One doesn't have to think long and hard to realize that children who are born into conflict ridden countries are at a disadvantage to those children born into peaceful nations, however the disparity between the two when it comes to education may very well surprise you. Some 500 times more funding goes into the education […]
Khalid Sheik Mohammed faces the U.S. military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Thursday. The Pentagon charged KSM, along with several other co-conspirators, with terrorism and one count of murder for every victim of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. If convicted, each faces the death penalty. KSM claims, among other […]
To follow-up with yesterdays post, From Child Laborer to President, on Alejandro Toledo, who is now working with his organization Global Center for Development and Democracy, to combat inequality and poverty, especially among the countries child labors. The Committee for Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor in Peru has estimated that 2.5 million children, most […]
On the heels of the International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor's report released earlier this week, which implicated the Sudanese government in the ongoing genocide in Darfur, a coalition of human rights groups released this video fleshing out the charges against Harun and Kushayb with testimony from victims and calling on the UN Security Council to […]
The Jordanian AmmonNews.net – a relatively new and independent online news source – reported today that the Iraqi government has, by signing deals with Jordan, agreed to export crude oil to its neighbor at a reduced rate of $18 less than the international price. Citing statements given by Iraqi officials to the Iraqi press, AmmonNews […]
In a column in the Suddeutschen Zeitung, one of Germany's leading dailies, the German Marshall Fund's Constanze Stelzenmuller discusses Barack Obama's popularity among German politicians and the German population in general. She writes that Obama's popularity in Germany has reached levels that domestic politicians can only dream of and is comparable only to that of […]
Andy Semmel of the Paternship for a Secure America gives some suggestions on how the U.S. Government could ramp up its global efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction. His suggestions are entirely focused on improvements that could be made at the State Department. This is not surprising, considering Semmel served for more […]
Jack Leonard, for the Los Angeles Times, has written about the upcoming "political showdown" in California over gay marriage. Yesterday, the California secretary of state said that the gay marriage initiate would be on the November 4 ballot. Voters will have to decide whether there should be a state constitutional amendment to define marriage as […]
A razor blade, circumstance, and forced isolation are the only tools the US military tribunal need to charge 29-year old British national Binyam Mohamed with an alleged al-Qaida dirty bomb plot. Whether or not Mr. Mohamed is actually guilty can not excuse the US from engaging in medieval practices dating back to the 13th century. […]
Syria's state-run SANA news agency reported today on some of the comments made by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) summit in Rome. The president allegedly proclaimed that Iran, in light of the current crisis, has clear solutions for the fair production and distribution of food supplies to the […]
In the face of adversity makes many crumble and it makes others stronger. It was strength and determination in the face of adversity that took one young Peruvian boy from a childhood working on the streets to become the leader of the nation that once look at him with hopeless eyes. In 2001, Alejandro Toledo […]
Senate on Climate Change , In the US, the Senate began debate yesterday on legislation to address climate change. The "SF Chronicle" reports here that the opponents and proponents were so eager to start bare knuckling over the bill that they voted 74-14 to proceed to debate. The bill "would require about 2,100 major U.S. […]
In the historic first case transferred to Croatian courts by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), General Mirko Norac was convicted and General Rahim Ademi acquitted of war crimes on theories of command responsibility. The historic conviction is a major step forward for Croatia, whose government long resisted responsibility for war crimes […]
The Associated Press reports that International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo issued a new report today to the UN Security Council describing evidence that high officials in the Sudanese government are directly linked to the ongoing genocide in Darfur. The report said a pre-trial hearing would be held next month. Evidence of Sudanese government […]
Senator John McCain's major speech on May 15th , in which he outlined what he "would hope to have achieved at the end of my first term as President" in 2013, made international headlines. Most of the international news reports focused on McCain's vision of Iraq in 2013. For example, two weeks ago the Guardian […]