In Africa the WHO is predicting the worst meningitis epidemic in the last decade, an epidemic which is preventable and yet once which they are substantially unprepared for. It is estimated that some 80 million people, in 21 various countries, which form a region reffed to as, the "meningitis belt', could need the preventative vaccine. […]
Mea culpa. Let me just here say that I've been behind the eight ball and I will continue to try to get out and get some more posts up and running here. Big News Item: Lawmakers propose bill on global warming from the AP, was the big story from last week. Legislation introduced by Senators […]
In South Africa the battle against HIV/AIDS looks not to be a battle won, but a battle lost. UNICEF's South Africa representative Macharia Kamau said that infection and death rates in the are outweighing the rate of treatment. The ones paying the highest price for this lost race, are the children whose parents are rapidly […]
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900,1944), French aviator, author. The Little Prince, ch. 1 (1943). Children while they are continually learning, are also the worlds greatest teachers.
The death sentences against Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” and three others, including Ahmad al-Tai, who negotiated the cease-fire ending the 1991 Gulf War, are in legal limbo amid fears the executions could spark further sectarian violence and hamper efforts at reconstruction. The Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced the men to hang for genocide, […]
Serbia's minister for the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said Serbian officials had obstructed the investigation. Rasim Ljajic said that Serbia had in the past denied the existence of evidentiary documents, though they later surfaced and were handed over to officials at The Hague. On Monday, chief prosecutor to the tribunal Carla del […]
I need not tell you that the situation in Sudan is grave, and that for countless children their lives hang in a fragile limbo, while the world at large looks on. Hunger, disease, and violence is taking the lives of more and more children every day. Some 4 million people have been affected by the […]
U.S. immigration officials are holding a former military officer of Sierra Leone's government on war crimes charges for cooperating in the deaths of 29 dissenters there. Samuel Komba Kamba, 39, was detained following a green card interview in Texas that he attended with his wife. Kambo was twice released on bond for similar charges and […]
(2004 16 year old suicide bomber in Israel) "The Taleban said God himself would ignite the vest. I did not have to do anything."- Farman Ullah A recent Times article, There is no defense against these children of death, by Robert Baer. The article was run in addition to the UK Channel 4's airing of […]
An Argentinian Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to life imprisonment for being a “co-participant” in seven killings, 31 torture cases, and 42 kidnappings during the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla from 1976 – 1983. Christian von Wernich, 69, was the former police chaplain to the Buenos Aires police force who participated in the “disappearances” […]
For those of you who are unaware CNN is doing a special series on everyday hero's, many of which work directly with, or touch on the lives of children around the world. CNN Heroes The series will end on Thursday, December 6, 2007, with a special live global telecast, which will air at 9pm ET […]
Serbia's National Security Council said it is offering a $1.4 million reward for information leading to the capture of wanted war crimes suspect Gen. Ratko Mladic. Rasim Ljajic, who heads the council, said there is also a $355,000 reward for Goran Hadzic, a former rebel leader, and Stojan Zupljanin, a Bosnian Serb police officer. The […]
The Irish government announced legislation on October 11 that they will now make it make it an offense to bring an adult or child into the country for sexual or labor exploitation. The new Criminal Law Human Trafficking Bill 2007, has now made Ireland compliant with EU, Council of Europe and UN human trafficking tools […]
Nigeria is fighting a rare outbreak of a vaccine-derived form of polio, says the UN's World Health Organization (WHO). It says 69 children in the north have caught the paralyzing disease from others who had already been immunized. The WHO says such rare outbreaks have occurred where immunization campaigns did not reach enough of the […]
Great news for the planet: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore have won the Nobel Peace Prize for, in the words of the Nobel Committee, " their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to […]