Tuesday, April 22, 2014

The Early Morning Crucifixion in San Guillermo - CNN iReport

CNN PRODUCER NOTE Freelance photographer attended a Good Friday re-enactment of the crucifixion near San Guillermo Parish Church, Bacolor, Pampanga, Philippines. “The event is quite different to the more publicized crucifixion in Cutud, San Fernando, Pampanga, since this one was solemn and the large percentage of Oakley Closeouts the crowd was a relative of the Kristo (the One who replicates Christ) that was nailed on the cross,” Banal explained.

The man being nailed to the cross, Banal says, has been doing this for 20 years. “He did this as a vow because his daughter suffers from heart disease, which he wanted Oakley Sunglasses Wholesale to be eradicated in Discounted Oakley Sunglasses For Men exchange for his suffering.”
- , CNN iReport producer

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30 top hotels around the world - CNN.com

(CNN) -- They're not always the most popular or conventional hotels. And that's exactly what is going for with its inaugural picks for the world's best accommodations.

The travel publisher's panel of experts chose their top 10 in each of three categories: "most extraordinary places to stay," "best-value accommodations" and "top eco retreats" for its list of top hotels. Some are unique, out-of-the-way spots while others are more well-known.

Picks run the gamut from trendy hostels to luxury eco-lodges. cheap oakley sunglasses Check out Lonely Planet's recommendations in the "extraordinary" category above and see whether you agree.

"This collection is one-of-a-kind, carefully curated by the most well-traveled people on Earth," said Tom Hall, LonelyPlanet.com editorial director, in a press statement. "Our authors provide their honest opinion and never take freebies in exchange for positive coverage, so you can trust our reviews."

Lonely Planet is far from the only travel outfit ranking its favorite lodgings. Best is all in the eye of the beholder. To expand your quest for the best, check out or the . Cap off a stay with a meal at one of the .

Lonely Planet's top hotels:

Most extraordinary hotels around the world

1. Mihir Garh, Rajasthan, India

2. Planet Baobab, Gweta, Discount Oakley Sunglasses Cheap Botswana

3. Prendiparte B&B, Bologna, Italy

4. Qasr Al Sarab, UAE

5. Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge, TAS, Australia

6. Free Spirit Spheres, British Columbia, Canada

7. Taskonak Hotel, Goreme, Cappadocia, Turkey

8. Thonga Beach Lodge, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa

9. Saugerties Lighthouse, New York, USA

10. The Gibbon Experience Treehouse, Bokeo Reserve, Laos

Best value hotels around the world

1. The Backpack, Cape Town, South Africa

2. Sydney Harbour YHA, Australia

3. Inkosana Lodge, Champagne Valley, Drakensberg, South Africa

4. Plovdiv Guesthouse, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

5. Hotel Gruner Baum, Glorenza, Sudtirol, Italy

6. Oztel, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

7. Fauzi Azar Inn, Nazareth, Israel

8. We Hostel Design, Sao Paulo, Brazil

9. Hotel Hotel Hostel, Seattle, USA

10. On the Corner, Kolomyya, Ukraine

Top eco resorts

1. Lapa Rios Eco Lodge, Peninsula de Osa, Costa Rica

2. Bulungula Backpackers, South Africa

3. Chole Mjini, Chole Island, Mafia Archipelago, Tanzania

4. Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel, Aguas Calientes, Peru

5. EcoLodge Chepu Adventures, Chiloe, Chile

6. Maison Anglaise, Taroudant, Oakley On Sale Sunglasses Morocco

7. Earthship Rentals, Taos, New Mexico, USA

8. Dana Guest House, Jordan

9. Nuli Sapi, Papua New Guinea

10. Baikaler Eco-Hostel, Listvyanka, Russia

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Monday, April 21, 2014

UNICEF Indias new anti-public defecation campaign - CNN.com

(CNN) -- India has an unlikely new public health hero: a giant, anthropomorphic stool that chases people to squat in toilets.

Mr Poo, who appears in commercials accompanied by a groovy techno anthem, is the face of the latest public health campaign by United Nations Children's Fund in the country. With a bold and quirky approach unlike any previous awareness drives, the campaign seeks to bring people's attention to the health hazards associated with public defecation -- a deep-rooted social norm in the country's rural and urban slums

According to UNICEF, India has the highest number of people in the world -- an estimated 620 million -- who defecate in the open, creating a major public health hazard by leaving an estimated 65 million kilograms of waste each day. Only half of the population uses toilets.

With an animated video, a catchy song with 'toilet sounds', and even a smartphone application, the digitally-led campaign is targeted at the country's youth.

The campaign uses "quirky, informative and inspiring language," said UNICEF spokeswoman Maria Fernandez. "It also contains humour to better connect with the target audience. Once they [the youth] are exposed to the issue...they will be encouraged to know more."

Poo woes

The approach might be humorous, but the underlying issue isn't.

Open defecation is almost universal amongst the poorest 20 percent of India's population.

An absence of adequate toilets and water facilities is as much the reason for this as is a lack of awareness about proper sanitation and hygiene.

The number of toilets in the country is far below what is required, but even when community toilets are provided, Oakley Closeouts many people in rural India continue to defecate in the open due to a lack of education about proper hygiene.

Projects such as the Total Sanitation Campaign -- a community-led program launched in 1999 to address the country's sanitation woes -- have boosted toilet facilities, but hundreds of millions of people remain without access to toilets.

There is also a huge discrepancy between the government's data on the number of toilets built and what some reports claim. The Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation claims that more than 50 percent of the country's rural households were covered by the sanitation drive by 2010, while the last Census conducted in 2011 toilet coverage to be only around 30 percent.

Children most at risk

This is of particular concern for children in the country's rural pockets. Reports say poor sanitation is one of the major contributors to India's rampant child malnutrition numbers -- among the highest in the world.

UNICEF's figures show why. More than 28 million children lack access to toilets in their schools. They also face a huge risk of contracting bacterial infections, with over 44 percent of mothers disposing their children's waste in the open. Diarrhoea remains one of the top causes of child deaths in the country, alongside respiratory infections.

The issue of poor sanitation has also been raised by politicians as a priority for the next government.

"Whoever the prime minister is must lead a national movement to make the country open defecation-free in 10 years' time," Union Minister Jairam Ramesh told in March.

The goal Oakley Sunglass Outlet seems somewhat ambitious.

While there has been a 20 percent drop in the number of people defecating in the open in the last decade, India has a long way to go before it can meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goal target for sanitation, which requires 75% of the country to have access to sanitation.

India set itself the even loftier target of providing 100% of the rural population with access to toilet facilities by 2012, but that didn't materialize. In fact, the date keeps getting pushed further -- it was initially revised to 2015 and recently set back to 2022.

Using social media, UNICEF is trying to steer people's attention towards this largely taboo issue. However, questions remain about the impact of such an urban Clear Oakley Sunglasses campaign, given that its target audience -- youngsters -- are mostly likely to be using toilets in any case.

To which, Maria contends, "If we keep silence, we are contributing to the problem. So the campaign tries to create noise so those who have actually toilets understand the issue and do something about it."

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Sunday, April 20, 2014

Pope Francis leads Good Friday services - CNN.com

(CNN) -- Thousands of Christians gathered at one of Rome's most famous landmarks Friday night as Pope Francis led the Catholic ceremony known as the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum. Crowds of the faithful stood in solemn attendance, holding candles that cast a soft yellow glow over the ancient Roman site, as a giant cross made of dozens of flickering candles towered over the audience.

The Stations of the Cross, also known as the Way of the Cross, commemorates the passion and death of Jesus.

Earlier, the Pope led a service at St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, also to mark Good Friday, the most solemn day of the Christian calendar.

Roman Catholics worldwide use the day to reflect on the Gospel account of the day Jesus died on the cross, before his resurrection from the dead three days later on Easter Sunday, according to Christian doctrine.

Holy Week, one of the most significant periods of the Roman Catholic year, will culminate on Easter Sunday with a Mass in St. Peter's Square, led by Pope Francis.

On Holy Thursday, Pope Francis visited a home for the elderly and disabled, the , to wash the feet of "12 disabled people of different ages, ethnicities and religious confessions," during a special Lord's Supper Mass, according to the Vatican.

It was the second time he has broken with Vatican tradition and washed the feet of ordinary people rather than priests.

Last year, he at a . Before this, modern popes only washed the feet of 12 priests at the Vatican, during the Mass of the Last Supper.

At his general audience Wednesday, Francis urged the faithful to seek an example in Jesus.

"This week, as we follow Jesus along the way of the cross, may we imitate his loving obedience to the will of the father, especially in times of difficulty and humiliation, and open our hearts to his gifts of reconciliation, redemption and new life," he said.

CNN's Shelby Lin Erdman and Delia Gallagher contributed to this report.

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Saturday, April 19, 2014

16 – April – 2014 – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

CNN's GUT CHECK for?April 16, 2014 5 p.m.
- n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political Discount Oakley Sunglasses Cheap news cycle

OBAMA SLAMS HOUSE GOP ON Cheap Oakley Sunglasses Outlet IMMIGRATION … Marking the one-year anniversary Cheap Fake Oakley Sunglasses Outlet of the Senate’s passage of a comprehensive immigration reform plan, President Obama released a statement Wednesday ripping House Republicans for "repeatedly failing to take action” on the issue. The president said the House GOP seems to prefer “the status quo of a broken immigration system over meaningful reform.”

AS DIAZ-BALART URGES GOP NOT TO CEDE THE ISSUE: Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Florida, warned fellow Hill Republicans on Wednesday that if they do not take action on immigration reform, Obama will take the matter into his own hands.

“I’m convinced that if we don’t get it done by the August break, the president, who is feeling a lot of pressure from having not done anything on immigration reform, will feel that he has to act through executive action,” Diaz-Balart told the . “If he does that, the window for Republicans and Democrats to negotiate on this issue is closed until the next president.

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Friday, April 18, 2014

March – 2014 – CNN World Sport - CNN.com Blogs

By Tom McGowan

A band of heroes unite to change the lives of those in need, to feed the starving and house the homeless.

This is the rationale behind a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) initiative which it hopes will help halve world poverty by 2015.

Arguably the UN faces an uphill struggle.

A recent Oxfam report estimated that the world's richest 85 people share a combined wealth of $1.67 trillion, as much as the poorest 3.5 billion of the world's Oakley Sunglasses Wholesale Mens population.

The World Bank's definition of poverty is based on an income of less than $2 a day, or a calorie intake of less than 2100 calories.

Football stars Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane are Discount cheap oakley the faces of the Match Against Poverty, launched in 2003 and now an annual event aimed at raising funds for the impoverished.

"It's the world's most accessible and equal sport. You can even make your own football," Petra Lantz, director of the Oakley Sunglasses UNDP representation office in Geneva, told CNN.

"I've seen that with kids who use paper and string, then they have a football and they pretend that they're Ronaldo or Zidane.

"If you want to reach these kids who are no longer in school, sport is an excellent activity. Football is a sport that is accessible even for those who are poor."

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