Nigeria: Gearing up to fight food shortages
July 12, 2010 1 min. read

An AllAfrica.com article reports that state authorities and aid agencies in northern Nigeria are preparing to combat predicted food shortages. This follows poor and erratic rainfall in 2009 and predicted poor rainfall again this year. The Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) warned that 12 million people across northern Nigeria could face a lack of basic […]

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Welcome!
July 12, 2010 2 min. read

The last two years has been the dark ages for global trade. The combination of the economic downturn, a new American administration not inherently included to embrace free trade, and the stalled Doha Development Round has meant a lot of early night and long weekends at the World Trade Organization – nothing much has been […]

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‘Business as usual’ crop development won’t satisfy future demand
July 12, 2010 2 min. read

Recent studies undertaken by the University of Illinois state that new methods of crop development must be adopted in response to climate change if grain production is to meet future demand. Don Ort, a University of Illinois professor of crop sciences and USDA/ARS scientist argues that “global change is happening so quickly that its impact […]

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GailForce: How Many of the Media Types Reporting About the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq Have Actually Read the Counterinsurgency Manual?
July 12, 2010 7 min. read

I had one of the best 4th of July weekends ever. I got to go on long scenic bike rides with friends, hang out at barbeques, and top off the weekend experience by watching a fireworks show which for reasons unknown to me was paid for by BP. Go figure. In spite of the fun, […]

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PEPFAR and unintended consequences
July 12, 2010 2 min. read

Princeton Lyman and Stephen Wittels of the Council on Foreign Relations have written a thoughtful article in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs (No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The Unintended Consequences of Washington’s HIV/AIDS Programs).  Far less sensationalist than the NYTimes reporting in May, this in-depth analysis explores the paradox that US commitments supporting HIV […]

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CNN Editor Fired for a Tweet
July 12, 2010 2 min. read

An editor at CNN who sent out a Tweet expressing regret over the death of Hezbollah’s spiritual adviser paid for the Tweet with her job. Fadlallah died Sunday in a hospital in Beirut, Lebanon. When Mideast Editor Octavia Nasr tweeted about the death of Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, Hezbollah’s spiritual advisor she said, “Sad to […]

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Voice Your Ideas on How to Empower Women and Girls
July 11, 2010 1 min. read

MDG 3: “Finding New Ways to Empower Women” The United Nations Foundation, in collaboration with Devex, would like to hear from you about your experience promoting gender equality and empowering women. World leaders are gathering again this year to map out the homestretch of this momentous campaign. The Sept. 20-22 United Nations Millennium Development Goals […]

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On Our Bookshelves: Little Tales of Misogyny * The Changing Chinese Legal System * The Bonesetter's Daughter
July 11, 2010 3 min. read

Jessica D’Itri Little Tales of Misogyny by Patricia Highsmith consists of 17 very short stories, each featuring a distasteful female protagonist. The writing is very spare, so the tales come across almost as fables. Each one tells a tragic, weird story where somebody ends up dead or worse. The female characters are completely unredeemable, so […]

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Video Contest: Making Children a Political Priority this Election
July 10, 2010 1 min. read

Every Child Matters is holding a video contest in response to the 2010 midterm elections.  The environment, jobs, and consumer protection are the hot button issues at the center of the elections this year and Every Child Matters believes that children and families ought to be made a priority during this year’s campaign season. Therefore […]

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A global movement for age-friendly cities
July 10, 2010 1 min. read

The WHO has launched the Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities, an effort to link cities who “address the environmental and social factors that contribute to active and health ageing in societies.”  This is in response to statistics cited on the WHO site, including: (1) In 2000, more than 600 million people in the world were […]

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A "Renaissance" in HIV vaccine research
July 10, 2010 1 min. read

On Thursday, two new studies were released in the journal, Science, showcasing promising new discoveries in the search for an HIV vaccine.  These studies follow a vaccine trial in Thailand last year, which was the first vaccine to show any efficacy, but with low results.  These latest findings center around “broadly neutralizing antibodies”, which have been shown to neutralize more than 90% […]

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A different type of abstinence campaign
July 10, 2010 1 min. read

Two scientists in South Africa are calling for a month-long period of abstinence, to break the cycle of HIV transmission.  Alan Whiteside of the University of Whiteside, of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, is quoted as saying: “This kind of initiative could provide hyper-endemic countries with a one-off, short-term adaptation that is cost-effective, easy to monitor […]

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