The Arctic region has long been considered international territory. Five countries?Canada, Denmark (via Greenland), Norway, Russia, and the United States?share a border with the frozen Arctic Ocean. Some of these nations have claimed parts of the region to be their territory. They are all interested in the potential riches of oil, gas and other resources, as well as the opening up of lucrative passages for trade and economic activity, all made possible by climate change and shrinking Arctic ice.
Climate change provides an additional threat ? not just to the local wildlife and indigenous populations that are already seeing their surroundings change rapidly, but to the rest of the planet, too. While retreating sea ice may open up shipping routes, the regions ability to reflect sunlight back into space would diminish, further increasing climate change effects.
In this update, additional information has been added looking at the climate and environmental changes in the Arctic, including images that show pollution sources and retreating ice over time and a video that looks at the impacts on the indigenous Inuit people.
Read full article: Dominance and Change in the Arctic
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About 73% of Social Security filers last year took their benefits early, even though they would receive larger checks if they had waited until they were 66.
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The 10-year continues its absolutely remarkable run, totally ignoring the modest comeback we’ve seen in equities this morning.
According to Bloomberg, the 10-year is now yielding 2.6%.
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When everyone is panicking, that’s your signal to stay cool and buy some quality names.
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Bonus payments across the financial services industry are expected to rise modestly this year as the banking sector continues to rebound from the crisis, according to a report from compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates.Xilinx
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China is currently funding a major new seaport facility in Sri Lanka that is unnerving the region’s other big power, India, according to The Asia Times.
But the Hambantota facility is so much more than a seaport. From the Asia Times:
On completion, the Hambantota Development Zone will include a liquefied natural gas refinery, aviation fuel storage facilities, three separate docks that will give the port transshipment capacity, dry docks for ship repair and construction, and bunkering and refueling facilities.
The bill is set to be somewhere close to $1.5 billion, with China paying for most of it.
India is concerned that the Hambantota port could eventually become a Chinese naval base.
Here’s a close up of the port, followed by it’s strategic location in the region:
And the regional picture:
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That’s the description from Russia Today, which provides this on-the-ground report of the forest-fired induced smog choking Russia’s capital.
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Throughout the 1990s, a coalition of numerous non-governmental organizations, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), campaigned successfully to prohibit the use of landmines.
This helped to create the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, also known as the Ottawa Treaty. (It also won the ICBL the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.) This treaty came into force in 1999.
Although landmine use in the past decade has been significantly reduced, problems such as clearance and rehabilitation remain. Furthermore, some key countries continue to use landmines, or support the need for them, despite the problems they often cause for civilians long after conflicts have ended.
The landmine page has been significantly updated to describe the above further.
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Find out how a currency’s relative value reflects a country’s economic health and impacts your investment returns.
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Coinciding with International Women?s Day, the beginning of March saw the 54th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women to report on global efforts toward democracy and human development through the empowerment of women.
Despite the 2-week meeting and many issues being progressed, there were still uncertainties in areas such as commitments to various gender related rights and funding.
This small update includes further links and description of the above conference, as well as further links, quotes and a video on women?s rights related issues.
Read full article: Women?s Rights
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This new article provides a high level overview of the various ways health services are provided around the world, as well as accompanying issues and challenges. Topics introduced include health as a human right, universal health care, and primary health care. In addition, there are some charts and graphs looking at some health indicators and spending allocations, together with a brief look at health care issues in industrialized nations such as the US, UK and in developing countries. This is an enormous topic, and this page just scratches the surface, so many more updates are expected over time.Volt Information Sciences
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