Gun Violence Is Public Health Crisis in Chicago

Published on Feb 22, 2013
So far in the first two months of this year, gun deaths in Chicago have already outpaced last year’s explosive rate. Elizabeth Brackett of PBS member station WTTW explores the escalating public health crisis in Chicago due to the high rates of gun violence.

Sanctions hit life-saving drugs in Iran

Published on Feb 17, 2013
Despite the concerns of Israel, the U.S. and its Western allies, Iran denies it’s developing atomic arms under the cover of a civilian nuclear program. Meanwhile, the severe international sanctions are hitting the lives of everyday Iranians in need of medicine, as RT’s Maria Finoshina has found out.

Pakistani Family Fights Tradition of ‘Swara’ – women’s rights, honor killings

Published on Dec 6, 2012 by VOAvideo
In recent years Pakistan has passed laws protecting women against having acid thrown on their faces or being killed to satisfy the honor of a family. Despite being legally banned, abuses against women continue. However, there are stories of individuals who stand up when the law fails them. Sharon Behn reports from Peshawar on one family whose father died trying to prevent their daughter from being given away to settle a dispute.

Mexicans seek spiritual solace amid chaos

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Mar 7, 2011
As Mexico’s drug-related violence continues, some are finding comfort in spirituality.

It is a mainly Catholic nation, but as Al Jazeera’s Franc Contreras reports from Mexico City, many are turning to religious figures rooted in Mexico’s indigenous past.

One alternative is the saint of death, also known as Santa Muerte.

MEGAPOST: The Drug War and Mexican Tourism

Mexico: From “Drug-Fueled War Zone” to “Well-Traveled International Tourist Destination” – This video has no official description. It’s a PR firm describing their campaign to reinvigorate Mexican tourism.

Uploaded by HDNetWorldReport on Sep 16, 2011
Many tourists no longer want to visit Mexico because of drug violence. It might be time to cross another nearby country (Guatemala) off the list, because Mexicoapos;s ruthless cartels are going international.

Published on Sep 10, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish
Northern Mexico’s Copper Canyon is considered one of the world’s most spectacular landscapes. But the site also right in the middle of Mexico’s drug-growing heartland, so it is struggling to attract tourists.

Al Jazeera’s Adam Raney travelled to the canyon in the state of Chihuahua to see what it offers for those prepared to make the trip.

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Jul 12, 2011
Mexico’s once buoyant tourism industry is being weighed downby the country’s ongoing drug war. Al Jazeera’s Adam Raney reports from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Uploaded by CBS on Feb 21, 2011
As the deadly drug war in Mexico continues, new violence is spreading towards popular tourist areas. Terry McCarthy reports on conditions in Acapulco, a new battleground between rival drug cartels.

Uploaded by ANewsVanIsland on Jan 20, 2011
OAK BAY – The phones are ringing at Oak Bay’s Athlone Travel – the first few weeks of 2011 have been busy. But bookings to Mexico are down, and clients are asking questions. “They’re Concerned about the violence, if they go to Mexico are they in any danger” says Manager Liz Smith.

And you can see where skittish travellers may be getting that idea.

On Monday, 69-year-old Mike Di Lorenzo of Penticton was hit in the leg by gunfire meant for someone else in Mazatlan. He needed surgery and two blood transfusions, and likely saved his wife’s life by diving on top of her.

Earlier this month, a Montreal police officer got separated from his friends at a bar in Cancun and was severely beaten. A woman from Ontario claims was gang-raped by police in Playa del Carmen on New Year’s eve.

And in November, 33-year-old Nanaimo Realtor, father, and newlywed Malcolm Johnson was killed in a freak gas explosion at the Grand Riviera Hotel along with four other Canadians.

Royal Roads University “Human Security” expert Kenneth Christie just returned from Mexico, where he says a drug war has taken more than 30,000 lives over the past four years. But most of the violence is taking place far from your favourite all-inclusive resort. “I think tourists should be careful when they go to Mexico, stay away obviously from where the drug war is taking place, but in most of the resorts they’re pretty safe” says Christie.

He says the BC man injured this week was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. “Mazatlan’s been a very safe place for Canadian tourists to go.”

Liz Smith at Athlone Travel agrees, suggesting you stick to the familiar resort destinations to stay safe. “It’s like all the people that go on airplanes every day, millions of people around the world travel by air, and when there’s an accident, everyone stops to think about it, and I think that’s what’s happening here.”

For some Canadians, it appears the issue of whether or not Mexico is safe isn’t an issue at all. One viewer comments online: “Please don’t go to Mexico, way too dangerous. In fact, don’t go anywhere. Just stay home and hide under your bed, where it’s safe.”

He does make a good point – there are risks involved in doing just about anything.

Uploaded by AssociatedPress on Nov 4, 2010
In another grisly turn in Mexico’s drug war, police have recovered 18 bodies from a mass grave announced in a YouTube posting, a video saying the victims were from a tourist group kidnapped in Acapulco a month ago.

Uploaded by PBSNewsHour on Sep 15, 2010

A drop in tourism and manufacturing has left the Mexican state Baja, California, with a struggling economy. Jose Luis Sierra of New America Media reports on how the drug war and recession have played a role.

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Sep 1, 2010
At least eight people have been killed in a fire bomb attack on a bar in the Mexican tourist town of Cancun.

Local reports said the attack was carried out by a drug cartel which was trying to extort protection money from the bar owner.

It has heightened fears that drug-related violence is spreading to tourist towns.

Al Jazeera’s Franc Contreras reports from Cancun.

Uploaded by catoinstitutevideo on May 5, 2010
Juan Carlos Hidalgo of the Cato Institute on how the country’s drug problems are impacting tourism.

Uploaded by worldfocusonline on Mar 5, 2009
In Tijuana, a once-thriving city just across the border from San Diego, the increasingly deadly drug war has touched almost every part of life.

Americans used to flock to the city, but now largely avoid it. In 2005, a banner year for tourism, some four million people visited Tijuana. Last year, the number dropped to around 400,000. Residents, too, are fleeing in fear.

Worldfocus correspondent John Larson, producer Bryan Myers and field producers Megan Thompson and Ivette Feliciano explore Tijuana, beginning in a hospital that not only treats the victims of drug violence, but that operates in fear that its own people will get caught in the battle.

Growing Up in a Still-Wounded South Africa

Published on Nov 28, 2012 by TheNewYorkTimes
The filmmaker Nadine Cloete explores childhood in a part of South Africa plagued by gang culture and violence.

Human Rights Watch Campaigns Against ‘Killer Robots’

Published on Nov 23, 2012 by VOAvideo
Technology is moving fast when it comes to “autonomous systems”, intelligent machines that perform tasks with little or no human guidance. In modern warfare, drones and other unmanned vehicles are playing an increasing role, with militaries embracing a technology that they say makes war safer and more effective. But human rights campaigners fear what might be to come — fully autonomous weapons that could select and engage targets without human intervention — and they want a new global treaty to stop that from happening. Selah Hennessy reports for VOA from London.

Funeral Strippers in Taiwan

Published on Oct 31, 2012 by NationalGeographic
In Taiwan, respect for the recently deceased includes a lavish funeral complete with exotic dancers.

Outdated Drugs Slow Nigerian Malaria Treatment

Published on Oct 25, 2012 by VOAvideo
A large percentage of people killed by malaria each year are in Nigeria, and the disease is the country’s number one killer of small children. Health officials say modern life-saving drugs are available but the widespread use of out-dated drugs on a resistant strain of malaria continues to cost lives. Heather Murdock has more for VOA from Sokoto and Zamfara States in Nigeria.

Killed for Organs: China’s Secret State Transplant Business

Published on Oct 20, 2012 by NTDTV
It’s being called “abhorrent” and a “crime against humanity.” Allegations of forced organ harvesting in China started to surface in 2006. Since then, mounting evidence suggests these allegations are true—and even worse than originally suspected.

Prisoners of conscience—especially Falun Gong—are being killed for their organs.

Starting in 1999, the number of transplant centers in China increased by 300% in just 8 years, even though China has no effective national organ donation system. 1999 was the year the Chinese regime began persecuting adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, sending hundreds of thousands to labor camps. Many of them were never seen again.

Transplant medicine was developed to save lives. But in China, innocent people are being killed for their organs—so they can be sold for profit.

Increasingly, doctors, congressmen, international politicians, human rights lawyers, journalists, and people around the world are raising awareness about forced organ harvesting.

Report: Child Mortality Drops — But Not Enough

Published on Sep 13, 2012 by VOAvideo

new report — released jointly by three U.N. agencies and the World Bank — says that despite progress by health programs worldwide in reducing infant mortality, prospects remain dire: a child still dies every five seconds somewhere in the world. The new report calls for renewed international commitments to child survival. VOA’s Vidushi Sinha has more.

Execution of Low-IQ Prisoner Raises Controversy in Texas

Published on Sep 7, 2012 by VOAvideo

The U.S. federal government and 33 U.S. states continue to use capital punishment for major crimes like murder, but almost a third of the executions occur in just one state – Texas. The executions sometimes draw protests from around the world. But, as VOA’s Greg Flakus reports from Huntsville, Texas, polls show up to 70 percent of Texans support capital punishment (latest UTexas poll) and there is little chance the Lone Star state will abandon the practice anytime soon.

Attempting to Bridge Burma’s HIV Treatment Gap

Published on Sep 10, 2012 by VOAvideo

Burma’s AIDS epidemic mostly affects marginalized groups, such as the gay community. In a country where homosexuality remains illegal, finding and treating gay patients is a challenge for the few health workers devoted to their treatment. VOA News reports that an annual religious event called a Nat festival, however, is one time when the gay community can network – and talk to health workers about treatment.

Court rules against British man’s right to die

Published on Aug 16, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish

A British court has denied the plea of a severely disabled man to be allowed to die.

Judges told Tony Nicklinson, who suffers from locked-in syndrome after experiencing a stroke and who challenged the country’s laws in court, that the decision to allow him to die was not their’s to make but that of the country’s politicians.

Nicklinson, who did not take the news well, said he will appeal the decision.

Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee reports from London.

Families destroyed by Mexico’s drug war

Published on Aug 12, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish

Some 24,000 people have gone missing in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels in 2006.

Many of the disappeared turn up dead but it can take months for their bodies to be identified.

Nearly 16,000 bodies remain unidentified, according to the government.

Al Jazeera’s Rachel Levin reports from Monterrey.