“The price of greatness is responsibility.” -Sir Winston Churchill, author and former U.K. Prime Minister The responsibility of the world's children is ours; collectively we hold the power for greatness in the palms of our hands. Children have the possibility of greatness and the responsibility to protect, guide and foster the potential in each child […]
“The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty.” – George Bernard Shaw GLOBAL: Food wasted is water lost To meet growing food demand, in another 40 years the world would need enough water to fill at least three lakes the size of Victoria, Africa's largest body of water, according to a projection […]
U.S. military officials denied claims by the United Nations and the government of Afghanistan that an airstrike in Herat province killed over 90 Afghan civilians. A U.S. investigation into video archives and eyewitness accounts of the Aug. 22 raid found only five Afghan civilians were killed in the strike on the Taliban stronghold in western […]
The Hague released the Serbian Navy admiral who commanded the shelling of Dubrovnik in 1991 today, announcing that his 7-year sentence had been cut short due to good behavior. Miodrag Jokic was commander of the local Serbian navy and was convicted in 2003 of commanding a portion of the bombardment during which two civilians were […]
Award winning American journalist and host of Democracy Now! (DN), Amy Goodman, was arrested at the opening of the Republican National Convention in St.Paul. Two of DN's producers were also cuffed as were another 280 people. According to DN's website, Amy was arrested when she questioned officers why her two producers were detained. She is […]
Today America is taking the day off to celebrate Labor Day, Labor day was established in 1882 when New York City's Central Labor Union created a day off for the working class. In 1894 Congress established Labor Day as a federal holiday in 1894. As we gather to take a weekend of rest and honor the hard work and labor […]
The central Asian nation of Uzbekistan celebrated its independence from Russia on August 28. Praises all around. US Ambassador Richard Norland expressed his firm commitment and partnership with the autocratic regime. Independence. What does it really mean and to whom? For Tashkent, that answer is clear. EU's sanctions against Tashkent are set to expire in […]
South Africa to provide vaccinations against child-killing diseases South Africa will provide children with vaccinations for pneumococcal disease, the major vaccine-preventable cause of death among young children, and rotavirus, a diarrhea that affects almost every child before the age of 3. Iraqi students exempted from school fees Jordan has waived annual fees in state-owned schools […]
Human Rights Watch is calling on the EU to deploy European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) in Gori, Georgia. While Russian forces starting withdrawing from the region on August 22, reports of kidnappings, beatings, and looting of civilians by Ossetian militias and criminal gangs are emerging. Georgian police were not allowed to move beyond a […]
A week ago, the newspaper Bosnia Daily (no online edition) reported that an arrest of General Ratko Mladic, the highest-ranking war crimes suspect from the 1990's conflict, was still at large. De Weld reports that it's not quite that simple, and Mladic's whereabouts and living situation are the subject of a myriad of contradictory reumors […]
“Just because a child's parents are poor or uneducated is no reason to deprive the child of basic human rights to health care, education and proper nutrition.” – Marian Wright Edelman, American children's rights activist and president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund. Regardless of the reasons, the state, race, religion or social status […]
Former war crime fugitive and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic refused Friday to enter a plea at the U.N. court for the former Yugoslavia, saying he did not recognize the authority of the court. Karadzic stands accused of overseeing a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign against Muslims and Croats in the area, including a massacre at […]
As a child of the 80's when the word famine is mentioned I can distinctively hear my mother telling me to ear my entire plate of my despised broccoli, because "there are starving children in Ethiopia". I know wonder if more than 20 years later I will soon find myself uttering those same words at […]
The International Criminal Court at the Hague Thursday charged former U.N. war crimes spokesperson Florence Hartmann with two counts of contempt for disclosing sensitive information regarding Slobodan Milosevic during his prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugloslavia. The Hague accuses Hartmann of disclosing the information in her 2007 book, “Peace and Punishment,” […]
Some 854 million people around the globe do not have enough to eat, according to the FAO State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006 report. The dilemma on who to save has hit many hard, but as the article, In a time of famine, who should be saved?, illustrates the issue is not just […]