AidCom

Saudi Center Aims for ‘Life After Jihad’

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:01:15 +0800

Saudi Center Aims for ‘Life After Jihad’:

In Saudi Arabia’s ground-breaking program for luring convicted jihadists back into the mainstream, a few months in rehab is the last step after prison before being freed back into society.

This is what traffic looks like when 120.000 Malaysians gather...

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:15:43 +0800

This is what traffic looks like when 120.000 Malaysians gather for post-election opposition rally. Petaling Jaya outside Kuala Lumpur. Traffic was at total standstill the entire evening.

Our new website just launched. Do take a look!

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:29:00 +0800

Our new website just launched. Do take a look!

Photo

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:58:21 +0800

Protesting the outcome of the presidential election in Mexio. Xalapa, Veracruz.

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:57:38 +0800

Protesting the outcome of the presidential election in Mexio. Xalapa, Veracruz.

Hurricane Isaac closing in on Gulf of Mexico - there's an app for that.

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:42:25 +0800

(CNN) — For those of us who live inland, hurricane-tracking seems more a curious indulgence, but if you live along the coastal regions in a hurricane zone, keeping tabs on these atmospheric leviathans is paramount.

CNN recommends six hurricane tracker apps to keep you updated on the latest movements.

inothernews: An Israeli soldier holds a Palestinian girl back...

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:52:13 +0800

inothernews:

An Israeli soldier holds a Palestinian girl back as she cries following the arrest of her mother during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh in protest against the confiscation of Palestinian land to expand a nearby Jewish settlement. (Photo: Abbas Momani / AFP-Getty via The Guardian)

London almost ready! Photo courtesy of Love UK

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:20:36 +0800

London almost ready!

Photo courtesy of Love UK

The future is almost here: Governments preparing to deal with water wars

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 23:55:01 +0800

Almost half of humanity will face water scarcity by 2030 and strategists from Israel to Central Asia prepare for strife.

After droughts ravaged his parents’ farmland, Sixteen-year-old Hassain and his two-year-old sister Sareye became some of the newest refugees forced from home by water scarcity.

“There was nothing to harvest,” Hassain said through an interpreter during an interview at a refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya which is housing some 160,000 Somalis displaced by a lack of water. “There had been no rain in my village for two years. We used to have crops.”

As global warming alters weather patterns, and the number of people lacking access to water rises, millions, if not billions, of others are expected to face a similar fate as water shortages become more frequent.

Read the whole story at Al Jazeera

US: Apple devices to deliver national emergency messages

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:48:08 +0800

National emergency alerts will be accessible to iPhone and iPad users via iOS 6 beginning this fall.

From matters covering natural disasters to national defense, Wireless Emergency Alerts are now capable of blanketing the nation where most Americans are at all times – on or near their iDevice.

(Mobile Marketing Watch)

inothernews: “WE REMEMBER; WE REBUILD; WE COME BACK...

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:04:09 +0800

inothernews:

“WE REMEMBER; WE REBUILD; WE COME BACK STRONGER” President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama look out onto the World Trade Center Memorial from 1WTC — which is still under construction — during a visit to lower Manhattan on June 14; the President signed a steel beam that will be installed at the top of the building. (Photos: Carolyn Kaster / AP [top]; Justin Lane / EPA via the New York Daily News)

Insurance giant launches tech spin-off

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:02:46 +0800

An information technology venture that will spin off from Allianz Global Assistance USA could grow to several hundred employees in a few years, says Jon Ansell, the new company’s chairman.

“We have built this technology and ability, and applied it primarily in the travel business here and abroad,” Ansell said. “We believe there are opportunities well beyond tourism and travel.”

“It really speaks to all the [global] megatrends, mobile, digitization, personalization, offering [people] products and services just in time, what they want when they need it.”

Read full story here.

Kenyan village chief mobilizing through twitter, scares off thugs

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 18:13:00 +0800

WHEN the chief in a western Kenyan village received an urgent call that thugs were invading a school teacher’s home, he sent a message on Twitter.

Within minutes residents in this village of stone houses gathered outside the home, and the thugs fled.

The tweet from Chief Francis Kariuki was only his latest attempt to improve village life by using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

Gearing up for windy season: Text, don't call when natural disaster strikes

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:42:25 +0800

WASHINGTON, May 30 (Reuters) - It is better to send text messages than to call when natural disasters strike a nd networks get congested, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, also urging people to add battery-powered cell phone chargers to their storm emergency kits.

Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told reporters that forecasts for a “normal” Atlantic hurricane season should not keep those in potentially affected areas from getting ready for storms that could make landfall.

The tweet that saved hijacked man trapped in his own car

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:52:56 +0800

An sms and social network frenzy saved a Joburg man who was trapped in his car boot after being hijacked at the weekend.

The man was driving through Honeydew, north-west Joburg, on the way to Florida on the West Rand at about 9pm on Saturday when two armed men hijacked his Golf 3.

They forced him into the boot of the car and sped off.

But they forgot one thing: his cellphone. From inside the boot, he sent an SMS to his girlfriend.

“Be on the look for DSS041GP,” she tweeted shortly after. “my boyufriend has just been hijacked and is in the boot please RT (retweet).”

Read the whole story in IOL South Africa.

Japan: An airbag for your house

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:56:14 +0800

One year after the tsunami, and Japan is showing just how resilient they are. And their homes are about to get even more quake-proof, with an airbag for houses.

See the video of the demo here.

theweekmagazine: Thousands of paper cranes, memorializing the...

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:31:51 +0800

theweekmagazine:

Thousands of paper cranes, memorializing the victims of Japan’s 2011 tsunami, line the walls of the emergency operation center at the Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima. In case you missed it, a look back at a year in photos, as the country commemorates the anniversary of the disaster.

theweekmagazine: The children of Syria’s revolution: The Red...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:18:42 +0800

theweekmagazine:

The children of Syria’s revolution: The Red Cross is still shut out of Homs’ Bab Amro district — which was a rebel stronghold before a ruthless crackdown — and the latest reports from inside tell grisly tales of the military targeting boys for execution. Nevertheless, across the country, Syrians of all ages continue to protest President Bashar al-Assads’ violent reign. More photos available here

Queensland Police top of the class: - Using twitter to reach out to community

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:36:28 +0800

With heavy rains ravaging the Sunshine Coast, the busy Queensland Police is using their twitter account to reach out to flood-hit communities.

Here, concerned citizens can find with up to the minute updates on road-closures and warnings.

The popular twitter-account is not a new initiative, however. Scroll back in time, and you will find reports on massive pot-holes, oil-spills, and crime.

With over 22 thousand followers, and 15 thousand tweets, @QPSmedia has become the go-to place for safety-minded Queenslanders. No wonder, with all the flash-floods and tropical cyclones this region has to deal with year in and out.

brooklynmutt: Obama to Iran and Israel: ‘As President of the...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:39:41 +0800

brooklynmutt:

Obama to Iran and Israel: ‘As President of the United States, I Don’t Bluff’

Read: Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic