Around the World
VOA News
Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:11 EDT
Pakistani security officials say U.S. drone strikes have killed at least 10 militants in North Waziristan -- the second such round of attacks in two days. The officials say an unmanned aircraft fired five missiles Wednesday at a vehicle carrying militants near North Waziristan's main town Miran Shah.
Officials say at least two missiles were fired in a second strike in Madakhel. They say the area is controlled by Hatiz Gul Bahadur, a Taliban commander.
Separately, Pakistani officials said a group of militants attacked a security checkpoint in the northwest Wednesday and killed at least five members of Pakistan's security forces. The checkpoint was on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.
Aljazeera
Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:33 EDT
© AFP
Goodluck Jonathan has been Nigeria's acting
president for just over a month
Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's acting president, has dissolved the country's cabinet, just a month after assuming executive powers.
The move on Wednesday does not automatically lead to elections, which are scheduled for 2011, but gives Jonathan the opportunity to introduce his own ministers into the cabinet.
Laurie Goering
Common Dreams
Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:26 EDT
Seed Activist Vandana Shiva
London - Faced with growing demand for food and increasingly unpredictable weather, many developing nations are debating whether to relax restrictions on the use of genetically modified crops.
Seed developers promise that a coming generation of genetically modified (GM) food crops will have climate-resilient features, from drought resistance to saltwater tolerance.
But widespread adoption of GM varieties by small farmers would be "suicidal in terms of climate change," said Vandana Shiva, an Indian social activist, environmentalist and proponent of small-scale farming.
"The (GM) system is more about companies making money from farmers than food security," she told AlertNet in an interview in London.
Michelle Faul
Associated Press
Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:32 EDT
© AP Photo/Andres Leighton
In this photo taken March 14, 2010, women wait to receive medical attention for them and their children outside the women's clinic run by the Jenkins-Penn Haiti Relief Operation, at the makeshift camp for earthquake survivors in the Petionville Golf Club in Port-au-Prince.
Port-au-Prince - When the young woman needed to use the toilet, she went out into the darkened tent camp and was attacked by three men.
"They grabbed me, put their hands over my mouth and then the three of them took turns," the slender 21-year-old said, wriggling with discomfort as she nursed her baby girl, born three days before Haiti's devastating quake.
"I am so ashamed. We're scared people will find out and shun us," said the woman, who suffers from abdominal pain and itching, likely from an infection contracted during the attack.
Women and children as young as 2, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in the Jan. 12 catastrophe, are now falling victim to rapists in the sprawling tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people.
With no lighting and no security, they are menacing places after sunset. Sexual assaults are daily occurrences in the biggest camps, aid workers say - and most attacks go unreported because of the shame, social stigma and fear of reprisals from attackers.
Rick Rozoff
Voltaire Network
Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:53 EST
Lured by the vast natural resources of the Black Continent, Washington decided to set up AfriCom. But the GI deployment to Africa does not coincide with any needs in particular: everything is up for grabs. Seizing a windfall opportunity, they first went into Somalia militarily in the early 1990's. Their simple presence being enough to fuel popular uprisings, they can extend their counter-insurgency operations at will. The U.S. war is not just endless in time; it is also boundless in terms of the territorial space it besieges.
© Text and photo from U.S. Department of Defense website
"The United States Africa Command, also known as AFRICOM, is a new U.S. military headquarters devoted only to Africa. It is one of the U.S. Defense Department’s six regional headquarters. Command officials will work with African partners to achieve a more stable environment in which political and economic growth can take place."
Susan Anyangu-Amu
Inter Press Service
Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:38 EDT
Nairobi, - Margaret Atieno, a 38-year-old mother of six, says she wanted to avoid her last pregnancy. But consistent stock-outs of contraceptive devices at her health care centre in rural Siaya, western Kenya, gave her no choice but to fall pregnant once again, albeit the fact that she did not want another child.
"My husband, who is polygamous and has two other wives, does not want any of his spouses using contraceptives. So a community health worker told me that if I had the intra-uterine contraceptive device (IUCD) inserted, my husband would never suspect anything. But when I visited the health centre on three occasions, I was told IUCDs were out of stock," said Atieno.
On her fourth visit, IUCDs were finally in stock, there were no gloves - as a result, health workers could not insert the device. Atieno conceived before her next visit to the health centre.
Thalif Deen
Inter Press Service
Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:32 EDT
United Nations- The global financial crisis has not deterred some of the world's developed and developing nations from bolstering their military arsenals with expensive new weapons systems, including sophisticated fighter planes, combat helicopters, submarines, armoured vehicles and air defence systems.
The five largest arms purchasers during 2005-2009 were China, India, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Greece, according to the latest figures released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The extended list of prolific arms buyers also includes Turkey, Singapore, Pakistan, Malaysia, Israel, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Iran, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Sudan, Chile and Venezuela.
"I think one should stress that political leaders in different regions of the world have expressed concerns their region is on the verge of an arms race," Dr. Paul Holtom, director of SIPRI's arms transfer program, told IPS.
Associated Press
Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00 EDT
© REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
People wait for a bus along a street during a blackout in Santiago, March 14, 2010.
Santiago - A blackout plunged nearly the entire Chilean population into darkness yesterday, rattling a country already anxious over last month's 8.8-magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks.
The power cut occurred at about nightfall and affected a 2000km stretch from Taltal in the north to Chiloe in the south, according to the Interior Ministry's emergency office.
Officials blamed a transformer failure that caused a ripple effect and ultimately a total collapse of the Central Interconnected System grid.
An hour after the blackout began, lights started to come back on in some cities - including sporadically in the capital, Santiago, which is home to seven million people.
Officials there initially reported having just 8 per cent of the supply needed to meet the ctiy's demand for a normal Sunday evening.
Bianca Capazorio
IOL
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:12 EDT
El Al's latest advertisement.
South Africa's diplomatic standoff with Israel remains shrouded in mystery.
This follows the use of OR Tambo airport in Joburg by two alleged assassins of a Hamas activist in Dubai, on their return to Tel Aviv in January.
The alleged killers - identified by Dubai police investigating the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh - arrived in Joburg on an Emirates Air flight and transferred to the Israeli airline El Al.
El Al's operations here were already under official scrutiny after it emerged the airline's security operations were run by the Israeli security agency Shin Bet.
It turned out that El Al security staff were protected by protocols of immunity normally reserved for diplomats. Moreover, they were issued weapons registered to the Israeli embassy.
CNN
Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:58 EST
Doctors found nothing seriously wrong with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 86.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was admitted to a hospital in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday with a stomach virus, a doctor told CNN.
"He is getting hydration and holding his food down," Dr. John Linton of Yonsei Severance Hospital said. "All his signs are normal. We hope to send him on his way tomorrow, but he is an elderly gentleman, so we are watching him like a hawk."
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