Zimbabwe's Crisis Raises Dire Alerts
Zimbabwe's humanitarian situation is deteriorating rapidly, Save the Children warned in a report released Saturday, with sharp rises in cases of acute child malnutrition and cholera. Acute child malnutrition has increased by almost two-thirds compared with last year, the aid said. "Some children are wasting away from lack of food," said Lynn Walker, the agency's Zimbabwe director.
Families denounce China's milk scandal payout
Chinese families of the tens of thousands of children sickened or dead following consumption of tainted baby formula have balked at a compensation deal offered by the company at the center of the scandal as insufficient. Payments offered range from $290 for ill children to $29,000 for those who died.
Tainted-Milk Victims in China to Be Paid
China's 22-member Dairy Industry Association agreed to pay compensation to the families of children who were sickened or killed by milk tainted with melamine, a chemical often associated with fertilizers that was used to disguise the protein content of milk. Although the level of compensation has not been reported, Chinese milk industry officials have said the compensation would extend to the long-term health care needs for the nearly 300,000 babies who were affected.
If This Isn't Slavery, What Is?
The psychological and physical abuse and torture of young girls forced by human traffickers into prostitution is tantamount to slavery, Nicholas Kristof writes in The New York Times.
A Rise in Efforts to Spot Abuse in Youth Dating
Following a rise in teen abuse and deaths related to abusive relationships, many communities are begining to crack down. Many states have recently passed laws to increase awareness and prevention in schools. Texas recently adopted a law that requires school districts to define dating violence in school safety codes. In 2007 Rhode Island began requiring school districts to teach students in grades 7 through 12 about dating abuse. New York recently expanded its domestic violence law to allow victims, including teenagers in dating relationships, to obtain a restraining order against an abuser in family court rather than having to seek help from the criminal justice system.