Having your baby at home with a registered midwife is just as safe as a conventional hospital birth, a new study says.
In fact, planned home births of this kind may have a lower rate of complications, according to the study published in the Sept. 15 issue of Canadian Medical Association Journal.
(Continue reading Health Day News article)
Thanks to Pam Guthrie for submitting the link!
70 years ago as troops from Nazi Germany marched into Czechoslovakia, the British diplomat Sir Nicholas Winton transported 669 Jewish children aboard eight trains to England rescuing them from almost certain death.
This week some of the people whose lives he saved are embarking on a journey of remembrance between Prague and London, retracing their original route to safety aboard a special steam train to celebrate Sir Nicholas’s 100th birthday.
Known as Winton’s children, “20 individuals aboard the train — along with children and grandchildren of their own — owe their existence to the man who, at age 100, will once again stand on the platform at Liverpool Street to welcome them.” (Read more w/ video and photos at BBC News)
One of the children Winton saved is the veteran CBC News Anchor Joe Schlesinger, with whom I worked in my own TV news career in Washington, DC. Joe tells his story (similar to so many of the other 669 who never saw their parents agina) as he travels with Winton back to Czechoslovakia for a special audience with Queen Elizabeth. Watch his report on YouTube.
In another sign of North Korea striving to thaw its cold war image, regular traffic over the border between North and South Korea will be restored this week to allow the flow of goods from a joint industrial park that had been isolated since December.
After its provocation earlier this year launching nuclear and missile tests, North Korea recently undertook a series of goodwill gestures toward its neighbor on the pennisula, and toward the West.
The AP summarizes: “In August, the Pyongyang government freed two American journalists and a South Korean worker held for months in detention and set a date for the reunion of families separated during the Korean War. They also sent an official delegation to Seoul to mourn the death of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung,” a partner for North Korea’s Kim Jong Il during the 2000 Korean summit.
Also, AP reported yesterday, “The two sides agreed Friday to hold a new round of family reunions in late September. On Saturday, North Korea released four South Korean fishermen seized in late July after their boat strayed into northern waters.”
A 66-year-old fisherman who survived two nights in frigid temperatures on a pan of ice off northern Newfoundland said he repeatedly sang a church hymn, while hoping crews would find him.
“That gave me strength,” said Rex Saunders, who was found on Wednesday morning on an ice pan near where his small boat had sunk. “I wore [it] right out,” he said with a chuckle.
(Continue reading w/ photo at CBC)
Photo courtesy of Sun Star
Lots of good news on the economy this week: Contracts on home sales have risen for the sixth straight month. NPR reports, “The pace is 12% above this time last year. If those sales generate additional spending on furniture, paint, appliances and other home-related goods, then the ripple effects could spread.”
Also this morning, an index of the manufacturing sector’s health rose to 52.9% in August from 48.9% in July. “The year-and-a-half decline in manufacturing output has come to an end, as 11 of 18 manufacturing industries are reporting growth when comparing August to July,” said the survey’s committee.
Taxpayers have begun seeing profits from roughly $240 billion in TARP aid that many critics thought might never be seen again.
The profits, collected from eight of the biggest banks that have fully repaid their obligations to the government, come to about $4 billion, or the equivalent of about 15 percent interest annually.
Beleaguered Southern California Steelhead may not know it, but their future just brightened – considerably. California Trout and the United Water Conservation District have reached an historic agreement that will protect the endangered salmonid by providing vital fish passage so that steelhead can access crucial spawning waters in the Santa Clara watersheds.
CalTrout governors and staff are hopeful that this agreement will lead to Southern California Steelhead recovery throughout its historic range.
Photo from www.FreeOurRivers.com
A passenger steered a bus to safety after the driver collapsed at the wheel in Manchester city center.
Fitness instructor Alex Jenkins managed to move Arriva’s 263 service from the path of pedestrians when he realized something was wrong.
(Continue reading w/ photo at BBC)
Photo courtesy of Sun Star
17 year old Mike Perham was greeted to a hero’s welcome when he arrived in Portsmouth, England after a nine month trip around the world.
He very much missed getting a hug every now and then…
Watch the video below, or at Clip Syndicate …
AP reports: “Two alternative energy companies planning to buy a closed Ford Motor Company factory near Detroit want to convert it into the country’s largest renewable energy park, with at least 2,800 workers building storage batteries, solar panels, and possibly wind turbines.
Xtreme and Clairvoyant officials said they like the Wixom factory because it has a rail line, a big electricity grid, large buildings, and is close to a major interstate, making it easier to bring in supplies and ship out products.”
For many months, almost all of the positive signs about the economy were from high-level, macro indicators like unemployment claims and broad manufacturing indexes. Individual companies, which remained mum about any signs of recovery, until this week, began to talk about the good news, finally providing the real world data that had been conspicuously missing regarding an improved economy.
The tidbits of good news this week come from companies across a wide range of industries including Intel in technology, Tiffany’s in retailing, Emerson in the industrial world, and an auto insurance-related company.
(Continue reading in Morning Star)
Pesky pre-recorded “robo-calls” were banned by the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday.
Those unwanted prerecorded commercial calls soliciting services like car warranties will be a thing of the past unless telemarketers have written permission from consumers that they want to receive these calls. Beginning Tuesday, Sept. 1, violators will face penalties up to $16,000 per call.
A few exceptions will be allowed, such as for charities, political candidates, phone companies and surveys.
Consumers who receive an unauthorized call starting Tuesday can file complaints with the commission online at www.ftc.gov or by calling (877) FTC-HELP.
Camp Our Time focuses on the performing arts. Campers aged 8 to 19, are boys and girls, racially and socially diverse, with two common bonds: an unshakable stuttering problem and the courage to go on stage anyway.
Most of the kids are the only stutterers at their schools and vulnerable to teasing. At the non-profit lakeside camp in the Catskill Mountains, where even the founder/director is a stutterer, acceptance is the watchword as the campers plunged daily into workshops and rehearsals for the self-written songs, rap routines and skits they’d perform at a gala week-ending show.
“I feel free here [at Camp Our Time]. At school it feels like a prison, But here I feel like I can achieve anything.”
An intergenerational daycare service in California provides child care and senior care in a shared environment.
ONEgeneration Daycare helps seniors to continue living at home with their loved ones by providing a safe, supervised haven during the day. They, in turn, help care for and feed the young children, ranging in age from 6 weeks to 6 years.
The New York Times created a slide show featuring the elders and children in joyous and touching moments.
(Thanks to Elvin A., a new GNN subscriber, for submitting the link!)
In 2003 while the US armed forces were invading the Iraqi capital, a Zululand conservationist undertook a wartime rescue of the Baghdad Zoo and all its animals.
In his book, Babylon’s Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo
“It was crazy, but I think it was important. It’s not important that you go and save some lions and some tigers in the greater scheme of biodiversity, but what it showed is that these animals need to be treated properly and I hope it set some sort of example.”
The series of events resulted in a proposed resolution that has been presented to the United Nations. The “Wildlife in War Zones Resolution” dictates that an invading army becomes responsible for any enclosed wildlife; all zoos, nature reserves and veterinary facilities must be accorded the same status as hospitals and schools during war. Under the resolution, the wilful destruction of natural habitats and the non-abidance of these tenements can be considered war crimes.
Besides the amazing story of the Baghdad Zoo, Anthony also authored the book, The Elephant Whisperer.
For more on Lawrence Anthony, visit www.lawrenceanthony.co.za
In an unlikely journey that most girls in Malawi can only dream of, a 16-year-old from a rural village spent the summer attending Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.
She’s one of 17 girls who go to secondary school in Malawi thanks to scholarships from Advancing Girls’ Education in Africa (AGE), a small nonprofit organization founded four years ago with donations from Christian Science Monitor readers.
She wants to use her time at Exeter in pursuit of her goal: helping to ease the shortage of doctors in Malawi by becoming one.
Chocolate giant Cadbury says its Dairy Milk bars, sold in the millions, are being Fair Trade certified, yet prices will remain the same. The move is expected to double the amount of Fair Trade chocolate sold in Canada.
Fair Trade practices guarantee farmers in developing countries a reasonable payments for their crops.
Cadbury’s purchasing will improve the lives and communities of over 40,000 cocoa farmers and 6,000 sugar farmers, enough not only to support their families but to cover the costs of environmentally friendly sustainable production.
(Read more in the Toronto Star)
RELATED ON Good News Network, Mar 2009: Cadbury Adopts Fairtrade Source for UK Chocolate
(Photo from Cadbury)
Ever wonder if the inspirational leaders you admire actually walk their talk? The new documentary, Spiritual Liberation, follows a day in the life of Michael Beckwith — featured in The Secret — and shows us how he lives his own evolutionary teachings every moment.
“The role of a spiritual teacher is to consistently point to the limitless possibilities available to us,” says Dr. Beckwith, frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and the founder and spiritual director of the Agape International Spiritual Center in Los Angeles.
“People want to know about their purpose, why are they here on the planet? It’s the question that won’t go away, because the answer reveals that we are here to wake up, to discover our true nature — our gifts, talents and capacities — and to express them. That’s why we’re here.”
Beckwith also wrote a book, Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential, that both inspires and challenges readers to enter the journey of fulfilling their soul’s highest purpose — self-realization — and thereby to know what it means to be “radically alive”.
Now for a limited time you can receive Spiritual Liberation plus 3 additional films FREE when you sign up for a trial membership of Spiritual Cinema Circle, the positive DVD club that sends you new films every month.
Spiritual Cinema Circle is not your run-of-the-mill DVD club. Each month they feature 4 extraordinary, inspiring films — often movies you won’t find at your local theater — delivered to your home. The DVDs are yours to keep and share with others.
Thousands of people from around the world flocked to Spain to take part in the annual ‘Tomatina’ festival near Valencia. The food fight, which paints the town red, was founded by two friends in their youth who flung their lunches in a restautant.
Watch the tomato throwing frenzy in these two videos below, or at Clip Syndicate…
And, more video from Reuters…
