Archives

31.08.2007 “Whether you’re educated or employed, you’re regarded as untouchable. Whether you’re in London or India, you’re untouchable.” That is the reality of caste discrimination – it exists everywhere, explains Maria Dass, a member of the Dalit community in London.

31.08.2007 Angola remains one of the most mine-affected countries in the world, but a major clearance project has made it possible for the first time in decades to travel safely on 250 kilometres of primary roads running deep into the interior.
From: Mines Advisory Group

31.08.2007 Scientists had predicted that global warming ought to increase rainfall in the tropics. Now NASA researchers say it has.
From: Live Science

31.08.2007 It's time for Kenya's women to send more women to parliament, says Florence Machio, noting that a female minister of health has done more for women in the past four years than her male predecessors ever did. But in Kenya, electing women has proven an uphill battle.

31.08.2007 Oil producing countries and companies burned about 170 billion cubic metres of natural gas worldwide last year - equivalent to 27 per cent of total U.S. consumption and emitting 400 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, satellite data shows.

30.08.2007 An SMS campaign by mobile phones started yesterday in Damascus to inform more than 10,000 Iraqi refugee families about the launch of the first food distribution programme for Iraqi refugees in Syria.

30.08.2007 The murder of an Iraqi translator and interpreter employed by a US television network takes the number of journalists and media workers killed in Iraq since the start of the US-led invasion in March 2003 to 200.

30.08.2007 India's 200m-strong middle class is the most economically dynamic group on the planet, but is largely uninterested in politics or social reform. Until it begins to engage politically, India will suffer from a lop-sided modernisation, says Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad.
From: Prospect magazine

30.08.2007 WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (OneWorld) - One of the most favorable yet systematically overlooked characteristics of solar, wind, biomass, and other types of organic energy is their universality.

30.08.2007 Since 1998 over 2,500 migrants died while trying to cross the seemingly infinite desert along the U.S.-Mexico border. A woman that traveled to the region with a group dedicated to ending this humanitarian crisis recalls the stories of the migrants whose lives she helped save.

30.08.2007 An in depth look at the justice system of an indigenous community in Guatemala illustrates why traditional legal customs can be much more constructive and well-suited to some societies than conventional law enforcement structures. Guatemalan journalist Lucía Escobar explains.

30.08.2007 The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have voted to reauthorize a very successful program that provides health coverage to millions of low-income children. Now some are falsely claiming the bill will allow undocumented immigrants access to public health insurance, says the Center for American Progress.

30.08.2007 The planet needs to produce more food over the coming 50 years than it did in the last 10,000 years combined, warn experts organising a major world forum.
From International Forum on Soils, Society and Global Change

30.08.2007 Cheap school uniforms sold in major UK supermarkets are being produced by women workers in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka earning as little as five pence (10 US cents) per hour and working over 70 hours per week, according to a new report.

30.08.2007 The Red Cross is marking International Day of the Disappeared by calling on the international community to renew its commitment to addressing the plight of missing people and their families and unveiling a report, Missing Persons – A Hidden Tragedy.
+ Amnesty Int'l: Enforced Disappearances Are Not a Thing of the Past

29.08.2007 Scientists are battling to stop damage and death caused by lightning strikes in the developing world, reports Anuradha Alahakoon.

29.08.2007 A beautiful photo essay speaks to the importance of education, both as an enjoyable sanctuary for children in crisis situations and as a means to end the cycles of violence and poverty that engulf their lives.

29.08.2007 A low-level insurgency is spiraling into a brutal armed conflict in the predominantly ethnic Malay Muslim provinces of southern Thailand, a global rights group said Tuesday, noting that for the first time in the region's history, Buddhist monks are being targeted for death.
From: Human Rights Watch

29.08.2007 Over 8,000 voters designated ExxonMobil the world's most despicable corporation due to its destructive environmental policies. Find out what company came in a close second and why.

29.08.2007 Steve Ellner looks at the successes and failures of some of the key policies advanced by the pioneer of "21st century socialism," looking particularly at Hugo Chavez's state-endorsed workers cooperatives and his initiative to eliminate illiteracy.