Your eyes are telling the truth.
Huacachina is no mirage -- it's a tiny town of less than 100 people, located in the middle of the Peruvian desert. The tourist hotspot is back in the news this week, but people looking to visit the "oasis of America" should be aware, it's running out of water. As The Huffington Post warned last year: The tiny town (population: about 100) of Huacachina is centered around a charming oasis, but it's drying up. What's more, local authorities are having a hard time refilling it with water from a nearby spring. So please, take a look at Huacachina in all its glory, and, if we were you, we'd plan our trip sooner than later. |
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It's Not A Mirage: Tiny Oasis Town Of Huacachina Thrives In Middle Of Dry Desert
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Come On, China's Next Generation Social Entrepreneurs!
First, who is an entrepreneur? Is it someone who runs a business or company? The leader or founder of an organization or start-up? Yes and no. An entrepreneur is someone who views himself as a variable instead of a constant, someone who is self-motivated and strong-minded instead of indifferent and impressionable, and someone who embraces change instead of closing the door. It is not the position that counts, it is your mind and action that matter. But what makes a social entrepreneur more than that is its wide influence. The difference lies in subjects of impact. While entrepreneurs can generally raise the welfare of citizens and benefit stakeholders, social entrepreneurs focus more on a vulnerable and isolated group to help them keep pace with, and even reduce the gap with the civilian society, both on living standards and modern education. Therefore, it demands a lot -- bravery, creativity, management, money and the most important component: commitment. And that's the most exciting part of the Hult Prize challenge. It is the largest student competition and start-up platform to address the most pressing issues in the world. In partnership with President Bill Clinton and TIME Magazine, the winning team is funded with USD 1 Million to make real changes in the world! It is more than a case competition, in that teams are asked to build an enterprise and implement your solutions. That's the most difficult part, but also the most meaningful. In September, I applied to be a campus director of "Hult Prize@," the program that gives students the tools to run a Hult Prize competition on their campus. And I swore that my time as the campus director of my school, the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, would be one of the most impressive experiences of my life. We managed to get the event organized and promoted, thanks to a community coming together, and all the support from the business school and the societies, professors and friends, without which we would have failed halfway. And thanks to the winning team, to Jonah Oswald, Abdullah Almiqasbi, Jon Pascal Wiemert, Kolja Oswald, Rytis Kumpa, EduCare is one of the most innovative idea I have ever seen, I believe you are the best and capable to make a difference! But can we call it a success yet? Negative. It is not enough. Undergraduates here still have vague ideas about social entrepreneurship, and the post-grads refuse to spare so much time. What they prefer is a pleasant experience serving as a supported teacher in a remote village during the winter vacation. They, as well as the rest of us, still lack a clear and profound understanding of entrepreneurship. In 2015, the 38th year since the policy Open and Reform, more private companies are springing out and modern entrepreneurs are emerging. Not only in terms of their wealth, but also their management and philosophy. Entrepreneurs like Jack Ma, Wang Shi (Chairman of Vanke) and Lei Jun (CEO of Xiaomi), are conducting and concluding their own philosophy towards customers, staff, products and the sophisticated relationship with the government. This philosophy, slowly in a subtle way, is transforming the concept of boss to entrepreneur, and transforming the concept of business to enterprise. In the gradual shift from the traditional image of a cunning businessman in blind pursuit of profit, to an entrepreneur shouldering social responsibility, there is still a long way to go. Without a clear understanding of entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship would lose its ground. People fear the risk of business and disrespect businessman for traditional concept. Nowadays, China has more and more start-ups created by children of the nineties, whose vision is not restricted by money. They have the passion to purse their dreams, and meaning for existence. EduCare is a case in point. Upon the release of this year's Hult Prize challenge "early childhood education in urban slums," EduCare discussed and revised again and again, and even visited similar local neighborhoods to get data. They developed the philosophy that value should be subtracted from things that are commonly considered worthless and decided to provide early childhood education in exchange for recyclable waste instead of money. "Social enterprise is something new for China, but we are seeing more young people show enthusiasm to give it a try and become social entrepreneurs," said Xu Yongguang, vice-president of Narada Foundation. Although China's new social enterprises still lack investment, and have the problem of small scale and low efficiency, with the help of social media, internet and the party's new policy, it is expected that China's social enterprise will take off in 2015. This is your time! You can be China's next generation of social entrepreneurs! This post was produced by The Huffington Post and the Hult Prize Foundation Hult Prize@ program, in which teams of college and university entrepreneurs compete for funding for compelling social business ideas, including a grand prize of US$1,000,000. The posts are written by student campus directors of "Hult Prize@," the program bringing the competition directly to campuses around the world. To learn more about the Hult Prize Foundation and how you can become a campus director, please visit hultprize.org. Read all the posts in the series here. |
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How Many Americans Have Traveled To Syria To Join ISIS?
U.S. officials said on Wednesday they have thwarted the plans of three New Yorkers to join the Islamic State militant group in Syria, once again highlighting the risks posed by the flood of foreign fighters traveling to the Middle East.
The U.S. Justice Department said Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, 24, Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, and Abror Habibov, 30, all residents of Brooklyn, plotted to carry out terror attacks in the U.S. if they weren't able to join the Islamic State group in the Middle East. They join the ranks of some 20 people charged in the U.S. for allegedly planning to fight with militant groups in Syria and Iraq, according to the Associated Press. Here's what we know about American foreign fighters: How many Americans have traveled to Syria to fight? U.S. intelligence officials believe that over 150 American citizens and residents have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria as foreign fighters, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Nick Rasmussen, told a congressional hearing on Feb. 12. The U.S. government does not disclose how many Americans it believes are currently fighting in Syria, but the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR), a British research group, estimated last month that around 100 Americans have reached the battle zone in Syria and Iraq. How many Americans are fighting with the Islamic State group? The U.S. has limited intelligence inside Syria and officials acknowledge that it's hard to keep track of where foreign fighters end up. According to ICSR director Peter Neumann, about 80 percent of foreign fighters from Western nations join the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Some Americans have also joined al-Qaeda's Syrian branch, Jabhat al-Nusra, and others have fought with the moderate Free Syrian Army, CBS News reported last year. Why are they going? Neumann says that foreign fighters are flocking to Syria for a variety of reasons. He told The WorldPost last year:
Neumann notes that the Islamic State group has a particular draw for foreign fighters because of its ideological appeal and savvy outreach in foreign languages. It is also much less discriminating about who it recruits, he said:
How does the number of American foreign fighters compare to countries around the world? There are around 20,000 foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq from dozens of nations around the world, according to recent assessments by U.S. intelligence officials and the ICSR. "This makes the conflict in Syria and Iraq the largest mobilization of foreigner fighters in Muslim majority countries since 1945," the British research group noted in its Jan. 2015 report. Most of these foreign fighters come from countries in the Middle East. The ICSR estimates up to 11,000 fighters are from the region, while around 4,000 came from Western Europe. Another 3,000 came from former Soviet Union nations, the group says, including 250 from Kazakhstan and 500 from Uzbekistan -- the countries to which the three American jihadi hopefuls arrested Wednesday also had citizenship. |
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6 Powerful Ways The World United Against Messages Of Hate
From the attacks in Australia, France, Denmark and Belgium to the brutal killings by militants of the Islamic State and the racist remarks and hateful demands by far-right groups across the Western world, communities across the globe have seen calls for discord and strife in recent months.
But people around the world have answered those calls for division with remarkable expressions of harmony and solidarity. Protesters and activists from Europe to the Middle East stood up defiantly and launched powerful campaigns urging respect and understanding of one another. Take a look at six campaigns that moved us.
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The United States and Malaria: A Long History of Smart Investments That Benefit All
The United States has a long history with malaria -- a completely preventable and treatable disease carried by the bite of an infected mosquito. A quick history lesson reminds us that this disease -- which disproportionately affects developing communities in Africa and Asia -- was only eliminated from its shores in 1949, thanks to the vigilant work of what would go on to become the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
That's just less than 70 years ago. Luckily, U.S. commitment to a world free of malaria didn't stop at its borders. The U.S. has been a loyal and effective partner to malaria endemic countries around the world for over a decade, and a principal player in the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership -- the global coordinating mechanism for the response to malaria -- since 1998. In 2005, when momentum was building around the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to rid the world of disease and poverty, the U.S. took stock of the impact malaria was having on already struggling communities -- particularly in Africa. Under the leadership of then president George W. Bush, the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) was created to curb the tide on the nearly 200 million cases of malaria then estimated to affect the African continent each year. Ten years later, I'm proud to say it's done just that. The U.S. government's devotion to PMI has remained steadfast, and the program has been expanded under President Obama. Today, it serves as one of the best examples of truly bi-partisan commitment to global health and foreign aid. As budgets have increased and new tools have flooded the market, PMI -- in concert with national governments and local partners -- has scaled-up life-saving interventions in communities across some of the world's highest burden countries. It has also expanded its work from 15 to 19 African countries and added a regional program in Southeast Asia. In total, PMI has helped distribute more than 80 million insecticide-treated nets, more than 65 million rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) and more than 185 million antimalarial treatments to prevent, diagnose and treat malaria, respectively. As a trained medical doctor from Mali, in West Africa, who has worked in a variety of settings across the continent, I have witnessed first-hand the lasting impact these programs have had. Since 2000, malaria mortality rates have decreased globally by 47 percent and by 54 percent in Africa alone. And since 2001, more than four million malaria-related deaths have been averted globally -- roughly 95 percent of which are children under five in Africa. The large majority of this progress has been made in the past decade. For the first time, some African nations are on the way to eliminating malaria, and fewer people on the continent are being infected than ever before. This means healthier children, more vibrant economies and stronger, less burdened health systems. But our success hangs in the balance. Despite best efforts, malaria continues to cause 198 million cases and 584,000 related deaths around the world each year. The large majority of this burden is felt in sub-Saharan Africa, costing the continent an estimated minimum of U.S. $12 billion in lost productivity each year. With just months until the MDGs expire and we transition to an increasingly ambitious set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one thing is certain: We must protect the fragile gains we've made against malaria so we can continue advancing progress across the broader development agenda and unlocking potential in communities around the world. This will require continued political and financial commitment to ensure we are harnessing innovations and developing new tools to stay ahead of an evolving parasite that is already showing signs of resistance to top-line antimalarials and insecticides in certain parts of the world. Malaria has consistently proven to be a highly cost-effective public health intervention, with small investments yielding high returns across the board. PMI's work -- under the leadership of Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer -- is evidence of that. This week, PMI's new 2015-2020 will be launched at the White House in Washington, D.C. In the face of an evolving parasite and a shifting development landscape, I am confident that this sort of refined focus and re-commitment of resources will help us achieve our next set of goals and carry even more countries along the pathway toward elimination. The road ahead will not be easy, but with continued leadership and wise global health investments, we can increase our chances of delivering on the ambitious promises we've made to the people of the world. And hopefully we can look back in another 70 years and proudly list off the many African countries that have also made malaria a thing of the past. |
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Pasco Police Fired 17 Shots At Unarmed Mexican Migrant For Throwing Rocks At Them
Police in Washington state fired 17 shots at an unarmed Mexican migrant on Feb. 10, hitting him as many as six times, authorities said Wednesday.
Wednesday's statement from the Tri-Cities Special Investigations Unit, a squad of officers from four police departments assigned to investigate the killing of Antonio Zambrano-Montes, is the first time authorities have confirmed how many shots police fired during the confrontation over rock-throwing. The statement said five or six shots struck Zambrano-Montes. A bystander used a cell phone to record the shooting of Zambrano-Montes, 35, in Pasco, Washington, setting off local protests and attracting national media attention as the video circulated online. Police fired at Zambrano-Montes to stop him from throwing rocks at passing cars, according to Wednesday's statement. When officers confronted him, he threw rocks at the officers, even after they tried to use tasers to stop him, according to the release. Consejo Latino, a Pasco-based civic group, has questioned whether the killing was justified. Rick Rios, one of the group's co-founders, said the number of errant police shots indicated a problem with police training. "They were just spraying bullets everywhere," Rios told The Huffington Post. "That shows no concern for the public. ... These are highly trained officers, as we've been told over and over again. They were probably no more than 15 feet away from him." In the weeks before the killing, Consejo Latino had pressed the police to address what Rios described as a "communication gap" between the largely Hispanic public in the agricultural town of 68,000 and the majority-white police department. The press release says the final analysis from the medical examiner is expected to be completed within a month. Transcriptions of witness statements and a toxicology report also will not be available for weeks. "At this time we know Antonio Zambrano-Montes was not shot in the back," the statement says. The Special Investigations Unit called on demonstrators to act respectfully and noted that so far, "demonstrations have proven peaceful." The killing touched off protests in the town, which is home to a large number of migrant workers. The New York Times and other observers have compared the killing of Zambrano-Montes with that of Michael Brown, the unarmed black man killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, touching off nationwide protests and sustained news attention. In the video, officers appear to shoot at Zambrano-Montes, then chase him across a busy street as he fled with his hands up. When he stopped and turned toward the police, they fired again, killing him. The attorney representing Brown's family in Missouri, Benjamin Crump, also will represent Zambrano-Montes' family. Zambrano-Montes' death was the fourth police killing in Pasco in less than a year, according to The Associated Press. |
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Greek Leader Criticized On Austerity Concessions
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Rob Ford Auctions Off Items
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Kabul Explosion Rattles Windows In Diplomatic Quarter
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