Israel and the Palestinians plan to resume peace negotiations this week for the first time in nearly three years after an intense effort by US Secretary of State John Kerry to bring them back to the table.
The talks are scheduled to resume in Washington on Monday evening and run through Thursday evening, with negotiations planned for nine months.
A collection of eye-catching stained glass installations by a Toronto artist is generating solar power at the Cathedral of the Holy Family in Saskatoon.
The artwork by Sarah Hall consists of solar panels embedded in brightly colored, hand-painted art glass. Once it is connected, the cathedral will be able to use the solar power produced by the art installation to offset its own power consumption.
(READ the story, with PHOTOS, from the CBC)
With the highly successful recycling habits of Swedish households – they sent just 4% of their waste to landfills in 2011 – comes the enviable problem of running out of trash to burn in their national waste-to-energy program.
Waste incineration provides heat for 810,000 homes and electricity for a quarter million homes, according to Swedish Waste Management.
The rest of Europe has plenty of trash to spare, so the Scandinavian country is importing eight hundred thousand tons for use in its power plants.
(LEARN more from this report at Public Radio International)
Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. has agreed to provide hundreds of millions of doses of its lucrative vaccine against pneumonia and meningitis at a fraction of the usual price for young children in poor countries.
The deal to provide 260 million shots of its Prevnar 13 vaccine for a few dollars each is Pfizer’s third agreement under an innovative cooperative government-business program.
(READ the AP story from CBC News)
Just two months ago, Brett Nedens wasn’t sure this day would come, or whether he’d want to witnesses it if it did. Harvest time.
Across much of Montana, the transformation from a desperate, drought-stricken landscape to fairly average conditions has been nothing short of miraculous for many farmers and ranchers. Two thirds of the state has near or above-average soil moisture after late spring rains in May and June erased what appeared to be a second year of drought.
A woman in Queens discovered the honesty of blue-collar workers from a recycling center this week after she accidentally left $5,000 in an old refrigerator her husband dropped off there.
She returned to Atlantic Recycling in South Ozone Park in a panic early Thursday and explained to a worker what happened.
“Tow truck driver Fred Alsterberg hunted for the fridge, but couldn’t find it amid the piles of scrap metal and car parts,” explained the New York Daily News.
But he didn’t give up and found the bags of cash. He even contacted the local media to help find her — and was rewarded when Magda Castillo was found and reunited with her savings.
(READ the story, w/ photo, from the NY Daily News)
Hello Good News Network fans!
I will be in Vancouver on business this week and am meeting with GNN fans on Tuesday at 5PM in a downtown hotel.
If you’d like to come enjoy refreshments and conversation with the founder of our positive network, email Geri here.
After a year and a half of recession, Europe’s economy shows several signs of improvement.
A German index of business confidence rose for the third month in a row and surveys indicate that European manufacturing activity edged back into growth territory in July for the first time in 18 months.
A Rockford, Illinois man who always thought his first-born child died at birth found out his daughter was alive after she realized she had been adopted and found records revealing her real father’s name.
“It’s a Godsend,” said the man, whose wife had deceived him because they had separated before the birth.
“China will spend $275 billion to tackle air pollution over the next five years, highlighting how the issue has become a priority for the leadership.
The amount is more than the total economic output of Hong Kong last year.”
(READ the AP story here)
If you depended on the evening news or pop culture to paint a picture of young Blacks, you would probably think that the majority of these youngsters were only ambitious about sports and music – or caught up in crime and gangs.
Beyond Jay-Z, Beyonce and LeBron James, there are a multitude of African-American youth who are achieving honors in science, math, classical music and chess. Some are preparing to change the world.
For the third time in a week a generous customer at a coffee chain in Canada has handed over around $900 to pay for beverages — and this time some food — in an identical gesture of goodwill.
Tim Hortons says it wasn’t involved in the copycat donations, first in Edmonton and Calgary earlier this week, and in Ottawa on Thursday.
“According to the store manager… the donation (was) given by an unnamed worker for OC Transpo,” reported the CBC.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from the CBC)
Sam Simon is facing down his terminal cancer diagnosis by spending his vast fortune (how much? “I don’t know”) on animal welfare and feeding the hungry: “I get pleasure from it. I love it.”
His contributions include founding the Malibu-based Sam Simon Foundation (worth nearly $23 million as of 2011) which supports the hungry with vegan food and rescues stray dogs.
They say that laughter is the best medicine. The Up, an organization that brings joy to humanity is proving this to be true.
Nikki Jackman, the founder of The Up explains how it all got started, “I started the UP in 2003,” she says, “After choosing to use my talents for greater purpose, I researched laughter therapy and hospital clowning. I saw the gap there was to bring extra emotional care to sick and traumatized children and so The UP was born”.
(READ the full story in the Nanima.co.za)
35-year-old Jen Bulik received some bad news about lung cancer and wanted to get married before time ran out. As often is the case, out of bad news comes extraordinary stories of kindness. This one was delivered by a wedding planner moved to donate a $50,000 wedding to the beautiful couple whom she only heard about through a Facebook post.
“It was my goal for them not to pay a dime,” said Erica Ota, who was impressed by Jen’s positive writings on her blog. “I thought to myself these people have already suffered enough, why not be able to give them a gift? A wonderful gift that they, and their families will never be able to forget.”
It all comes together – with only two weeks of planning — this Saturday in San Francisco.
(WATCH the video or READ Garvin Thomas’s story at NBC)
For the second time in Alberta this week, a man has walked into Tim Hortons and slapped down cash for the equivalent of 500 large coffees for other customers.
First it was in Edmonton on Monday, and Wednesday it was in Calgary at a Tim Hortons in the city’s northwest.
The mystery donor gave the store almost $900 to hand out free coffees to those behind him in line.
(WATCH the video below and READ the story from the CBC)
A medical application for handheld Apple devices is helping people with speech disabilities carry out their everyday errands by communicating with a few easy clicks of the screen.
Developed by Toronto-based technology company My Voice Inc., TalkRocket Go has helped over 10,000 people worldwide who have recently suffered a stroke.
An Irish-American billionaire who kept his philanthropy secret for 15 years has given away $7.5 billion – and plans for it all to go to charity before his dies.
Chuck Feeney, 82, wears a $15 Casio watch, often travels in coach, does not own a car, is a self-confessed ‘shabby dresser’ and sensibly made his children work their way through college.
“I believe strongly in ‘giving while living,'” said Feeney in 2012. “I see little reason to delay giving when so much good can be achieved through supporting worthwhile causes today.”
He has given away 99 percent of his fortune to health, science, education and civil rights causes around the world through his Atlantic Philanthropies foundation.
In 1984, Atlantic Philanthropies received all of the Feeney interests in Duty Free Shoppers and operated anonymously for its first 15 years. Some of his biggest contributions went to rebuilding Vietnam’s health care infrastructure after the war, building the Republic of Ireland’s university system, and biomedical and cancer research.
In his biography,The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Made and Gave Away a Fortune Without Anyone Knowing
(READ more in the Daily Mail)
Chess is not easy, but almost anyone can benefit from the complex game because it teaches strategy, confidence, and also how to accept failure.
So says Orrin Hudson, a 50-year-old Stone Mountain chess champion who has devoted his life — and life savings — to teaching the ancient game to modern kids to instill in them a never-say-die attitude.
“Every disappointment is a blessing,” says Hudson. “Life is a conspiracy to help you win.”
(READ the story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Friends of a young man who recently underwent a bone marrow transplant for a serious blood disorder created a flash mob outside his hospital window to lift his spirits.
He is being quarantined and can’t leave the room or have visitors, so his friends came as close as they could — and wore their dancing shoes.
“It’s just really amazing,” said Brandon, whose transplant has started to work.
(WATCH the video below from KMBC)
