news #1

Introducing my soon-to-be neglected happy reads-sad reads segment:

Happy news

Japanese relief team returns favor
[The Inquirer]

A team of 25 medical workers and disaster relief experts from Japan arrived in Manila on Monday night, keen to help a nation that lent a hand during their time of need. They are among some 400 health workers from different countries now in the Philippines, according to the Department of Health. “We will never forget what the Philippines did for us in 2011,” said Kenzo Iwakami of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (Jica), team leader of the Japanese medical mission.

Contrast with China's miniscule $100k aid for its territorial dispute with the Philippines in the South China Sea.

Bill Gates: Here’s My Plan to Improve Our World — And How You Can Help
[Wired]

I have known since my early thirties that I was going to give my wealth back to society. The success of Microsoft provided me with an enormous fortune, and I felt responsible for using it in a thoughtful way. I had read a lot about how governments underinvest in basic scientific research. I thought, that’s a big mistake. If we don’t give scientists the room to deepen our fundamental understanding of the world, we won’t provide a basis for the next generation of innovations.

Sad news

A Chinese Child’s Lung Cancer Is Linked to Pollution
[National Geographic]

An eight-year-old girl, living near a major road in the Jiangsu Province of Eastern China, has become the youngest person in China, and possibly in the world, to be diagnosed with lung cancer caused by pollution—the cause of her disease according to Chinese officials.

Supplement with a Beijing official's disheartening statement in a Reuters piece that '[t]his severe smog, first of all, is caused by climate conditions'.

China, Russia, Cuba win UN Rights Council seats
[The Big Story]

China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Cuba and Algeria won seats Tuesday on the U.N. Human Rights Council, riling independent human rights groups who said their election undermined the rights watchdog's credibility... Human Rights Watch noted that five of the new council members — China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Algeria — have refused to let U.N. investigators visit to check alleged abuses.