Botswana is generally considered one of the more democratic African nations. Now if you’re a generally democratic nation how do you go about demonstrating your devotion to democratic principles? Well, of course you try to deport a college professor critical of your country.
In February, Botswana President Festus Mogae declared University of Botswana lecturer Kenneth Good […]
In February, UNICEF UK released a report on the current status of child labor across the globe. According to the UNICEF report, worldwide about 211 million children ages 5-14 work full-time. UNICEF estimates that 1 in 12 children work in an industry that is hazardous to their health.
Not surprisingly, the area with the highest rate […]
Worldwide demand for steel is driving iron ore and steel prices to new heights.
China’s economic expansion, which has helped drive oil upward, has also put strains on worldwide supplies of iron ore and steel sending prices through the roof. According to the BBC, for example, the cost of steel jumped 8 percent in January 2005 […]
In February the United Nations Population Division released the 2004 revisions to its World Population Prospects publication, projecting how much further world population is likely to grow.
Under the UN’s medium variant scenario, world population will reach 9.1 billion in 2050. This represents a slight upward revision from more recent estimates that had world population reaching […]
At a UNAids meeting held in Amman, Jordan, UNAids Associate Director Dr. Suman Mehta warned that Middle Eastern and North African countries are not doing enough to address HIV/AIDS among girls and women.
Mehta charged that Middle Eastern nations are not accurately disclosing the extent of HIV/AIDS infection in their countries. According to Mehta,
It is not […]
As if the worldwide HIV/AIDS epidemic isn’t bad enough, New York health officials reported in February that they had discovered what appears to be a quick progressing, drug-resistant strain of HIV dubbed 3-DCR HIV.
Drug resistant strains of HIV has become increasingly common in people with HIV as the disease adapts to various treatment therapies over […]
Toward the end of 2004, China launched another crackdown against Internet cafes in that country, closing almost 13,000 of them that were operating “illegally.”
China sets out strict guidelines for Internet cafes, limiting the types of computer games and content that can be accessed, and requiring strict identity checks and the keeping of automated logs to […]
Phillip Longman, a senior fellow at the New American Foundation, is the latest to jump on the “we’re not having enough babies” bandwagon with a book published last year, The Empty Cradle and an extended essay presenting his views on Foreign Affairs, “The Global Baby Bust.”
Longman repeats the litany of facts that most readers of […]
The 6th International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees heard testimony in February about alleged forced abortions and infanticide in North Korean prison camps.
Using the alias Park Sun-ja, a 28-year-old defector from North Korea testified that she witnessed both infanticide and forced abortion at Shinuiju Provincial Detention Camp where she had been held […]
The Kyoto Protocol went into effect on February 16, without the world’s largest generator of greenhouse gases, the United States. In addition, the protocol exempts large greenhouse gas generating countries such as China and India from its requirements.
Under the terms of the treaty, it would be ratified once countries representing 55 percent of greenhouse gas […]