U.S. might accept spousal abuse asylum claims
The Barack Obama administration’s recommendation to grant asylum to a Guatemalan woman fleeing severe spousal abuse opens the door for other battered and sexually abused women in other countries to seek refuge in the U.S. Rody Alvarado Pena’s case had languished in immigration courts for 14 years. Federal officials are looking to create guidelines for asylum claims based on abuse.
Global health efforts failing on top child killers
Diarrhea and pneumonia remain the largest killers of young children across the world but fail to get as much attention and funding as HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles. Much more remains to be done to fight diseases such as HIV/AIDS, but health and development experts decry the lack of focus on diseases that can be cured quickly and inexpensively.
Health ministers meet in Ethiopia to discuss maternal injuries
A lack of resources and gender inequality contribute to fistula and other preventable maternal injuries in Ethiopia, according to the UN Population Fund. Health ministers assembled in Ethiopia to discuss midwives, prevention efforts and simple surgeries that could decrease incidence of fistula.
World’s falling fertility rates approach a break-even point
Global fertility levels soon will drop to a point where half the world’s population is producing only enough children to replace itself. The trend eventually could address issues associated with overpopulation and food security.
DRC refugees protest lack of food in Ugandan camp
Refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo barricaded roads into a camp in Uganda to protest the deaths of several children because of a lack of food aid. Authorities say supply chain disruptions and a lack of funds resulted in the distribution of half-rations, but they deny any claims of deaths
Security fears keep Mindanao refugees camps
Despite awful living conditions in Mindanao refugee camps, many internally displaced residents in Philippines are refusing to return home, citing security concerns. As many as 250,000 of the 750,000 people displaced by fighting between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are choosing to remain in refugee camps despite malnutrition and poor water and sanitation.
WFP tests mobile delivery of food aid vouchers
The World Food Programme is testing a plan to deliver food aid vouchers to refugees via cell phone. The program, serving 130,000 Iraqi refugees in Syria, is designed to eliminate bottlenecks at distribution centers and allow users to select their own food at local markets. The program is designed to work in urban areas, where food is available in markets.
UN: Developing world needs better broadband access
A lack of broadband infrastructure leaves developing countries unable to take advantage of Internet technology to promote development, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development warns. Broadband access is a critical component for offshore industries such as call centers and can help people make more use of their cell telephones to access services.
Supreme Court to hear case on juvenile life sentences
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that will decide whether a juvenile can be given a life sentence — a followup to a difficult, divided 2005 decision in which the Court determined that executing a juvenile constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The defense for the case 13-year-old boy convicted of rape and sentenced by a lower court to life rests on the argument that a life sentence is in essence a death penalty and that extreme juvenile punishments are practiced virtually nowhere else in the industrial world.
Report: Ivory Coast violates UN diamonds, weapons embargo
A report by the UN Security Council reveals government and former rebel forces in Ivory Coast are violating the UN-mandated weapons embargo. The report suggested Burkina Faso investigate arms smuggling, which might be linked to the cocoa trade. Ivory Coast, the world’s largest producer of cocoa, also has exported diamonds in violation of the UN embargo.
Tanzania struggles to reach HIV/AIDS treatment goal
Tanzanian government officials say they have an adequate supply of anti-retroviral drug. Yet the country might fail to achieve its goal of universal access to treatment for all HIV-positive Tanzanians by 2010 because patients must contend with transportation and supplementary food costs as well as fear of stigma associated with the disease. An estimated 190,000 HIV-positive Tanzanians are not using the treatment.
Philippines struggle to cope with aftermath of typhoons
Homelessness and disease are preying upon tens of thousands of survivors of recent typhoons in the Philippines, raising fears of widespread disease outbreaks. Relocation efforts have been slow as government efforts fail to address survivors’ fears of being uprooted from their communities and being left with no way to survive economically.
