Sunday, January 30, 2011

BBC News - The US agents tracking down sex tourists in Cambodia

BBC News - The US agents tracking down sex tourists in Cambodia

"If Americans are coming here to do this against the Cambodians, it's our job to try to help the Cambodians clean it up," he says. "They're our citizens, it's our responsibility to bring that person to justice."

In the seven years since the Protect Act was passed, America has brought back 85 child sex tourists to face justice in the US.

BBC News - Egypt protests: Anti-Mubarak protesters take over Cairo

BBC News - Egypt protests: Anti-Mubarak protesters take over Cairo:
"The government has announced that al-Jazeera must halt operating in Egypt.

The Arabic TV channel, which has been showing blanket coverage of the protests, says it has yet to receive a formal order from the authorities.

Clashes between protesters and the security forces - mostly riot police - are reported to have left at least 100 people dead across Egypt since rallies began on Tuesday. Thousands have been injured as violence has flared in cities including Cairo, Suez and Alexandria."

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Al Jazeera English: Live Stream - Watch Now - Al Jazeera English

Al Jazeera English: Live Stream - Watch Now - Al Jazeera English:

Watch the live stream of what's happening in Egypt

BBC News - 'Gay' Ugandan Brenda Namigadde wins temporary reprieve

BBC News - 'Gay' Ugandan Brenda Namigadde wins temporary reprieve: "A Ugandan woman who says she is a lesbian has been granted an injunction by a High Court judge temporarily preventing her deportation."

BBC News - Egypt: Mubarak sacks cabinet and defends security role

BBC News - Egypt: Mubarak sacks cabinet and defends security role: "President Hosni Mubarak has defended the role of Egypt's security forces in suppressing anti-government protests which have rocked the country."

Thursday, January 27, 2011

BBC News - Yemen protests: Thousands call on president to leave

BBC News - Yemen protests: Thousands call on president to leave:

"Thousands of Yemenis are demonstrating in the capital Sanaa, calling on Ali Abdullah Saleh, president for more than 30 years, to step down.

This comes after mass protests in Egypt and a popular uprising in Tunisia that ousted its long-time leader."

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Infographic: Which countries are faced with a 'critical' health worker shortage? | Global Health Workforce Alliance | guardian.co.uk

Infographic: Which countries are faced with a 'critical' health worker shortage? | Global Health Workforce Alliance | guardian.co.uk: "Which countries are faced with a 'critical' health worker shortage?
There are 57 countries with fewer than 23 health workers for every 10,000 people, as a result infant and maternal mortality rates far exceed that of developed countries, such as the UK and US"

Monday, January 17, 2011

BBC News - Man sets himself on fire in Cairo protest

BBC News - Man sets himself on fire in Cairo protest:

"A man has set himself on fire outside the parliament building in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

He shouted anti-government slogans before pouring fuel on his clothes and setting himself alight, witnesses said."

Haiti's 'Baby Doc' in surprise return from exile - Americas, World - The Independent

Haiti's 'Baby Doc' in surprise return from exile - Americas, World - The Independent:

"Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier, a once feared and reviled dictator who was ousted in a popular uprising nearly 25 years ago, made a surprise return to Haiti as the country wrestles with a political crisis, cholera outbreak and the stalled reconstruction from last year's devastating earthquake.

Duvalier's stunning arrival at the airport Sunday was as mysterious as it was unexpected. He greeted a crowd of several hundred cheering supporters but did not say why he chose this tumultuous period to suddenly reappear from his exile in France — or what he intended to do while back in Haiti."

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Ivory Coast: The consequences for Africa's other strongmen | Global development | guardian.co.uk

Ivory Coast: The consequences for Africa's other strongmen | Global development | guardian.co.uk:

"Yet it may be easy to understand – without condoning – Gbagbo's stance. He must be wondering why the international community has singled him out for special attention when it hasn't acted with such aggression towards Robert Mugabe or Mwai Kibaki. The events of the past month certainly remind us of disconcerting truths about the brand of democracy in many African countries and elsewhere in the developing world, truths that the pressure for optimism often forces us to wish away."

Dambisa Moyo: without change US will almost certainly become a socialist nation - Telegraph

Dambisa Moyo: without change US will almost certainly become a socialist nation - Telegraph

How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly – And the Stark Choices Ahead goes so far as to predict that the US will be a “bona fide socialist welfare state” by the latter part of this century.

“Indeed, if nothing else changes it from its current path,” writes Moyo, “it is almost certain that America will move from a fully-fledged capitalist society of entrepreneurs to a socialist nation in just a few decades.

“The trouble is, it won’t be just any socialist welfare state... the US is on a path to creating the worst and most venal form of welfare state [poorly developed and designed] – one born of desperation from many years of flawed economic policies and a society that rapaciously feeds on itself.”

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Birthright Citizenship Looms as Next Immigration Battle - NYTimes.com

Birthright Citizenship Looms as Next Immigration Battle - NYTimes.com

In April, Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California, one of those pushing for Congressional action on the issue, stirred controversy when he suggested that children born in the United States to illegal immigrants should be deported with their parents until the birthright citizenship policy was changed.

“And we’re not being mean,” Mr. Hunter told a Tea Partyrally in Southern California. “We’re just saying it takes more than walking across the border to become an American citizen. It’s what’s in our souls.”

Friday, January 7, 2011

BBC News - Ivory Coast: Gbagbo 'expels UK and Canada envoys'

BBC News - Ivory Coast: Gbagbo 'expels UK and Canada envoys': "Ivory Coast's incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo is expelling the British and Canadian ambassadors, a statement on state television has said.

It said the action was being taken as a reciprocal measure. The UK said it did not accept that the move was valid."

Thursday, January 6, 2011

One year after the earthquake, Haitians wonder whether international aid is keeping their country poor. (2) - By Maura R. O'Connor - Slate Magazine

One year after the earthquake, Haitians wonder whether international aid is keeping their country poor. (2) - By Maura R. O'Connor - Slate Magazine:

"According to critics, USAID's initiatives, which focus on crops such as mangoes, lettuce, cabbage, and peppers, ignore a problematic reality. Haiti spends 80 percent of its export earnings to import staple foods like rice and sugar that the country—with 700,000 hectares of underutilized land and millions of farmers—could be growing itself. But U.S. agriculture subsidies and aid policies have flooded Haiti with American food for three decades, sinking the local economy and leaving Haiti one of the most food-insecure countries in the world."

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The Congolese army must be taught to serve its communities | Ally Carnwath | Global development | guardian.co.uk

The Congolese army must be taught to serve its communities | Ally Carnwath | Global development | guardian.co.uk: "Among the higher ranks of the army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), there's little attempt to disguise just how low the military's reputation has sunk.

'Killers and criminals,' said a captain based in the eastern city of Goma, when I asked how Congolese soldiers were generally viewed by the civilian population. 'Everything that goes wrong is blamed on the army,' said another."

BBC News - South Sudan welcomes Bashir reassurance

BBC News - South Sudan welcomes Bashir reassurance: "South Sudan's information minister has welcomed reassurances by the Sudanese president that he will respect Sunday's referendum on southern independence.

Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin told the BBC he was pleased President Omar al-Bashir had accepted the referendum."

Farmers warned of abolition of agricultural subsidies | Environment | The Guardian

Farmers warned of abolition of agricultural subsidies | Environment | The Guardian: "The environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, will today call for fundamental reform of the European system of subsidies for farmers.

Landowners who take steps to protect the environment and enhance the countryside should get more rewards, Spelman will say, suggesting that there should be less reliance on giving Britain's farmers direct payments.

Addressing the three-day Oxford Farming Conference, which began yesterday, Spelman will tell farmers that rising global demand for food and increases in food prices make it possible to reduce subsidies and 'plan for their abolition'.

The subsidy system keeps food prices high, causing high tariffs that block cheap imports. Use of subsidies to export surplus food from the EU also damages production in developing countries. The distortion of trade caused by the common agricultural policy, or Cap, is 'morally wrong', Spelman says. The Cap, which governs subsidies across the EU, is to be reviewed, with a new scheme put in place by 2014."

Ivory Coast's real battle | Pierre Haski | Comment is free | The Guardian

Ivory Coast's real battle | Pierre Haski | Comment is free | The Guardian

Laurent Gbagbo, Ivory Coast's outgoing president, is trying to portray his fight to stay in charge as the mother of all battles with France, the former colonial power. Jacques Vergès, the maverick lawyer now defending Gbagbo, came out of the president's office in Abidjan last week claiming that if France tried to attack Ivory Coast to dislodge him, the west African state would be its "graveyard".

This war talk is nonsense, as the current crisis doesn't place France in opposition to its one-time colony, but is first and foremost a conflict of legitimacy between two sides within Ivory Coast, the sequel of a civil war whose roots go back to the void created by the death of the all-powerful first president of the independent nation from 1960 to 1993, Félix Houphouët-Boigny.

 
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