The last Bush act: banning French cheese

The United States, it turns out, has declared war on Roquefort cheese. In its final days, the Bush administration imposed a 300 percent duty on Roquefort, in effect closing off the U.S. market. More

Wasting Enough Rice to Feed 184 Million People

According to FAO, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the world is wasting enough rice this year to feed 184 million people, about a fifth of those who are undernourished. The amount lost between harvest and consumers globally totals at least 48 million tons. Per year.

Blogger raises funds for micro-projects in Africa through comments.

"I am an aid worker. Like many of my colleagues, I often feel inadequate, unfulfilled as I don't "do enough". Enough to make a difference. Enough to make a real change in the world.But talk is not enough. Now is...

And now for something completely new: charities put shares on the stockmarket

These days, stockmarkets stand out in only one thing: they crash like there is no tomorrow. However, here is something different. In many ways. The Canadian Women's Foundation (CWF), a national public foundation...

US cities as bad off as those in Africa, Asia.

UN-Habitat's survey of 120 major cities found New York to be the ninth most "unequal" in the world. Atlanta, New Orleans, Washington, and Miami were at the same level of Nairobi (Kenya) and Abidjan (Ivory Coast).

World record number of people stood up against poverty.

A worldrecord breaking 117 million people in 131 countries stood up last weekend as part of a United Nations-led campaign demanding world leaders to keep their promises to halve extreme poverty and achieve the...

30 things I do not understand about airport security

I am a frequent traveller. A very frequent traveller. With questions.1. Why can I not go through security with a flask of aftershave, but can buy all the aftershave I want in the duty free? If duty free goods are...

After the global financial crisis comes the global humanitarian crisis?

It seems like 2008 is becoming the year of global crisis. First we were faced with the worldwide food crisis, swiftly followed by, what now seems to be, a collapse of major financial institutions.At the same time,...

NSA illegal wiretapping targets journalists and aid workers

A top secret NSA wiretapping facility in Georgia accused of spying on Americans illegally was hastily staffed with inexperienced reservists in the months following September 11, where they worked under conflicting...

UN internal report on Algeria bombing accuses 7 individual staff members.

An internal UN report assigns blame to at least seven UN officials for one of the organization's greatest security breakdowns ever - the Dec. 11 bombing of UN headquarters in Algeria.

Africa's children chores made lighter means a better life.

According to a study in rural areas in South Africa surveying 1,052 children in 366 households, water carrying ranked as the most time-consuming of household chores for children.In average, a child spent just...

News: Dubai builds the world's tallest tower (again)

Currently, the world's tallest structure is the soon to be finished the Burj Dubai, which is rumoured to stand at 818 meters. Today, Dubai revealed its successor, the Nakheel Tower, to be "over one kilometre" high...

Can Bill Gates help Africa feed itself?

The injection of western food aid into poor countries is often criticized to be unfair competition for small farmers in those countries the international community is actually trying to help. The global food...

The Water Crisis: Every Last Drop Counts

Thanks largely to unsafe drinking water, more than 2 million children die of diarrhea each year. Six hundred million subsistence farmers lack irrigation water and are mired in poverty. Wetlands have been decimated in Europe, North America, and Asia, and fish populations are...

China in Africa: Slavery or Development?

In a thought provoking article, Peter Hitchens describes his first hand experiences of the unsavoury practices of Chinese businesses in Africa. BUT at the same time, he asks the question if all the aid and good...
 

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