoria shore

  Atieno, a mother of five, has sold the fish since her husband died 10-years-ago leaving her to support her family. With no other income, she was left with no option but to trade sex with the fishermen for a share of their catch. Sex-for-fish, known locally as "jaboya", is common practice in Abimbo village in western Kenya's Siaya County and throughout sub-Saharan Africa. "This 'jaboya' thing will always be there. In fact it has increased due to the poverty in our area and those who do it do so because there is no other option," said Atieno. "You might sell…... [read more]

• As droughts worsen, phones and radios lead way to water for Nigers herders

  A young herder poses for a photo at a meeting to discuss climate forecasts in Tillabery Niger April 18 2017. - Kieran Guilbert/Thomson Reuters Foundation picGUILOKI (Niger), May 9 - When Moumouni Abdoulaye and his fellow herders in western Niger used to set off on scouting missions in search of water, they feared for their livestock - and for their own lives. Unable to rely anymore on their traditional methods of predicting the weather amid increasingly erratic droughts and floods, and lacking modern climate information, they struggled to predict where, and when, they might find water in the vast arid…... [read more]

• Over half of Rohingya girls who fled violence became child brides, says UN survey

  Over half of Rohingya girls who fled violence became child brides, says UN survey File picture shows Rohingya migrants looking out the window of a shelter they are staying at since being rescued along with hundreds of others on Sunday from boats in Lhoksukon, Indonesia's Aceh Province May 12, 2015. - Reuters picKUALA LUMPUR, May 4 - More than half of Rohingya Muslim girls who fled violence in western Myanmar ended up becoming child brides, according to a United Nations survey that also showed widespread domestic abuse. Since 2012, violence and communal clashes in Myanmar's Rakhine state have forced more…... [read more]

• In threat to food security, Bangladesh moves to burn grain for fuel

  DHAKA: Bangladesh plans to begin turning some of the grain it produces into ethanol to make its fuel greener - but economists and experts warn the move could hurt food security in a country that is already a grain importer. Energy ministry officials said in a gazette notification early this year that the country will begin using maize, broken rice grains and molasses to produce ethanol to mix with petrol fuel at a 5 percent ratio. But in a heavily populated country that produces relatively little in the way of climate-changing emissions and that already relies on imports of maize…... [read more]