Jane Cowan is a photojournalist based in Melbourne, where she works on digital storytelling for ABC News. From 2010 to 2015 she was one of the ABC's North America correspondents, stationed in Washington DC. In 2015, she was part of the Foreign Correspondent team that exposed an unscrupulous surrogacy operator exploiting women in Mexico and defrauding American couples — an award-winning investigative report which was subsequently followed by the New York Times on its front page. But it was in country New South Wales, on Queensland's Gold Coast and in the Northern Territory that Jane cut her journalistic teeth. On Black Saturday in 2009, she was the first television reporter into the destroyed town of Marysville where many of the bushfire's 173 victims perished. Her coverage of the devastation and the resultant inquiry won multiple rewards, including for sensitive reporting of traumatic events. Over her 15-year career, Jane has reported for the ABC from India, Argentina and Mexico as well as across the United States. With a degree in social work and undertaking a masters degree in photography, Jane was recognised as a 2016 finalist in the documentary/photojournalism category of Australia's Top Emerging Photographer awards. She spent the summer of 2016 photographing and telling multimedia stories at newspaper The Virginian-Pilot. Her interest is in the power of photography to move audiences and get beneath the surface of stories.
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| UpdatedAs the Victorian Government prepares for a conscience vote on assisted dying, one woman fights for her right to have a choice.
Topics: euthanasia, health-policy, ethics, death, melbourne-3000
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Amid a downturn in milk prices and upheaval across the industry, hard-working, dairy-farming families are still eking out an existence, making an essential product in what's increasingly a labour of sheer love.
Topics: dairy-production, livestock, rural, farm-labour, girgarre-3624
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| UpdatedImagine leaving behind your family, your country, your way of life. All at the age of 12. That is what it takes for young women to pursue an education at Worawa Aboriginal College — Victoria's only independent Aboriginal school and the first of only two Aboriginal-controlled boarding schools in Australia.
Topics: indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, community-and-society, indigenous-culture, education, women, healesville-3777
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As a Victorian parliamentary committee prepares its report into the management of invasive animals on public land, the ABC goes bush with some of the hunters helping control deer numbers.
Topics: rural, pest-management, conservation, parliament, state-parliament, national-parks, vic, healesville-3777, yellingbo-3139
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| UpdatedMichelle Payne made all the headlines last year when she became the first female jockey to win a Melbourne Cup. But arguably the best woman jockey over a long period has been Linda Meech.
Topics: horse-racing, sport, stawell-3380, vic, australia
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| UpdatedA visual and intimate depiction of 12 hours in the life of a Melbourne homeless man prompts an outpouring of support from the public, but the man at the heart of the story, Matte Dunn, says he is ambivalent about accepting financial help.
Topics: homelessness, community-and-society, housing, melbourne-3000
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| UpdatedMelbourne man Matte Dunn is not drug addicted, not an alcoholic, not a gambler and has no diagnosed mental illness, but he is homeless.
Topics: homelessness, melbourne-3000
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| UpdatedA state of emergency is declared in the US city of Baltimore as protesters clash with police after the funeral of a 25-year-old black man who died a week ago from a spinal injury suffered in police custody.
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, law-crime-and-justice, crime, police, race-relations, united-states
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| UpdatedEx-NFL player Aaron Hernandez is convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, sealing the downfall of a 25-year-old who once had a $40 million contract and a soaring football career ahead of him.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, crime, law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, american-football, other-sports, sport, united-states
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| UpdatedWhite House hopeful Hillary Clinton officially launches her presidential campaign with a stop at a small town in the early-voting state of Iowa.
Topics: us-elections, federal-election, world-politics, united-states
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Police are investigating how a three-year-old boy in the United States shot his one-year-old brother in the head, killing him.
Topics: death, accidents---other, accidents, united-states
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| UpdatedHillary Clinton is set to confirm Washington's worst-kept secret on Monday, when she is expected to announce her 2016 presidential campaign.
Topics: world-politics, government-and-politics, united-states
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| UpdatedUS Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who abandoned his post in Afghanistan and was held captive by the Taliban for five years before his release last year under a controversial deal, is charged with desertion.
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, army, defence-forces, crime, law-crime-and-justice, united-states
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| UpdatedCorrespondent Jane Cowan describes her journey down India's "intoxicating, exhausting, confounding" Ganges River to the holy city of Varanasi.
Topics: community-and-society, india
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| UpdatedAs a measles outbreak that began at Disneyland spreads, Republican presidential candidates Chris Christie and Rand Paul draw criticism for fanning fears about the safety of vaccines.
Topics: vaccines-and-immunity, health, medical-ethics, world-politics, united-states
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The US and Cuba end two days of high-level talks in Havana, admitting "profound differences" remain and much needs to be done before diplomatic relations can be re-established.
Topics: government-and-politics, world-politics, cuba, united-states
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| UpdatedRepublican John Boehner is re-elected as speaker of the US House of Representatives, surviving a challenge from dozens of conservatives in the party as it officially resumes full control of Congress.
Topics: world-politics, government-and-politics, obama-barack, united-states
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| UpdatedNorth Korea slams fresh US sanctions in response to the hacking of Sony Pictures, calling them hostile and repressive.
Topics: hacking, film-movies, world-politics, korea-democratic-people-s-republic-of, united-states
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| UpdatedUS president Barack Obama says his decision to double the number of US military advisers in Iraq marks a new phase in the campaign against Islamic State (IS) militants and is not a sign his strategy in the region has failed.
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, government-and-politics, terrorism, united-states, iraq
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Officials in the United States are investigating the crash of a Virgin Galactic spaceship that killed one pilot.
Topics: air-and-space, accidents, disasters-and-accidents, spacecraft, united-states
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| UpdatedStudents at the historic Howard University in Washington admit they're uninterested in the political process, with many not even registered to vote in next week's mid-term poll.
Topics: us-elections, world-politics, united-states
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| UpdatedThe US Federal Reserve ends its quantitative easing stimulus program after six years of pumping money into the economy via asset purchases to shore up growth.
The move to end the practice signals confidence the US economic recovery will remain on track despite signs of a slowdown in many parts of the global economy.
At its peak, the bond buying program pumped $US85 billion a month into the US financial system.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, money-and-monetary-policy, markets, unemployment, currency, stockmarket, united-states
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| UpdatedTexas health officials say a nurse who has tested positive for Ebola had extensive contact with Thomas Duncan who died from the disease but it is not clear exactly how she became infected.
Topics: diseases-and-disorders, diseases-and-disorders, infectious-diseases-other, united-states
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| UpdatedA second person in the United States has been admitted to hospital suspected of having the deadly Ebola virus.
Topics: health, diseases-and-disorders, infectious-diseases-other, united-states
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| UpdatedThe streets of Washington DC are being stripped of character, with taxi drivers forced to abandon their colourful designs.
Topics: industry, transport, business-economics-and-finance, community-and-society, united-states