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To be released this spring (date TBD): Gonzalo Rubalcaba's Volcan

This band is comprised of musical masters, experienced bandleaders and good friends:  Jose Armando Gola-bass, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez-drums, Giovanni  Hidalgo-congas and Gonzalo Rubalcaba-piano.

President Obama on Thursday unveiled a major pivot in White House counterterrorism policy, calling for a limiting of CIA drones strikes and for a renewed effort to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Speaking at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., the president said the death of Osama bin Laden and most of his top lieutenants, and the fact that there have been no large-scale terrorist attacks on the U.S.

After fifty years in the game, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) unveiled its first ever water and development strategy. Some say it’s about time. “For many years in development work, water, sanitation and hygiene have been a bit forgotten,”  said Alanna Imbach, media officer with WaterAid America, to the Inter Press Service. ”Instead, significant focus … Continue reading →

Kenya’s Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission has issued a report, years in the making, that finds that Kenya’s second and third presidents, Daniel Arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki, headed governments that were responsible for massacres, economic crimes and grand corruption, among other violations. Not mentioned in the report are current President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy … Continue reading →

Another example of how a nation’s overall wealth does not always translate into benefits for its people. Source: LightBox With its vast oil wealth, Saudi Arabia has one of the highest concentrations of super rich households in the world. But an estimated 20 percent of the population, if not more, lives in crippling poverty. Read … Continue reading →

Harvard prof, techno optimist and Africa expert Calestous Juma suggests all those soldiers in Africa be put to better use – building roads and other basic infrastructure: As Africa celebrates the 50th anniversary of its declaration of unification, it should also reflect on the fact that it has recorded about 80 successful military coups. Led … Continue reading →

Kaia Chessen is a writer and cellist living in Seattle. After graduating from the University of Washington, she embarked on a solo trek through several Middle Eastern and West African countries in 2007 and is still writing about it today. Source: Seattleglobalist In a little over a year, Mali has gone from a tourist destination … Continue reading →

A 3-D printer is being credited with helping save an Ohio baby's life, after doctors "printed" a tube to support a weak airway that caused him to stop breathing. The innovative procedure has allowed Kaiba Gionfriddo, of Youngstown, Ohio, to stay off a ventilator for more than a year.

The splint that changed Kaiba's life was implanted in February of 2012, when he was three months old.

As a journalist who tries to cover the business side of the humanitarian endeavor, I find the lingo to be both a bit vague and ever-changing. The basic idea here is not too revolutionary – that you can accomplish a social good (reduce poverty, get kids vaccinated, etc) using a market-based strategy. So I find … Continue reading →

Congo has chance for peace, U.N. ready to enforce: Ban Ki-moon  (Reuters) – Troubled eastern Congo has the best chance in years to secure a lasting peace but the United Nations stands ready to pacify the region by force if need be, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday. Congo, Rwanda Must Commit to … Continue reading →

Brian Hock was standing Wednesday evening in what used to be his home but is now 2,000 square feet of nothing. Still resting in a bag of dog food was the cup he uses to scoop kibble, emblazoned with the slogan "Fear not: God's love shines bright."

Hock was at work Monday when the tornado smashed his house in the Heather Wood subdivision of Moore, Okla.

When it comes to weaning, humans are weird.

Our closest relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas, breast-feed their offspring for several years. Some baby orangutans nurse until they are 7 years old.

But modern humans wean much earlier. In preindustrial societies, babies stop nursing after about two years. Which raises the question: How did we get that way?

May 30, 2012 was a beautiful, sunny day. It was also the day when residents and students in North Seattle were told to stay indoors as police searched for the gunman who had opened fire inside a busy café.

When it was all over, five people had been shot dead and the gunman had taken his own life. 

Afraid of heights? This story might make you a bit queasy. 

A mysterious photographer is once again scaling some of Seattle's tallest buildings to capture photos from knee-weakening heights. 

A Reddit user named “shuttersubversive” posted a new round of photos on the website this week.

What was billed as an informational meeting for teachers turned into a session of sharing and healing.

"A lot of people in this district will need grief counseling, including myself," said Susan Pierce, the superintendent of public schools in Moore, Okla.

She teared up when greeted with a standing ovation on Wednesday from the hundreds of teachers who filled Southern Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.

Spokane’s Fairchild Air Force Base has lost out on a bid to be the first to house the Air Force's newest refueling tanker aircraft. 

While Spokane and Washington state leaders have spent the last few years touting Fairchild Air Force Base as the leading contender to take the first new Boeing KC 46A tanker planes, the Pentagon Wednesday decided that McConnell Air Force base in Wichita, Kansas is its choice. McConnell will receive the first batch of 36 planes in 2016. 

Children disabled by polio begging in Abuja Mike Urban On the whole, there’s been a lot of good news lately about the global campaign to eradicate polio — a significant reduction in reported cases so far this year, new money pledged to the effort and a recent announcement by the Taliban in Afghanistan that it … Continue reading →

The Obama administration acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009 in Pakistan and Yemen. The disclosure to Congress comes on the eve of a major national security speech by President Barack Obama.

While there has been a substantial increase in the past decade for global health funding overall, with the growth of private donors like the Gates Foundation as well as the creation of multi-lateral funding mechanisms like the Global Fund to Fight AID, TB and Malaria, many experts are concerned that the shrinking clout and influence of WHO -- as goofy as it can be -- risks undermining the primary vehicle needed to globally set global health policy. Continue reading →

A man has been killed in what reports described as a machete attack in London, and police have shot two suspects in what British Prime Minister David Cameron says is likely a terrorist incident.

The Associated Press says the incident occurred Wednesday when the suspects attacked the man near a London military barracks.