Last Friday Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued his annual report to the UN Security Council took a historic step as for the first time it included a list of violators who use child soldiers. The countries which included Somalia’s transitional government; Congo’s armed forces; Myanmar’s army; and rebel groups in Congo; Myanmar; the Philippines, Colombia; Sudan; […]
This past Sunday a video was released by a Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda in which Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Muslim cleric, called for the killing of U.S. civilians. Al-Awlaki has become a main al-Qaeda recruiter and U.S. intelligence has linked him to the 9/11 hijackers, Nidal Hasan (the alleged Fort Hood shooter), and the Christmas […]
Last Thursday, the U.S. Government announced its concentrated efforts to reduce global hunger and poverty in 20 countries through an ambitious strategy document known as Feed the Future. Feed the Future reflects steps taken by the U.S. Government to reach its UN Millennium Development Goal of reducing the number of people suffering from hunger and […]
The Rolling Stones knew it years ago.* Now we’re catching up. I’ve written about natural gas a few times, basically to the effect that it’s got enormous potential as a transition fuel for many purposes as we wend our way, sooner rather than later, toward a renewable future. This is what the prophetic Barry Commoner […]
Secret directive signed by General Petraeus in September gives U.S. military special forces the power to operate in friendly and hostile states in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Exposed by the New York Times on Monday, this order increases the power of U.S. armed forces abroad and authorizes clandestine military operations against terrorists and […]
Yesterday, I very cynically posted about the success in reducing child mortality rates that has been achieved since 1990. Gap Minder (a site that has kept me entertained for hours) has a graph that shows child mortality falling – watch it, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
U.S. administration officials arrived in Beijing today (Monday) for high-level talks between America and China, Beijing officials sought ahead of the newly formed annual strategic summit to avoid open disagreement on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) apparent sinking of a South Korean warship, exchange rates, currency reforms and other big issues that divide the two nations.
The debate over current tensions on the Korean peninsula raises a lot of questions. Is Lee Myung-bak to blame for raising inter-Korean tensions previous to the naval incident? Did he repudiate the Sunshine Policy? Did the investigation reach the correct conclusion that a North Korean torpedo sank the South Korean ship? How should we proceed? […]
I’ve just finished reading this terrific history of the American environmental movement by Phil Shabecoff. He was America’s first environmental reporter and he’s quite the historian too. The title comes from a line from Aldo Leopold’s poignant essay “Thinking Like a Mountain.” He recounts the grand sweep of how Americans have treated their air, lands […]
$4.1 trillion. That’s how much the world spends on health annually, which, if you divide by an estimated 6 billion people on planet earth, works out to a bit more than $650 per person. The United States spends the most per capita on health at a little more than $6000; Burundi is the lowest at just under $3 per person. […]
The research by Spot On Public Relations, a Dubai-based agency, says there are more than 15 million subscribers to the social network. The total number of newspaper copies in Arabic, English and French is just under 14 million. The findings seem to confirm the increasing popularity of the social interaction platforms in the region. The […]
Good news in the health world is a funny thing. For those of us working in the field, it makes us nervous. After nearly a decade working in HIV, I can uncomfortably say that I’m invested in the bad news: when the New York Times says the AIDS war is falling apart, I hope that people will mobilize. When […]
Last week I wrote broadly about the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and how it has caused an ugly collision of private companies, politicians, regulators and lobbyists. One week later, as the oil gushes on, little has improved both in the water and in Washington. To date, over 6 million gallons of […]
This movie is disappointing. Which is too bad, because its premise is intriguing: three American political consultants (i.e., spin doctors) are hired to help Russian President Boris Yeltsin with his campaign in 1996. While the comedy is fictional, it is based on a true story. The team, made up of George Gorton, Dick Dresner, and […]