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Famine in Somalia is over, says UN

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - Feb. 03 - Exceptional harvest and food deliveries have improved conditions, but millions of people are still at risk An exceptional harvest after good rains and food deliveries by aid agencies have ended famine in Somalia, although conditions remain fragile and could worsen, the United Nations have said. The UN declared famine in two parts of southern Somalia last July and extended the famine warning in September to six out of eight regions in the country. The UN said initially 750,000 Somalis faced imminent starvation and lowered this to 250,000 by November. Six months after famine was declared, 4 million Somalis were in need of aid and the UN said the number now stood at 2.34m. "The gains are fragile and will be reversed without continued support," said Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia. "There are 1.7 million people in southern Somalia still in crisis. Millions of people still need food, clean water, shelter and other assistance to survive and the situation is expected ...

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Syria rejects Arab League transition plan

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

aljazeera.com - Jan. 23 (News Report) - Syria has condemned a new Arab League initiative that calls on President Bashar al-Assad to cede power by holding early elections and forming a "national unity government". Syrian state television, quoting an unnamed official source, said early on Monday

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Yellowstone says it may need to import grizzlies to improve genetics

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

billingsgazette.com - By Brett French - Jan. 05 (News Report) - Yellowstone National Park has asked its fundraising partners to come up with $1 million a year for six years to expand its lake trout eradication effort at Yellowstone Lake, and by 2022 the park may need to import grizzly bears from other regions to increase the animals’ genetic diversity Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/yellowstone-says-it-may-need-to-import-grizzlies-to-improve/article_cab0939e-363e-56db-8a66-2dfeaa60ff77.html#ixzz1ic4jJBtC

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U.N. Climate Talks End With Deal for New Emissions Treaty

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By John M. Broder - Dec. 11 (News Report) - More than 190 nations agreed to work toward a treaty that would require all countries to reduce emissions that contribute to global warming.

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Op-Ed Columnist: The Technocratic Nightmare

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By David Brooks, New York Times - Nov. 18 (Opinion) - The European Union is an attempt to build an economic and legal superstructure without a linguistic, cultural, historic and civic base. No wonder it’s in crisis.

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U.S. Pulls All Funding for UNESCO After Sweeping Vote to Support Palestinian Membership

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 01 (Interview) - In an emotional—and largely symbolic—move, the United Nations cultural organization known as UNESCO overwhelmingly voted to grant membership to the Palestinians, despite opposition from the United States and Israel. Now the United States says it will cancel a $60 million payment due in November to the U.N. body. Membership dues paid by the U.S. account for about a fifth of UNESCO's annual budget. The U.S. is also threatening to veto any Palestinian effort to be recognized by the U.N. Security Council as an independent state. "By going to UNESCO, this was a way both of gauging where the public opinion is among the various governments and, more importantly, symbolically for the world, showing that this is a moment of recognition that the 20-year-old U.S.-controlled so-called 'peace process' simply hasn't worked," said Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies. [includes rush transcript]

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Alleged Iran plot may have violated U.N. treaty

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By Jeremy Pelofsky - Oct. 13 (News Analysis) - An alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States may have violated a U.N. treaty protecting diplomats and could escalate the crisis to an international court.

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US preparing for post-Assad Syria: report

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:19:00 -0700

Dawn - By Afp - Sep. 20 - Members of Syrian opposition living in Turkey, wave their national and Turkish flags as they stage a protest against the Syrian regime outside the United Nations headquarters in Ankara on September 19, 2011. – AFP Photo WASHINGTON: The United States is i

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WikiLeaks: Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head, U.N. says

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

McClatchy - By Matthew Schofield - Sep. 01 (News Report) - A U.S. diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks provides evidence that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence, during a controversial 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi.

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Invisible millions pay price of statelessness

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

MSN.com - Aug. 24 (Investigative Report) - Rejected by the countries they call home and denied the most basic of rights, stateless people live in a shadowy limbo — in the words of one, like being "between the earth and the sky." ...

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United Nations: Weak leaders wanted

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Aug. 15 (Editorial) - To save his legacy Ban Ki-moon must refresh his top team with people who understand the UN's founding principles

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Haiti: WikiLeaks Cables Expose How U.S. Blocked Aristide's Return After 2004 Coup

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Aug. 11 (Investigative Report) - A new exposé on Haiti reveals how the United States led a vast international campaign to prevent former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from returning to his country while he was exiled in South Africa. It’s part of a series of reports by The Nation magazine and the Haitian weekly Haïti Liberté that draw from almost 2,000 U.S. diplomatic cables on Haiti released by WikiLeaks. The cables show that high-level U.S. and U.N. officials coordinated a politically motivated prosecution of Aristide to prevent him from "gaining more traction with the Haitian population and returning to Haiti."

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Report: Global Cyberattack Under Way for 5 Years

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Mark Hamrick - Aug. 04 (News Report) - A computer security firm says cybercriminals have spent at least the past five years targeting more than 70 government entities, nonprofit groups and corporations around the world to steal troves of data.

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In Somalia, a failure in 1992 has led to a famine today

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Nuruddin Farah - Aug. 03 (Opinion) - After the United States left Somalia, the rest of the world stood by, leaving the warlords to profit from their criminality. Al-Qaeda strengthened its presence in the country. Foreign vessels entered Somali waters and engaged in illegal fishing, which caused piracy to balloon into an ugly reality. Somalia lived on mortgaged time, leased out to criminals of one sort or another, an ideal world for terrorists to flourish.

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Syria accused of 'crimes against humanity'

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Telegraph - By Richard Spencer - Jul. 06 (News) - The international community is facing increasing pressure to act. The French foreign minister, Alain Juppe, has already said the "point of no return" for the regime has been crossed.

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For Pakistan, monsoon rains bring fresh fears

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Aljazeera - By Mujib Mashal - Jul. 03 (News Report) - Last summer, devastating floods caused by heavy monsoon rains swept across Pakistan, disrupting the lives of close to 20 million people. Nearly 2,000 Pakistanis were killed, 1.5 million houses were destroyed and over 11 million people displaced from their homes. "The world has never seen such a disaster," UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon declared during a visit to the flood affected areas. Most of the displaced have returned to start rebuilding their homes, government and UN officials say. But some had nothing to return to, so they remain in displacement camps. Those who did return fear that they might lose it all once again. The Pakistani government and the United Nations have sent out flood warnings already as the Monsoon season this year arrived a week earlier than usual. Heavy rains will continue through most of July and August as the monsoon moves from northern India and sweeps across Pakistan.

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Gay Marriage: Where’s Mr. Obama?

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Jun. 27 (Editorial) - On Thursday night, when same-sex marriage in New York State was teetering on a razor’s edge, President Obama had a perfect opportunity to show the results of his supposed evolution on gay marriage.

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Iraq hunting $17 billion missing after U.S. invasion

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By Waleed Ibrahim - Jun. 19 (Breaking News) - Iraq's parliament is chasing about $17 billion of Iraqi oil money it says was stolen after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and has asked the United Nations for help to track it down.

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Afghanistan's Karzai: US 'in peace talks with Taliban'

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Jun. 18 (News) - The US is engaged in talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said, in the first high-level confirmation of US involvement.

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EU presses Syria to allow aid agencies in

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Aljazeera - Jun. 12 (News Report) - The European Union foreign policy chief has called on Syria to allow international aid agencies in to help civilians caught up in the increasing violence. In a statement denouncing Syria's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, Catherine Ashton echoed US concerns about the humanitarian crisis the conflict had created and repeated her calls for the regime to change course. "I deplore the escalating use of brutal force against protestors in Syria in recent days," Ashton said on Saturday. "I reiterate my repeated calls on the Syrian authorities to change course. "This includes releasing all those arrested in connection with protests, as well as other political prisoners who remain under detention despite the recent amnesty announced by President Assad. "Those responsible for the violence and killings must be held accountable," said Ashton, calling for Damascus to comply with UN requests to cooperate with its human rights officials. Ashton also called for Syria to lift its siege of cities where protests had taken place.

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UN estimates 100,000 have fled South Sudan tension

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - Jun. 07 (News) - The U.N. refugee agency says some 100,000 people have fled tension around the disputed South Sudan town of Abyei.

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Global war on drugs has 'failed'

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Jun. 02 (News) - The global war on drugs has "failed" and legalisation would be a better option, according to a new report by group of politicians and former world leaders.

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World must face 'inconvenient truth' of emissions rise, says UN climate chief

Tue, 31 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Fiona Harvey - May. 31 (News) - The fastest-ever rise in greenhouse gas emissions, revealed by the Guardian on Monday, is an "inconvenient truth" the world must face, the UN's climate change chief has said. But she added that the data should not lead to fatalism that the problem is impossible to tackle.

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Ratko Mladic arrested: Bosnia war crimes suspect held

Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - May. 26 (News) - Fugitive Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic has been arrested in Serbia after 16 years on the run. Gen Mladic, 69, was found in a village in northern Serbia where had been living under an assumed name.

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WHO report finds rich and poor nations now battle all kinds of diseases

Tue, 17 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 17 - Progress has been made on key MDG health targets, but non-infectious diseases have spread to developing countriesThe world is experiencing a change in the geographic distribution of diseases. Traditionally, infectious diseases, which claim the lives of so many children, have affected poor countries and non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, cardiac ailments and cancer, have plagued rich countries.But the latest statistics released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday show that the income level of nations is no longer so important, and that all countries now face the burden of both kinds of diseases.Up to now, non-communicable diseases tended to be identified as the ills of opulence, limited to high-income countries, WHO's director of health statistics and informatics, Ties Boerma, told IPS.However, due to changes caused by the ageing population, improvements brought about by the global effort to meet the millennium development goals (MDGs), changes in birthrates and other factors, developing countries are now also fighting non-infectious diseases, he said.Boerma noted that the phenomenon began in urban areas of developing nations, among the most highly educated population groups, but it is now expanding rapidly. That was one of the central conclusions reached by WHO experts on the basis of the World Health Statistics 2011 report published on Friday.The study confirms that important progress has been made in improving the main health indicators, fighting poverty, bolstering gender equality and education, and moving towards the other goals outlined in the eight MDGs, which were agreed by the international community in the 2000 UN general assembly and have a 2015 deadline, Boerma said.Over the past 10 years, the rate of improvement of infant and maternal mortality rates – key MDG targets – has been twice as fast as progress made in the 1990s.Many countries are still lagging, some of them considerably, which means a huge effort is needed over the next five years to meet the MDGs, Boerma said. Nevertheless, the rate of progress is speeding up overall, he added.In the case of child mortality, the world is only halfway to the MDG target, while in the case of maternal mortality, the world is only one-third of the way there, the WHO expert said.The question of infant mortality will be evaluated again in September, when WHO and Unicef, the UN children's fund, release new statistics. For now, "we are still standing at 8.1 million" children under five who died in 2009, Boerma said, compared with 12.4 million in 1990.With respect to the situation in the Americas, he said the statistics show that "very good progress" has been made in many countries.In Brazil, Argentina and Chile, for example, "there have been steady but relatively fast declines in child mortality, and coverage intervention is high. And they also reduced the inequity between the poorest and the richest. Brazil has been a very good case study of where the poorest have benefited," he said, adding that Mexico has also progressed.At the other extreme, of course, is Haiti, he said, adding that the health indicators are still worrying in countries like Bolivia and Peru, which have made some advances but "still have a much longer way to go".Boerma cited the case of Cuba, pointing out that although it is not a rich country, it "spends quite a lot on health" and does so "in a very equitable way."Everybody has (free) access to health services," he said. "So in terms of life expectancy it ranks quite high and it has low child mortality and high coverage of intervention. So it is very successful in reaching the whole population and getting good value" for its investment, he added.The expert noted that the US "is not at the top" in terms of health statistics in the Americas. He said: "They are at the top when it comes to the amount of money they spend on health. But they are not at the top in terms of getting good results for their investments in health services."One reason," he said, "may be that coverage of the whole population is not so good. So much of the expenditure goes to relatively expensive curative interventions or interventions that benefit a smaller proportion of the population."The WHO study reported that average global life expectancy rose from 64 years in 1990 to 68 in 2009. In poor countries, the average is 56 years, while it has climbed to 80 years in wealthy countries.Life expectancy for women is five years longer on average than for men. That difference has held fairly steady, between four and five years, over the past two decades.The WHO figures show there is still a huge gap in health spending between low and high-income countries, averaging an annual $32 per capita in the former and $400 per capita in the latter.The study reports that high-income countries have, per capita, 10 times more doctors, 12 times more nurses and midwives and 30 times more dentists, on average, than low-income countries.HealthWorld Health OrganisationAids and HIVMillennium development goalsInfant mortalityMaternal healthMaternal mortalityUnited StatesBrazilArgentinaCubaBoliviaPeruHaitiUnited Nationsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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