U.S. moms get mobile baby health tips
The White House, health care professionals and wireless telephone providers have teamed up for the launch of “text4baby” project in a bid to improve infant health and decrease premature birth and infant mortality rates. Pregnant women and mothers of infants can sign up for free delivery of three health-related text messages a week timed to the stages of their child’s development.

Diarrhea, disease emerge as new threats in Haiti emergency
As the death toll from the earthquake in Haiti reached 230,000, a second stage in the country’s medical emergency began — with diarrheal illnesses and acute respiratory infections claiming dozens of lives. Humanitarian-aid providers are struggling to vaccinate some 530,000 children against diseases such as measles, diphtheria and tetanus. Officials are as yet unclear as to how many deaths have occurred in the medical aftermath of the earthquake.

UN launches humanitarian appeal for Pakistan
The United Nations launched an appeal for $537 million in aid to provide for the most basic needs of the approximately 3 million Pakistanis affected by the government’s ongoing battles against the Taliban and al-Qaida in northwest Pakistan.

AFGHANISTAN: Dozens of schools reopen in Helmand
Over the past year dozens of schools have reopened in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, in part due to an accommodation with Taliban insurgents, Education Ministry officials say. Of the 283 state-funded schools in the province, over 220 were closed in 2008 due to general insecurity and direct attacks, Helmand’s department of education said.

OPT: Gaza schoolchildren struggling to learn
Nearly half a million children in Gaza returned to overcrowded and dilapidated schools on 1 February, many attending in a shift system, with missing textbooks, stationery or uniforms. Some 440,000 students attend 640 schools in Gaza; 383 are government schools, 221 are run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and 36 are private schools, according to the ministry of education and UNRWA.

SWAZILAND: Free primary education, at last
Free primary school education got off to a rocky start in Swaziland this week, five years after a new constitution mandated that the government foot the bill for the first few years of a child’s education. The opening week was characterised by a lack of teachers, overcrowded classrooms and confusion about the payment of school fees. “To say this week’s schools opening was a disaster would be an understatement,” an independent newspaper, The Times of Swaziland, said in an editorial, noting that the warning signs of unpreparedness had been apparent for months.

TIMOR-LESTE: Addressing the baby boom
According to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), women in Timor-Leste - the world’s newest independent nation and also Asia’s poorest - give birth to an average 6.38 children during their lifetime, one of the highest fertility rates in the world and second only to Afghanistan. The increase is also causing an increase in child mortality rates. According to a 2009 UN report on Timor-Leste’s Millennium Development Goals, the child mortality rate was 130 per 1,000 in 2004, the latest available figures, with a target of 96 per 1,000 by 2015.

2010 will surely be known as the year that disaster struck Haiti, as the impoverished nation was rocked to it’s knees on January 12th.  However while all eyes continue to be focused on Haiti’s aftermath, Somalia continues to cry out.  In July last year in July I published, Will we remember Somalia?, at the time which I stated;

“… it appears that we have, as children continue to live in the country dubbed by UNICEF as ‘the worst place in the world for children’. The country’s future state continues to remain a volatile hotbed for violence, and the future of the countries children remains bleak.”

The previous piece was a followup to the November 2008 piece, Have We Forgotten Somalia?.  Sadly I find myself once again writing about Somalia, and again I find myself with the same answer to both questions.  It appears in so many ways that we have forgotten Somalia, and when we look around to see who’s eyes are watching, it appears painfully obvious that far too few are casting a glance in the crumbling countries direction.

Somalia has one of the highest levels of malnutrition in the world, with an estimated 240,000 children under 5 years of age in Somalia being acutely malnourished, of which 63,000 are severely malnourished, according to an early warning report published on 1 February by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia (FAO/FSNAU) and FEWSNET. What is most alarming about these numbers is how much they gave grown in only a few years, as in 2008 FSNAU also conducted a study, which at that time estimated that nearly 180,000 children in Somalia were acutely malnourished, among which 25,000 were severely malnourished.

With hospitals lacking supplies, and some collapsing altogether, hope for child survival becomes bleak.  One hospital in Galkayo, which is struggling to serve  internally displaced persons (IDPs), has launched a desperate campaign to secure supplies and equipment. Abdullahi Hirsi Jestro, a doctor, said those the  “displaced women, children and elderly and the very poor. Those are the ones this hospital is meant to help.”   ‘The operating theatre is just one of the facilities in the 70-bed hospital that needs to be re-equipped. “Almost all departments from the children’s wing to the maternity ward need [supplies],” said Maimun Farah, the hospital director.’ (IRIN)

The year began for the children of Somalia, as the previous one had ended.  As fighting in the fragile country has once again escalated, children are left even more vulnerable, as displacement and violence continue to hinder aid efforts.

“I honestly cannot remember when things have been so bad; it is as if all the negative things are coming together at one time,” civil society activist Asha Sha’ur said. “If the situation - both security and humanitarian - does not improve soon, we will be looking at a far worse situation than Somalia has ever faced.” (IRIN)

So, “when will eye’s of hope cast a glance at Somalia?”, the answer remains unclear as cloudy glimpses only rarely make it in the war torn countries direction and as the shadow of Haiti grows larger, Somali’s view seems to grow even more distant in the horizon.  The real question is, when we do finally take a serious look at Somalia, will it be too late?”

Human Rights in Crisis

A selection of Pulitzer Center-sponsored works

When: February 1, 2010

Time:  6-8 PM

Where:  Hart Auditorium-Georgetown University Law Center

600 New Jersey Avenue, NW

Reception to follow

Screening and Q&A, with journalists

Welcome by Ann Peters (GULC, 94), Pulitzer Center

Featuring:

•    “Afghanistan Disabled,”  Don Duncan and Jessica Wanke cover the cultural impact of widespread disability in Afghanistan.

•    “Haiti’s Restaveks,”  Carmen Russell and Dane Liu’s report on the child slaves who comprise 10% of Haiti’s youth population.

•    “Jerusalem: War in My Land” by Arturo Perez, Jr., winner of the Project Report contest, a partnership between the Pulitzer Center and YouTube.

•    A selection of videos from William Wheeler and Anna-Katarina Gravgaard explores local efforts to alleviate South Asia’s water crisis.

•    “Violence and Venom,” Micah Fink, Gabrielle Weiss and Lisa Biagiotti investigate the impact of homophobia and stigma on HIV/AIDS in Jamaica.

•    “Troubles in the Congo,” Kira Kay and Jason Maloney’s report on ongoing instability in the Congo’s Kivu province. Sponsored and produced by the Bureau for International Reporting.

Co-sponsored by Georgetown University Law Center’s Amnesty International Human Rights Film Festival Committee.

For more information contact:  cmr86 at law.georgetown.edu

or visit: www.pulitzercenter.org

As an activist and writer, one who focuses on issues that face children, but with a passion and concentration on modern day slavery, I live and work in a world that is full of stories of the worlds most heinous and shocking crimes against humanity.  Often I am asked how do you do it…how do you cope with the terrors of such violence.  Well first of all I am one of the lucky ones for the true heroes and ones to commend are those who live daily in the face of such violence and trauma.  However, it is true that working with survivors, researching and studying such violent trauma and the pressures to create change and assist those in need, surely takes its toll.  Nonetheless the stresses that come with such work, for myself, and anyone working in the field, are quickly overcome by the stories of empowerment, hope, success and often just inspiring another to work for change.

As the Founder and Executive Director of a newly established non-profit dedicated to the fight against modern slavery, one of my biggest joys comes from creating change.  I am lucky to have the opportunity to speak to people everyday about ‘my cause’ and share with them how they can make an impact and create change.  Recently I was asked to speak at a High School for National Global Human Trafficking Awareness Day, however the highlight was not having the opportunity to speak to a group of students, but the fact that my young mentee was actually the one responsible for organizing the event.  Watching someone so young and so passionate, gives me endless hope for the future of the movement.  Of course while the whole room of students was not enthralled into listening to my presentation, a handful were beyond inquisitive, and their questions and comments, left me unable to do anything other than smile as they were both passionate and aware.

As a person who has work with countless young people, I am never dismayed to the power of youth to both create change and empower it.   Therefore when I came across the following, Independent Investigation - Transcript of an interview with Ina, a victim of human trafficking in India, on the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which was conducted by Phoebe Lewis (aged 13).  Phoebe’s father, Gary Lewis, is the Representative of the UNODC Regional Office, South Asia, New Delhi, India.  Now while one may look and think Phoebe is at an advantage due to her fathers position, I must state that the decision and ability to work directly with survivors of any form of trauma is not an easy path and at 13 years-old to take an active role in a cause one feels such passion for is nothing less than commendable and a role more and more young people should be commended for.  Therefore regardless of the action taken, be it speaking at school, holding a fundraiser, etc., the youth of today can make a lasting difference in the fight against modern slavery, and any cause, so listen up they may teach you something!

Report finds Haiti child slavery rampant
Poverty has driven more than 225,000 children into positions as unpaid household servants across Haiti, the Pan American Development Foundation says in a report. Families unable to provide for the children send them to wealthier households to work, where some face mental and physical abuse on top of long work days.

Malnutrition continues to stalk Afghan women, children
Malnutrition continues to drive high maternal and child mortality rates in Afghanistan despite billions of dollars in aid, education and infrastructure improvement since 2001. The World Food Programme and UNICEF are working to feed an estimated 100,000 children and 35,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women at clinics and through free lunches provided at schools.

Improved education, infrastructure raise Zambia’s cholera season hopes
As the rainy season in Zambia picks up, so does the threat of Cholera; around 60 cases have been recorded since mid-November, but the authorities and aid agencies hope education and improved infrastructure will help keep the waterborne disease at bay.

Study: Orphanages’ care equal to family life in poor countries
The care orphans in poor countries receive at orphanages is at least as good as care they might get when taken in by family members, says a study published in the journal PLoS One. The number of children worldwide missing one or more parents tops 143 million and continues to grow.

Egyptian academy stops publishing book after Christian protests
In what is seen by many as an unprecedented response, Al Azhar’s Islamic Research Academy has decided to stop publishing a book criticized for defaming Christianity. ‘The Scientific Report’, written by Muslim intellectual Mohamed Emara, was released alongside the institution’s monthly magazine in November. The author said the work was commissioned by the Research Academy to refute a book written by a Christian Coptic writer a few months ago that was regarded as denigrating Islam.

Nepal child soldiers to be freed
The Nepalese government and former Maoist rebels have agreed on a plan to free thousands of child soldiers from camps. United Nations programs will provide the former fighters with education and training to help rehabilitate them. The children have been living in Maoist camps since a UN-brokered end to the country’s civil war three years ago.

Officials: In Ghana, cell phones reduce maternal mortality
In Ghana’s Amensie village, where the Millennium Villages project made mobile phones near ubiquitous in 2006, deaths related to childbirth have fallen from 20 per year to zero in 2008, according to local health officials. Local health workers attribute the improvement in part to women’s new-found emergency access to health workers through cell phones and the district hospital’s new ambulance.

Uganda readies female genital-mutilation law
A Bill outlawing female genital mutilation is ready to be presented to the House for the second reading and be passed into law, MPs have been told. Addressing a regional parliamentary workshop on the theme “Consolidating political will for child well being” at Imperial Royale Hotel yesterday, the chairperson of the committee on gender, Beatrice Lagada, blamed the practice for the high drop out rates in Universal Primary Education (UPE).

$24 billion would slash maternal-mortality rates
Doubling current funding to $24 billion for basic health services could cut maternal-mortality rates in developing countries by nearly half, a United Nations Population Fund and Guttmacher Institute report says. Widespread availability of routine delivery care and family-planning services would prevent the deaths of 400,000 women and 1.6 million babies a year, and cut unintended pregnancies by two-thirds, according to the report.

Somalia violence exacts heavy toll on civilian population
Violence has forced half a million Somalis to flee their homes this year and left half the population in need of food aid, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says. Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the country to Yemen, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Sudan.

South Africa announces universal care for HIV-positive babies
South African President Jacob Zuma has vowed to ensure those younger than 1 year old that test positive for HIV/AIDS will receive treatment. South Africa has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infections in the world, and an estimated 59,000 are born HIV-positive every year.

Deadly salmonella strain taking toll on Africa
A new drug-resistant strain of salmonella bacteria has emerged in Africa, causing death in one of four cases among children and vulnerable adults, British and African researchers reported. Individuals weakened by malaria, anemia and HIV/AIDS are particularly susceptible, researchers said.

UN launches massive Humanitarian Appeal
The United Nations launched its largest annual Humanitarian Appeal, calling for $7.1 billion in funding from rich countries to provide humanitarian assistance to 48 million people in 25 countries. Funds will be shared by 380 relief organizations working to help vulnerable communities overcome the effects of natural disasters and armed conflict.

WHO takes new position on HIV drugs for breastfeeding mothers
The World Health Organization is reversing its position on the administration of anti-retroviral therapy drugs used to treat HIV, advising they be given sooner to breastfeeding mothers in hopes of preventing transmission of the disease — a position that will call for more treatments for many more people. Though falling prices have widened the number of people receiving anti-retroviral treatments, particularly within poor countries, fewer than half of those who require treatment currently receive it.

Women’s rights key to climate change — and vice versa
Noting that women must work harder to care for food and hygiene as global temperatures rise, UN Population Fund Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said women must play a greater role in forging an agreement on climate change. Improving education and health care access for women — especially within developing countries — will help to control population growth and increased strain on limited resources. Experts observe that women’s participation can ensure creative solutions to problems that weigh most heavily on women within a given community.

GUINEA: Shoring up children’s health amid turmoil
Some 1.6 million children throughout Guinea are receiving vaccinations, nutritional supplements and mosquito nets in a bid by UNICEF and the Health Ministry to shore up children’s health, which experts say has been hit hard by unrest in recent years. After some progress in the late 1990s and early 2000s child health in Guinea has deteriorated in recent years, due in part to the socio-economic and political turmoil, according to UNICEF Guinea representative Julien Harneis.

Experts: AIDS cases stabilize, except in sub-Saharan
Despite growing infection rates in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people worldwide with HIV has remained nearly unchanged during the past two years. Scientists estimate the global epidemic likely peaked in 1996 and that powerful anti-AIDS drugs have helped to stem its mortality. About 72% of the 2.7 million new HIV infections take place in sub-Saharan Africa.

China executes 2 men for producing, selling toxic milk
Two men were executed in China for their part in producing and selling milk and milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. Six babies died and 300,000 children became ill last year from the tainted milk. Nearly two dozen companies were implicated in the scandal and 21 people were convicted.

Mass yellow fever vaccination drive launches in West Africa
Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone are witnessing the largest immunization drive in history as groups strive to inoculate 12 million people against yellow fever in West Africa. Health officials say some 30,000 people worldwide die each year from the disease, which is transmitted by mosquitoes.

UN celebrates 20 years of children’s rights
Signed in 1989 by every UN member nation but the U.S. and Somalia, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees children to the right to life, education and protection from abuse. Since the advent of the treaty — which enjoys the widest support of any international treaty — some 30% more children live beyond 5 years old, while 80% more children attend primary school.

UN: Afghanistan tops the world in infant mortality
Growing insecurity, endemic childhood diseases and lack of access to medical services and water combine to make Afghanistan the worst country in the world to be born, UNICEF said on the launch of its 2009 State of the World’s Children report. Afghanistan has the world’s highest infant-mortality rate, and nearly half of the country is off limits to aid and medical workers.

Biggest child killers on bottom of global health agenda
Donor shifts toward funding efforts to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria have diminished attempts to tackle the biggest killers of children younger than 5 years old. Diarrhea and pneumonia kill an estimated 3.5 million children a year, more than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined.

Indian girls reject child marriages
Working with aid agencies in some of the nation’s poorest regions, the Indian government is establishing schools for child workers to educate them on their rights regarding child marriages, an outlawed custom that still is widely practiced. Impoverished families avail themselves of the custom to alleviate the financial burden associated with children, among whom half of all girls are married before the age of 18.

SOMALIA: Mass exodus as militia takes control of southern town
Somalia’s Islamist Al-Shabab militia group has taken control of the southern town of Afmadow, 620km south of the capital Mogadishu, causing hundreds of families to flee in fear of violence. Conflict and drought have led to the worst humanitarian crisis the country has faced in nearly two decades. An estimated 3.6 million - almost half the total population - need aid, according to the UN. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that the numbers displaced in fighting between government forces and the two Islamist insurgent groups has reached more than 1.5 million.

DRC band looks to raise awareness for disabled
A group of polio-stricken paraplegic singers and musicians have banded together to make music and fight against social stigma and grinding poverty faced by the disabled in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The group, Staff Benda Billi, has embarked on a European tour to promote their new album, which features songs on self-reliance, the importance of vaccines and other socially responsible topics.

UN assessment finds progress, challenges in HIV/AIDS battle
The number of people being tested for HIV/AIDS infection and receiving life-saving drug treatments soared last year, according to a United Nations 2009 progress report. The proportion of mothers and children with HIV/AIDS showed some of the most significant advances. While more than 1 million people began treatment

South African Children Push for Better Schools
Thousands of children marched to City Hall this week in sensible black shoes, a stream of boys and girls from township schools across this seaside city that extended for blocks, passing in a blur of pleated skirts, blazers and rep ties. Their polite demand: Give us libraries and librarians. The marchers in Cape Town, who numbered in the thousands. The marchers echoed a children’s uprising against apartheid in 1976. “We want more information and knowledge,” said a ninth grader, Abongile Ndesi.

New impetus in malaria battle
Twenty African countries have joined efforts in a bid to end all malaria-related deaths on the continent by 2015. The announcement came as the World Health Organization issued a warning that the parasite that causes malaria is demonstrating increased resistance to artemisinin — a drug used to treat multidrug-resistant strains of malaria.

UN, groups partner to target maternal HIV
UNAIDS will partner with several nongovernmental organizations to combat mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmission. The program will look to prevent HIV/AIDS infections in women of child-bearing age, decrease the incidence of unwanted pregnancies and provide support to mothers living with HIV/AIDS.

Kenya to close largest refugee camp
Kenya will close the nation’s largest refugee camp, created by those who fled ethnic violence after the contentious election in 2008. Some of the camp’s 2,000 residents say they have no home to return to despite the government’s offer of approximately $460 in relocation costs. Tension is rising in the camps in advance of the arrival of special squads of police, who might be forced to carry out evictions

Chinese babies stolen by officials for foreign adoption
Though conventional wisdom says many of the thousands of Chinese babies who have been adopted since the early 1990s were abandoned by their parents because of Chinese family-size restrictions and the traditional preference for boys, harrowing stories of coercion are emerging among parents whose children were forcefully taken to adoption services. Parents say Chinese officials were motivated by the $3,000 that adoption services pay orphanages per child.

Somali rebels tell schools to scrap U.N. textbooks
Somali rebel leaders warned parents to keep their children away from schools using textbooks supplied by UN agencies, saying the books contained un-Islamic content. The warning came days after the extremist al Shabaab group carried out a bold suicide attack on African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu that left 17 dead.

Yemen fighting spreads, civilians living under bridges-UN
The condition of civilians impacted by the latest in a series of conflicts between rebels and the Yemen government has reached “alarming and unprecedented levels,” while an appeal for aid to help them has gone unheeded, according to a report by UNHCR, the UN relief agency. The civilians, most of whom are women and children, are in extreme need of food, water and shelter because of high daily temperatures and heavy nightly rains.

New approach could stop 6 mln African malaria cases
As many as 6 million cases of malaria could be prevented in African infants by administering a continuous course of antimalarial medication to prevent infection and enhance immunity, according to a study of 8,000 African children and babies published in The Lancet. “International policymakers and heads of national malaria control programs should consider its immediate adoption and integration into existing program,” one researcher said.

Kenya begins huge slum clearance
Kenyan officials are preparing to undertake a massive effort to clear out the continent’s largest slum: the Kibera settlement in Nairobi. Authorities plan to move some 1 million people into nearby apartments, hoping to alleviate drastic overcrowding and the attendant crime rates and sanitation shortfalls. Some residents and slumlords are resisting the plan, citing legal claims to the land.

Polio defeats Canada’s pet project
Canada’s humanitarian goal of eliminating polio in Afghanistan by the end of the year appears to be out of reach because of escalating violence in the war-torn nation.

Polio makes a return to remote, destitute Afghanistan
Teams of UNICEF volunteers are going house to house to immunize children in Afghanistan’s impoverished Ghor region, where polio has seen a resurgence. The effort is the latest of four nationwide campaigns aimed at immunizing some 7.5 million children who received inadequate care while Taliban insurgents were in control of the country.
Lord’s Resistance Army terrorises Congo after Ugandan crackdown
Forced out of Uganda by a military force acting in cooperation with Congo and Sudan, the Lord’s Resistance Army has fled Uganda and spread into areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo in which it has not previously operated — terrorizing once relatively peaceful regions. In the past year, the LRA has killed more than 1,200 Congolese civilians, and more than 2,000 Congolese — many of them children — are reported missing.

Indonesian rights groups condemn new stoning law
The legislature in Indonesia’s Aceh province unanimously has approved an Islamic law that makes adultery punishable by stoning and permits 400 lashes for child rape and 100 lashes for homosexuality. The law replaces sections of the Indonesian criminal code only weeks before a new, less fundamentalist provincial assembly is scheduled to be seated. “The laws that have been approved in Aceh are cruel and degrading to humanity,” said Ifdhal Kasim of the National Commission on Human Rights.

Zimbabwe deal leads to few changes for pupils
UNICEF unveiled a $70 million program in Zimbabwe designed to repair the nation’s failed school system. One textbook might be shared by as many as 10 students, if they have access to textbooks at all. Nearly 50% of students don’t go on to high school.

Guatemalan soldiers sold children in war
Guatemalan soldiers forcibly abducted and sold hundreds of children for foreign adoption during the country’s prolonged civil war, a Guatemalan government report charges. When Guatemala’s war ended in 1996, the country was second only to China in the number of international adoptions.

Obama Unshackles Global AIDS Work
The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has eased restrictions for the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or Pepfar, to include cooperation on family planning and the general strengthening of health systems in the developing world. The United States is the world’s largest donor to HIV/AIDS relief.

Economic crisis may boost human trafficking
UN Human Rights Council human trafficking investigator Joy Ngozi Ezeilo said the global economic crisis has increased all the major factors that lead to global human trafficking, including poverty, unemployment among young people and the need for cheap labor. Nations that experience high rates of human trafficking routinely do not do enough to assist the young men, women and children who are exploited for sex and cheap labor, according to Ezeilo’s report.

Vaccines could halve sickle-cell deaths in Africa
Vaccination against bacterial infections using vaccines readily available in developed countries could save the lives of thousands of children with sickle-cell anaemia in Africa, researchers said on Thursday. Tom Williams, an expert in tropical diseases from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), said 90 percent of children born with sickle-cell anaemia in Africa die before they are diagnosed and can get treatment, and half of those lives could be saved if sufferers were protected from bacterial infections.

Somalia fighting continues to take toll on children
The violence that has destabilized Somalia has taken its most severe toll on the nation’s children, who are largely malnourished and uneducated. Boys often are conscripted as soldiers at a young age, whereas girls have babies at puberty. Burns, shrapnel, gunshot wounds and other conflict-related injuries have replaced malaria, tuberculosis, fistula and other diseases as rising threats against the safety and well-being of Somali children.

UNICEF-Child deaths fall, but “grossly insufficient”
The global mortality rate for children younger than 5 years old has dropped to the lowest level on record thanks to better technology and distribution associated with malaria, measles and HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, UNICEF says. Even with the decreasing numbers, UNICEF warns the Millennium Development Goal of cutting the rate by two-thirds remains a major challenge, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Vietnam birth trend may fuel sex work, trafficking-UN
The ratio of boys born in Vietnam compared with girls has grown at an unusually rapid pace in recent years and could lead to a rise in sex work and trafficking, the United Nations said. The sex ratio at birth was 112.1 male births per 100 female births in 2008, up from an estimated 106.2 in 2000, the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) said in a report.

A Move to Register Sex Offenders Globally
Efforts to pass a law that would alert foreign officials when registered U.S. sex offenders travel are gaining support in the wake of recent arrests of three Americans, themselves convicted sex offenders, in Cambodia on child molestation charges.

U.N. rights chief sees possible war crimes in Congo
Two United Nations reports point to widespread human-rights violations by government and rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo during hostilities there last year. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says incidences of arbitrary killings and sexual violence “could well amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity and are part of a self-perpetuating pattern of brutality in eastern DRC which continues to go largely unpunished.”

Africa: 700 Million Bednets to Help Continent Sleep Better
The World Health Organization is spearheading a campaign to build bed net factories and distribute 700 million bed nets across sub-Saharan Africa to curb malaria-related deaths in the region by 2015. The campaign also will enlist football stars and religious leaders to help raise public awareness.

Pakistan resumes polio vaccinations in Swat
Polio vaccinations in Pakistan’s Swat Valley have resumed after a four-month campaign against Taliban insurgents who had controlled the area.

Sudan Court Fines Woman for Wearing Trousers
A Khartoum court sentenced Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein about $200 for breaching the country’s decency laws by wearing pants in public. The charges carried a possible penalty of up to 40 lashes. Hussein, who has publicly challenged the case, says she will not pay the fine.