we drink green tea: 三月 2010

显示自三月 2010以来最新的 15 个帖子（共 239 个）。显示以前的帖子

2010年3月31日星期三

BURUNDI: Daphrose Mpawenimana, "If it rains, we stay standing to avoid the water"

BUJUMBURA, 31 March 2010 (IRIN) - Daphrose Mpawenimana, 59, voluntarily returned to Burundi in 2005 from Rwanda, where she had lived for years as a refugee, as the country was embarking on peace after years of civil war.

Mpawenimana first settled at Rugombo town in Cibitoke province where she rented a small house. However, before too long, she was unable to continue paying the rent. In 2008, administration officials at Rugombo transferred her to a site known as Gikumba in Rugombo commune, where she lives with her daughter alongside other families of vulnerable people, including demobilised former combatants, indigenous people and Rugombo residents affected by floods in 2008. In total, 376 families live in makeshift houses in Gikumba, with very little means of livelihood. Mpawenimana spoke to IRIN about her experience:

"My husband and I fled the [civil] war separately; I have not managed to trace him since then. I don't know whether he is alive or not.

"When I came back [to Burundi], I found a little house in Rugombo. But without rent money, I could not stay there for long; I was forced out.

"They [the administration] gave us this plot [200 sqm for each family] and since then we have been left to ourselves. We are only entitled to the plot but we have no land to cultivate.

"The land all around us has already been allocated by local administration officials for building plots.

"We cannot even build ourselves a shelter. In this hut, if it rains, we stay standing because water pours in from everywhere. We have asked for plastic covers for some time now; I don't know if we will ever get them.

"Only able-bodied people can get a job working the fields for their daily subsistence. I live on knitting. If I get 500 francs [US$0.50], I thank God. But it takes days to knit one item.

"My daughter, who had just started secondary school, has now dropped out as I could not afford school fees. I tried to register her as a destitute child to benefit from free schooling - but in vain. She is now like many others here, offering her hands on a daily basis to work here and there."

See also: "Peace" villages come with a price [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88623 ]

jb/js/mw[END]

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SYRIA: Undocumented, overlooked and struggling to survive

DAMASCUS, 31 March 2010 (IRIN) - Thousands of non-Iraqi and non-Palestinian refugees and asylum-seekers in Syria risk deportation and ill-treatment, and cannot get the help they need, according to refugee agencies.

Most are Somalis but there are also sizeable communities of Afghanis, Sudanese and Iranians, as well as nationals from Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to agencies working on the ground.

There are no accurate numbers, but registrations by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) give an idea of the proportions, if not the sizes, of the various communities.

Currently registered with UNHCR in Syria are 3,500 Somali refugees and a further 1,000 asylum-seekers; 1,000 Afghani refugees and 500 asylum-seekers; 400 Sudanese refugees and 600 asylum-seekers; and 200 Iranian refugees as well as 200 Iranian asylum-seekers.

"These refugees [and asylum-seekers], most of whom live in Damascus and Rural Damascus, suffer considerable hardship," said Farah Dakhlallah, UNHCR spokesperson in Syria.

Syria is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, but it does allow legally residing foreigners to access services. However, a lack of documentation leaves many without essential education and health care.

"Non-Iraqi refugees have the same access to health care as Iraqis and all legal aliens have the right to enrol their children in Syrian state schools free of charge. However, since many non-Iraqi refugees often lack documentation, including passports, they face difficulties in accessing these facilities," said Dakhlallah.

Many of the undocumented refugees and asylum-seekers from these countries are at risk of being deported and frequently have to bribe their way out of trouble.

"I live in fear of the authorities as I don't have enough money to pay bribes and I don't want to be deported," said a Somali man in Masaken Barzeh, an area of Damascus with a high population of Somali refugees.

Narrow mandate

A further obstacle to providing services is the narrow mandate under which refugee agencies work.

All refugee agencies in Syria must be registered with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and, until recently, have had a mandate to deal with Iraqis only. Although many non-Iraqi refugees benefit indirectly from programmes for Iraqis, there are no services directly tailored to their needs.

Recently SARC accepted that services aimed at Iraqis may also be extended to non-Iraqis, and some organizations, such as IECD, a French development agency, have altered their programmes accordingly. At the IECD centre in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, 5-10 percent of beneficiaries are non-Iraqis.

Some of the agencies trying to help non-Iraqi refugees are not registered and thus work illegally, aid workers say.

Lack of information

Each ethnic group has specific difficulties, but not nearly enough research has been done, and there is a big information gap.

"The Somalis' needs are higher than the Iraqis as they are poorer," said a Damascus-based refugee worker who preferred anonymity.

Among the problems identified in the Somali community are tribal allegiances transferred from Somalia, and female genital mutilation/cutting.

Many Afghanis arrived in the 1980s, and a new wave has been arriving recently owing to the war. "They struggle with the language as they speak neither Arabic nor English," the refugee worker said. "And they lack the networks to tap into."

Concerns involving the Sudanese include extreme economic hardship and women who have suffered violence and rape in Sudan, aid workers said.

Many of the Ahwazis (Iranians of Arab descent) fled to Syria after speaking out against the Iranian regime. In 2006 UNHCR expressed concern at the "refoulement" (sending back) of some of these refugees or asylum-seekers by Syria.

"Often these refugees are jailed or are in danger of being extradited but Syria can't be seen to be doing anything to help them," said a diplomat involved in refugee work who preferred anonymity. "There is help going on with the aid of embassies, but none of it is reflected in official figures."

sb/cb

[END]

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SOMALIA: Importing food against all odds

NAIROBI, 31 March 2010 (IRIN) - Prolonged conflict in Somalia and rising world food prices have severely undermined food security, forcing most Somalis to rely on imports.

However, the challenges of importing food into the war-torn country are almost insurmountable at times, say business people.

One of the biggest hurdles is dealing with exporters without having a proper bank account.

Liban Yusuf, who is based in the coastal city of Bosasso, the commercial capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, told IRIN that to overcome the banking challenge, "you either use money transfer companies to send the money or you open an account in a place like Dubai [United Arab Emirates] and put the money there - and neither is easy.

"We bring stuff from Brazil, India, Thailand, Pakistan, Dubai and Oman," he said. "I import sugar, rice, flour and cooking oil."

Since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, he said, money transfer companies are reluctant to deal with large amounts, "even when they know that it is going to buy food. They are terrified and they make our lives more difficult."

Cash in a bag

A businessman in the capital, Mogadishu, who requested anonymity, said another option was simply to carry cash.

"Just imagine someone carrying a million dollars in a bag; it is impossible, but people do what they have to, to get the food into the country," he said.

A Somali agronomist told IRIN that more than 50 percent of the food consumed in the country was commercially imported.

The Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit - Somalia said in its 2009/2010 Post-Deyr report that 542,000MT of cereal was imported in 2009, of which 119,000MT was food aid while 423,000MT was commercial.

According to Yusuf, the importing difficulties increase the cost of goods. "We have to pay every step of the way and that adds to our expenses, making our goods even more expensive."

He said importers also have to deal with shipping goods twice. "If I buy sugar from Brazil and the ship is bigger than 7,000T, I have to unload it in Dubai or Oman and put it on another ship that can dock in the port of Bosasso [which accommodates ships no larger than 7,000T].

"This of course will add to the cost of the goods," he added.

Extra "taxes"

But, said Yusuf, the problems did not end with the goods' arrival in Somalia.

A 50kg bag of rice imported from India cost US$24 to import to Bosasso but then, he said: "I have to pay $1 per bag tax, so that makes it $25."

To transport the same bag to the central town of Beletweyne, some 1,100km south, will cost another $4, Yusuf said.

"This not only includes the transport cost but also the money paid at different checkpoints manned by different militias," he said.

Ali Mohamed Siyad, chairman of Mogadishu's Bakara market traders, told IRIN that 20 years of non-existent government had taken their toll on trade.

"For the past 20 years, things have been getting progressively worse for us," he said, adding that the continuing upsurge of violence in Mogadishu was making importing goods "next to impossible".

Siyad said: "A ship docks today and then fighting erupts in the city. That ship has to wait however many days it takes for the fighting to stop before it can offload its cargo."

He said any additional cost is passed on to the consumer. "It is unfortunate but it is a fact of life that the poor consumer usually pays in the end."

Caveat emptor

The lack of government structures to regulate imports has other negative effects on the consumer, according to Salad Dini, another Mogadishu businessman.

"Less than five months ago, unscrupulous businessmen brought in a consignment of rice that was rejected by Dubai, because it was not fit for human consumption."

The consignment ended up in the Mogadishu markets, he said. "We have no way of knowing if people got ill or even died because of it; who is there keeping records of such things?"

By and large, he said, Somali businessmen are honest, "but you get the odd ones who will bring in stuff that will harm their people, and we have no way of stopping them".

ah/mw[END]

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PAKISTAN: On the run from a violent husband

LAHORE, 31 March 2010 (IRIN) - The Urdu expression `chaddar aur chardawari' is often quoted in Pakistan to suggest that women are safest under their shawl (`chaddar') and within the four walls (`chardawari') of their home.

This may hold true for many women, but for some, such as 25-year-old Naseeba Bibi, it could not be further from the truth.

Naseeba said she had suffered continual abuse from her husband since they got married six years ago in Kasur, about 55km southeast of Lahore, Punjab Province.

"My husband is jobless and a drug addict. He slapped and beat me daily, sometimes with a stick. I still have scars on my back. Recently, he started to tell people I was involved with another man, and would kill me for `honour'. I believed this was his plan, as he wished to marry someone else," she said.

So she ran away to Lahore with her three children - the youngest is seven months old - and now struggles to make ends meet by selling hand-crafted toys on the pavement.

"Some days I eat nothing more than a few morsels of `roti' [flat bread] so there is something for the kids to eat. We live in a single room with no water and no power. But had I stayed home, I would have been dead," she told IRIN.

'Honour' killings

Naseeba's story is not uncommon. Indeed, she is lucky to be alive. According to a 22 March report [http://www.hrcp-web.org/PDF/2009%20-%20Killings.pdf] by the autonomous Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), 647 women were killed in the name of `honour' in 2009 - up 13 percent on the 574 killings in 2008. [http://www.hrcp-web.org/PDF/2008%20-%20Killings.pdf]

"An `honour' killing is carried out because the `honour' of men in the family is perceived to have been injured. Often, these killings are just a pretext for murder motivated by some other petty matter," said I.A. Rehman, secretary-general of HRCP.

HRCP also said that in 2009, there were 205 reported cases of domestic violence compared to 137 the previous year. These included burnings, torture and beatings.

"This is basically a consequence of the low status of women in society," said Rehman.

Other organizations documenting violence against women also found a sharp rise in 2009. The Lahore-based NGO Aurat Foundation recorded a 13 percent increase in cases of violence against women in 2009 over 2008. Rabeea Hadi, a representative for the organization, told a press conference in Islamabad in February 2010 that 8,548 cases of such violence had been recorded countrywide. [http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/13+violence-against-women-increased-13pc-in-09-220-za-05]

Under-reported?

However, it is unclear whether there is an actual rise in such attacks on women or whether there is a rise in the reporting of such attacks. Either way, there is evidence that cases of violence are under-reported.

"There are many which never see the newspapers, and are therefore never included in statistics," said Sehr Ali, a Lahore-based psychologist. "As a mental health professional, I have met women from all kinds of backgrounds who do not want to make their plight public. Many don't even tell close family members, even when they are slashed with knives or burnt."

In August 2009, a tough new law [http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C08%5C05%5Cstory_5-8-2009_pg7_4] was passed by the National Assembly against domestic violence.

But for women like Naseeba, who have never been to school and have no idea such a law exists, its value is unclear.

"I cannot understand what this means. And if I played any part in putting my husband in jail, his brothers would kill me," she said. "I just have to manage to stay alive for the sake of my children."

kh/ed/cb

[END]

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EAST AFRICA: One region, one HIV law

KIGALI, 31 March 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - As the East African Community http://www.eac.int (EAC) becomes more integrated, countries in the region are developing a common HIV Prevention and Management Bill that will establish minimum standards for HIV services in the five states - Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

The East African Common Market comes into effect in July; in a region with a combined population of 126 million and significant variations in HIV prevalence, experts say the anticipated growth in cross-border movement necessitates a regional view of - and uniform response to - the HIV epidemic.

A recent one-day stakeholders' consultative meeting in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, brought together national health officials, parliamentarians, development partners and civil society organizations to develop a common understanding of the proposed bill.

"If I'm doing business in Rwanda and I am an HIV-positive Kenyan, I should be able to access HIV services just like a Rwandan while there," said Catherine Mumma, lead consultant on drafting the bill.

The legislation is intended to provide a basic legal framework in countries where no HIV laws exist, and to address disparities in HIV/AIDS responses across the region. Under the EAC Treaty, regional law supersedes national law.

"The regional law provides guidelines and principles... they can adopt the law wholesale or develop their own regulations and laws, as long as they don't contravene the spirit and letter of the regional one," Julius Sabuni, of The Eastern Africa National Networks of AIDS Service Organizations, explained.

Rights controversy

The bill promotes a human rights approach to HIV, outlawing discrimination, guaranteeing rights to privacy and ensuring the provision of healthcare regardless of HIV status. However, some aspects have already led to controversy: delegates from the EAC armed forces http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88616 have reiterated the need for commanders to know the HIV status of their soldiers and for mandatory HIV screening before deployment.

Disappointingly for human rights activists and HIV programmers, the latest draft of the bill makes no mention of high-risk groups such as commercial sex workers, men who have sex with men or intravenous drug users.

In addition, following a previous consultation in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, the authors of the bill agreed that because criminal law is not an area of cooperation under the EAC treaty, laws criminalizing the deliberate transmission of HIV - which exist in Kenya and in a draft Ugandan bill - are more appropriately addressed in the penal codes of partner states.

Activists and programme implementers are acting to try to repeal sections of the bill that contravene human rights.

According to Mumma, these compromises were made to achieve consensus. "If the five countries do not agree on the law it will not happen, period," she said.

Despite being less than ideal, she noted, the bill's development had generated important debate around some of the more complicated aspects of the pandemic.

"Even if this won't pass this year, in my view it has pushed the EAC on health, HIV and human rights," she added.

The bill has been submitted to the East African Legislative Assembly for discussion during the next session, which starts in April.

rj/kr/mw[END]

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MeeHive - Your Top Stories - March 31, 2010

Your Top Stories for March 31, 2010

Germany approves plan for bank fund - Yahoo! News

Business - news.yahoo.com - 03/31/2010 04:39AM

AP - The German government has approved a plan to have banks pay into a fund to cover the costs of future financial crises — a proposal welcomed by France's visiting finance minister.

Google service disruption bodes ill for Chinese - Yahoo! Finance

Google - biz.yahoo.com - 03/31/2010 03:57AM

BEIJING (AP) -- Disruptions suffered by Google Inc.'s Chinese search service show how vulnerable it remains to the country's Internet police -- a threat industry executives said is likely to drive users and advertisers in the mainland away. ...

Oil hovers above $82 after mixed US supply report - Yahoo! News

Gas Prices - news.yahoo.com - 03/30/2010 09:34PM

AP - Oil prices hovered above $82 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report gave mixed indications about the strength of U.S. crude demand.

Mobile TeleSystems swings to fourth-quarter loss - MarketWatch

Electronics Industry - marketwatch.com - 03/31/2010 12:13AM

Mobile TeleSystems OJSC , Russia's largest mobile phone operator, said Wednesday it swung to a net loss of $26.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 after posting a profit of $171.2 million in the same period a year ago.

Verizon and IBM Launch Private Cloud-Based Managed Data Protection Solution - Yahoo! Finance

Ibm - biz.yahoo.com - 03/31/2010 12:15AM

With businesses looking more closely than ever at the economics of cloud computing, Verizon and IBM have expanded their relationship to deliver Managed Data Vault a new private cloud service that provides secure, quick and reliable daily backups, ...

Orange-France Telecom Group And OpenX Announce Partnership To Launch Orange Ad Market - A New Ad Marketplace Approach To Lead The Evolution Of Online Advertising Exchanges In Europe | Press Releases | Financial Articles & Investing News | TheStreet.com

Online Advertising - thestreet.com - 03/30/2010 10:00PM

New lease on life at Katz - NYPOST.com

Real Estate - nypost.com - 03/30/2010 11:10PM

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Four short links: 31 March 2010 - O'Reilly Radar

Entrepreneurship - oreilly.com - 03/31/2010 03:00AM

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No Joke: Housing Market Is On Its Own April 1 : NPR

Housing Market Crisis - npr.org - 03/31/2010 01:00AM

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telegraphjournal.com - Buy well-marbled beef for tenderest steaks | Judy Creighton - Breaking News, New Brunswick, Canada

Marble - canadaeast.com - 03/31/2010 02:00AM

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ICICI Venture to invest in insurance firm-sources| Deals| Private Capital| Reuters

Venture Capital - reuters.com - 03/31/2010 04:05AM

MUMBAI, March 31 (Reuters) - ICICI Venture, the private equity arm of No. 2 Indian lender ICICI Bank , has agreed to invest 1.2 billion rupees ($26.7 million) in Star Health and Allied Insurance, two sources with direct knowledge of the deal said ...

Heard on the Street: Apple Fights for Broader Audience - WSJ.com

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Google: Online attacks aimed at Vietnam critics - Boston.com

Google - boston.com - 03/31/2010 05:12AM

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Rite Aid pares 4Q loss without write-down - Yahoo! News

Business - news.yahoo.com - 03/31/2010 04:51AM

AP - Drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp. says it cut its fourth-quarter loss compared to a year ago, when it took a $1.81 billion write-down.

Moody's lifts ratings outlook for Baltics - Yahoo! News

Business - news.yahoo.com - 03/31/2010 04:04AM

AP - Moody's, the credit ratings agency, on Wednesday raised its outlook for the recession-scarred Baltic economies thanks to an overall stabilization in the economy and improved prospects for recovery.

Cnooc 2009 profit falls 34% on lower oil price

Gas Prices - marketwatch.com - 03/31/2010 03:03AM

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Technology Coalition Urges Stronger Online Privacy Laws - NYTimes.com

Google - nytimes.com - 03/30/2010 09:17PM

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Oil Posts Modest Gains Ahead of Key Data - WSJ.com

Business - wsj.com - 03/31/2010 04:47AM

Crude futures made modest gains as traders awaited inventory data from the U.S. Department of Energy and looked ahead to U.S. nonfarm payroll data, due Friday.

Gartmore shares under pressure after top fund manager suspended

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KENYA: HIV funding begins at home

NAIROBI, 31 March 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - Smarting from two consecutive Global Fund rejections and declining donor interest, the Kenyan government is considering ways to fund its own national treatment programme.

Apart from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria rejecting Kenya's proposals for HIV funding in rounds eight and nine, the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has flat-lined its funding and the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) will be pulling out of funding paediatric ARVs in Kenya after the present fiscal period.

"Up to 2011, we are assured of PEPFAR support and we have enough support from the Global Fund [Round 7] and the CHAI [but] we still have a US$1.67 billion gap, of which $959 million is needed for treatment and care [up to 2013]," said Regina Ombam, head of strategy at the National AIDS Control Council (NACC), at a roundtable on HIV funding hosted by media NGO, Internews.

NACC has developed a raft of proposals for consideration by the Ministry of Finance which, if adopted, could go some way to offsetting the funding gap.

"With a 25 percent increase in premiums, NHIF [National Hospital Insurance Fund] would fund at least a quarter of the total need of [first-line] ARVs and [outpatient) opportunistic infection treatment," said Ombam. "Since 58 percent of the financing gap in the Kenya National AIDS Strategic Plan is generated in the area of treatment and care, we feel that the first step of search for innovative financing should occur here."

NACC has also proposed that the government enforce a 2 percent tax on mobile phone airtime, to raise $153 million over five years. Local press have reported that Safaricom, the country's largest mobile phone network, has expressed willingness to participate in such a programme.

Kenya is part of UNITAID's air ticket funding scheme, whereby a small levy on airline tickets and cargo goes towards HIV programmes; NACC hopes to use funds raised from outbound flights to buy ARVs.

Currently, the government spends only 6.9 percent of its total budget on health; NACC proposes that the Ministry of Finance live up to the Abuja Declaration of 2001, when African governments committed to spend at least 15 percent of the national budget on health.

If Kenya made this commitment starting with the upcoming 2010-2011 budget, Ombam noted, it could raise as much as $500 million for HIV over the next five years.

A paper will be prepared and presented to cabinet for approval and then for inclusion in the current budgeting process, due to end with the reading of the national budget on 30 June.

wm/kr/mw[END]

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PHILIPPINES: Mindanao conflict fuels trafficking

MANILA, 31 March 2010 (IRIN) - Shahana [not her real name] was 14 when she took her first trip abroad - to work as a domestic helper in Kuwait.

Her documents were false, enabling her to leave the country as a minor. "The war made it impossible for my family to survive. We could no longer farm because we lost our land. Going abroad was our only hope." Shahana is from Shariff Aguak, a municipality in the war-torn Philippine province of Mindanao.

The 2009 US State Department Report [See: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/123363.pdf] indicates that "there is an increasing number of women and children from Mindanao trafficked internally and trans-internationally for domestic work. Traffickers use land and sea transportation to transfer victims from island provinces to major cities. Muslim girls are trafficked by fellow Muslims."

Sherryl Luceno, regional coordinator for the Zamboanga branch of the Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF) [http://www.visayanforum.org], an NGO that rescues and intercepts trafficked people, told IRIN: "Extreme poverty is bad enough, but combined with the unstable peace and order situation, many are driven to desperation. Even if they are being recruited illegally, they take the risk."

No end in sight

Almost four decades of armed conflict in Mindanao between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighting for autonomy has stunted growth in the mineral-rich province.

According to the UN Development Programme, seven out of 10 provinces ranked worst on the country's human development ratings are in Mindanao.

On a national average, the number of people living on less than US$2 a day is 45 percent, a figure estimated to be much higher in Mindanao. [http://hdn.org.ph/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/chapter-3-provinces-and-human-development.pdf]

In August 2008, renewed hostilities broke out when a memorandum that would have given the MILF control over land they claimed to be ancestral domain was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Nearly 400 people were killed and 700,000 people displaced.

Data gathered by the Maguindanao Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office and the Mindanao Emergency Response Network showed that 174,370 persons were still displaced as of December 2009.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre [http://www.internal-displacement.org/] , estimates that tens of thousands are staying with host communities, but counting has reportedly been discontinued by the government. [http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpCountries)/FB34FE99F089E9C6802570A7004BF2DF?OpenDocument]

Back-door exit

Zamboanga, a port city at the southern most part of the Philippines, is known as a back door out of the country, offering easy passage to Malaysia.

"A lot of girls are taken out of the country from private ports which do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Coast Guard, and taken to Malaysia. From there, they are transported to the Middle East," says Luceno.

Movement from one island to another in the Philippines archipelago is common, making it easier for traffickers. "They just tell the port officials they are crossing over to Tawi-Tawi to see family so they are not asked for identification papers or passports."

Based on the data compiled by the VFF from last May, they identified 98 victims as coming from war zone areas such as Basilan and Sulu.

Lucrative business

Although there is no official database to track the number of trafficked individuals per year, the US State Department reports that about 800,000 Filipinos are trafficked out of the country every year, mostly women.

An Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act was passed in 2003, but there have only been 13 convictions. Two were from Zamboanga. Another two cases from Zamboanga are awaiting a decision.

The dismal number of convictions has been attributed to factors endemic to the Philippine judicial system: corruption, a high turnover of judges and lack of proper evidence.

Darlene Pajarito, third Assistant City Prosecutor of Zamboanga, heads the Overseas Passenger Assist Center, which aims to investigate, intercept victims and prosecute traffickers at the point of departure.

"It is difficult to prosecute the traffickers at the point of departure because you need to prove that selling will actually take place," says Pajarito.

"This law has not hindered traffickers. It is a lucrative business for traffickers, who make as much as $750 for each girl. You can just imagine how much they make for a group of 10 girls," Pajarito adds.

The US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report 2009 downgraded the Philippines' classification to Tier 2 Watch-list Status, citing "the government's ability to effectively prosecute trafficking crimes as severely limited by an inefficient judicial system".

A Tier 3 assessment could result in sanctions such as the withholding of non-humanitarian, non-trade-related foreign assistance.

as/ds/mw

[END]

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2010年3月30日星期二

GLOBAL: Fleeing disaster can be a good thing

JOHANNESBURG, 30 March 2010 (IRIN) - The hapless people flooding ports and airport terminals in developed countries are occasionally seen as "environmental migrants" or even "environmentally induced migrants", fleeing natural disasters in their part of the world.

Now, some countries have begun turning this displacement into a positive learning experience by providing such migrants with temporary work permits to help them earn an income and acquire skills, making them more resilient when they return home.

"Extending work visas or granting temporary visas to people from countries ... hit by natural disasters is often used in ... Europe and North America," said Koko Warner, head of the Environmental Migration, Social Vulnerability and Adaptation Section at the UN University, and such initiatives were part of a "wider trend in managing the impacts of natural hazards and migration".

The US Immigration and Nationality Act allows Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to foreign nationals already in the US because of an environmental disaster, provided their country is unable to handle their return.

There are no international laws protecting people forced to move across borders by more intense natural disasters as a result of climate change, but Walter Kälin, Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, cited the Finnish Aliens Act, which also "provides temporary protection (up to three years) in situations of mass displacement as a result of an environmental disaster."

He suggested that in the absence of such protection, initiatives like the TPS allowed by US could provide "inspiration" to countries to draw up laws offering temporary respite to people forced to move because of climate change.

Colombia has come up with an interesting alternative: in 2006, when the Galeras volcano in southwest Colombia erupted, the government set up a programme allowing several thousand affected people temporary migration to Spain, where they earned an income, mostly through agricultural work, for a period of six months, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) noted in its recent annual report.

"Since then the programme has been expanded to include people in rural communities, where crops and land are vulnerable to floods and other natural disasters," UNFPA said. The programme is supported by the European Union.

Heavy rains, floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in Colombia affected 1.5 million people in 2007, and at least 700,000 more in 2008, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

In Spain the Colombians acquired skills to help them diversify their income when they returned home, to "increase their resilience to environmental challenges, and offers them an alternative to permanent relocation," UNFPA commented. The six-month placement period also allowed enough time for the land affected by disaster in Colombia to recover.

Warner said such initiatives were "an important source of post-disaster rehabilitation", while UNFPA pointed out that "Mobility may therefore contribute to the adaptation of people affected by environmental change; conversely, immobility may increase people's vulnerability to environmental pressures."

jk/he[END]

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In Brief: "Large" Rift Valley Fever outbreak in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, 30 March 2010 (IRIN) - An outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF), described as "large" by South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), has claimed the lives of two people and poses a significant threat to livelihoods in major farming areas.

"It is difficult to provide a comparison of this outbreak with previous ones, as it is ongoing - at the moment it is a large and significant outbreak," said Prof Lucille Blumberg, deputy director of the NICD. Neighbouring Namibia has reportedly banned live animals and meat products from South Africa.

The livestock industry is the biggest agricultural sector and contributes up to 49 percent of agricultural output. "South Africa generally produces 85 percent of its meat requirements, while the remaining 15 percent is imported from Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Australia, New Zealand and Europe," the government's information website said.

RVF is a contagious viral infection transmitted to humans mainly by direct or indirect contact with the blood or organs of infected animals, especially domestic animals such as cattle, sheep, goats and camels. The disease has been confirmed in seven of South Africa's nine provinces, and has infected 60 people.

Among animals the RVF virus is spread primarily by the bite of infected mosquitoes, mainly the Aedes species, which can acquire the virus from feeding on infected animals, according to the World Health Organization.

Heavy summer rain over large parts of South Africa in the past few months has created good conditions for the RVF virus to thrive. "We are hoping for some cold weather," Blumberg said.

"There is no evidence of mosquito-transmitted human infection to date", the NICD said in a communiqué, and most human infections were the result of direct contact with infected animal tissue or fluids.

The last major outbreak of RVF in South Africa - 10,000 to 20,000 human cases - took place between 1974 and 1976 during prolonged heavy rains, according to the NICD. Small sporadic outbreaks have been recorded since then.

jk/he[END]

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ZIMBABWE: Men take a hands-on approach to pregnancy

JOHANNESBURG, 30 March 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - Men in rural Zimbabwean are taking a hands-on approach to pregnancy - and to preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission.

The UNICEF-sponsored "Male Champions" [http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88532] programme is working to get men involved in their partners' pregnancies in the rural district of Mberengwa, about 300 kilometres outside Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. The programme uses HIV-positive male caregivers to mobilize men and their partners to undergo HIV testing and access prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT).

"When we first started, most men were not willing to get tested, especially when we sent female caregivers," said Elijah Mumba, a home caregiver who works out of the Musumi Mission hospital, where the programme is based.

"The problem is that because of our socialisation some men may not value advice when it comes from a woman, and that was the reason we decided to use men to talk to other men."

Pregnant women often discover their HIV status when they use voluntary testing and counselling (VCT) services as part of antenatal care, but are usually afraid that they will be blamed for introducing the virus into the relationship if they disclose a positive diagnosis to their partner.

Fear of stigma, abuse, and rejection by communities and partners were among the main reasons women shunned PMTCT services, according to a recent report, Missing the Target: Failing Women, Failing Children, by the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, a global lobby group [http://www.aidstreatmentaccess.org/mtt7_final.pdf].

UNICEF said more than 93 percent of pregnant women in Zimbabwe attended antenatal clinics, but less than half of those requiring PMTCT received it. UNICEF communications officer Tsitsi Singizi noted that whether a woman accessed PMTCT services might be a man's decision.

"In most communities men are the decision-makers - they decide on whether to disclose HIV status, and they can chase their wives away after disclosure," Singizi told IRIN/PlusNews.

"Although they do not ultimately feed the [baby], men also decide on the feeding practices - it is crucial that they are included and mobilised for the success of any viable PMTCT programme," she said.

The World Health Organization recommends [http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2009/world_aids_20091130/en/index.html] that HIV-positive mothers on antiretroviral (ARV) drugs breastfeed their children for up to two months; those not on treatment are encouraged to give their children formula to reduce the chance of HIV transmission. Many women find this difficult because of the stigma attached to bottle feeding, and the cost of formula.

UNAIDS has estimated Zimbabwe's national HIV prevalence rate at about 15 percent, with children below the age of 15 years accounting for about 9 percent of the 1.3 million people living with HIV [.http://www.unaids.org/en/CountryResponses/Countries/zimbabwe.asp].

Man-to-man, father-to-child

In 2008 Mernat Hove and his wife, Elizabeth, learned they were both HIV-positive. She was the first to discover her status after being tested at the local antenatal clinic. "I was not sure whether or not to tell my husband, so I kept it a secret for about two months," Elizabeth said.

"One day, one of the caregivers, Mercy Marimo, came to check on me and I found the courage to tell her." Marimo volunteered to speak to Elizabeth's husband and called on her colleague, Elijah Mumba.

When Marimo and Mumba broke the news to Mernat, he stormed out of the house. Elizabeth said, "At first I was angry that she [Marimo] had told my secret to another person [Mumba], but later on I found out that this was actually to my advantage."

Mumba followed Mernat out of the house; hours later they came back. "Mernat was looking less furious, and that's when he accepted to get tested with me. He also tested HIV-positive, but we have been together since then," Elizabeth told IRIN/PlusNews.

Mernat said Mumba had explained how important testing and PMTCT services were to his baby, and his desire to protect his unborn child had prompted him to get tested, and to support his wife [http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=85873]. The couple now have two healthy, HIV-negative children.

The experience has made Mernat consider becoming a male champion. "I have great joy seeing my two children looking healthy like this - if you look at them, you cannot believe that their parents are HIV-positive."

st/llg/he[END]

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BURUNDI: "Peace" villages come with a price

BUJUMBURA, 30 March 2010 (IRIN) - When the first "peace village" was set up in Burundi in 2003, it was meant to foster healing and reconciliation among the country's three ethnic groups - Hutu, Tutsi and Twa - at the end of a prolonged civil war. Since then, 16 of these villages have been established across the country but some residents feel neglected and forgotten, enduring perennial water shortages and lack of land for cultivation.

Built on 10ha, Kukamakara peace village in Rugombo province houses 301 families, comprising demobilised former combatants, former refugees who returned from Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and families from the country's minority Batwa community.

Separated only by a rice plantation is Rural, in Mugina commune, home to 30 families of returnees and formerly internally displaced persons (IDPs). Residents of both villages say they last had government relief aid in 2005.

Salthiere Gahungu, the head of Kukamakara, told IRIN some of the village's residents arrived in 2005 while others came as recently as 2009. Each family has access to a 300 sqm plot, just enough to build a house and a toilet, leaving very little ground for cultivation.

"We were given houses but nothing to live on," he said.

Japhet Ngendakumana, who returned from DRC in 2005 with his wife and 10 children, said his only means of livelihood was to look for casual labour in farms nearby.

"If I go with my wife and my eldest daughter, we can get 6,000 francs [US$6] per day, which we then use to buy food, soaps or medicines if there is somebody ill," Ngendakumana said. "Sometimes we are paid 10,000 in advance to till a portion of land; then we can consider ourselves lucky."

Disputes

According to Gahungu, many of the returnees in Kukamakara fled the country in 1965 or 1972 and came back to find their original land occupied.

"We are sad to see that we are living like this while the occupants of our land are making a decent living from it," Gahungu said. "If the land commission had enough strength, it should have stopped the occupants of our land from exploiting it."

The Commission National Terres et Autres Biens, CNTB, the authority on land and other property, was set up in 2006 to handle all land disputes between returnees and those who stayed in Burundi and occupied the land left vacant.

On 26 March, the chairman, Abbot Astère Kana, told new commissioners that to date, 8,139 out of 15,000 land disputes registered had been settled.

More than 95 percent of the rest were amicably settled, he said.

Gahungu said he believed some residents of Kukamakara were considering going back to DRC "because there, they just tell you to go and dig wherever you want; but here, you need money even to rent a field for a season".

Without land, residents of the peace village are left with few options to earn a livelihood, many complaining about the lack of assistance from the Ministry of National Solidarity, Repatriation of Refugees and Social Reintegration.

"We were once given rice, beans and maize flour; another time, they brought us kitchen utensils and clothes, since then nothing," Gahungu said.

A similar situation prevails in Rural. Concilie Ntuwuhorahiriwe, 36, who returned from Rwanda in 2000, said they were given hoes and blankets when they settled at the village in 2007. "We have never seen anyone ever since," she said.

Elie Harindavyi, the spokesman for the Ministry of National Solidarity, said it regularly assisted vulnerable people. However, he could not recall the last aid distribution in the two villages.

"Because they are hungry, they just give into despair thinking they are left out of the distribution circuit," he said. "But, they have to remember they are not the only ones. There are more than 14 peace villages [across the country] and we regularly assist them with food and non-food items, but all depends on the availability of the assistance."

Water

With only one water tap for 1,600 people, Kukamakara residents have difficulty accessing water.

Moreover, most residents cannot afford the daily cost, paying only for drinking water and resorting to the river or ponds for other needs.

"We pay 10 francs [to the water and electricity company] for a 20l jerry can; we can use 5l a day but if we are washing we need more," Ngendakumana said.

There is not a single water tap at Rural, where most residents fetch water from the nearby rice plantation for everything, including drinking. Those who can afford it travel at least 3km to the water tap in Nyesheza.

Harindavyi said peace villages had been planned with infrastructure such as a water supply, schools and health centres, but for "sites like Kukamakara, that absent infrastructure will be targeted as the major priorities to submit to any organization offering funding".

He said the first peace village was built in 2003 at Kabo in Nyanzalac in the southern province of Makamba while others were built in 2005. The latest is under construction at Rumonge in the southern province of Bururi.

Poor healthcare

According to Gahungu, pregnant women are the most vulnerable as they have to travel long distances, through wetlands, to reach a health centre.

Parents with young children, he said, also struggled to access medical care for their children, most of whom often suffered waterborne diseases.

"The ministry had promised us insurance cards to access healthcare but we have not got them," he said.

Harindavyi said the ministry paid for medical care for identified vulnerable persons but these health facilities were not accessible to people in provinces, only in the capital.

The ministry was planning a partnership with hospitals in provinces to offer medical care to vulnerable people, he said. "A team from the ministry toured the provinces last week to assess the situation for this future partnership."

jb/js/mw[END]

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EGYPT: Pressure mounts on authorities over Nile Delta

ALEXANDRIA, 30 March 2010 (IRIN) - Pressure is mounting on the Egyptian authorities to do more to protect the Nile Delta, which provides up to a third of the country's agricultural produce, from rising sea levels.

"This is really serious," Mohamed Eissa, a leading Egyptian environmentalist, told IRIN. "The government must do something to save the Delta from totally sinking."

Eissa and other environmentalists say it will take Egypt 15-25 years to feel the full impact of climate change.

A report released in March by the Arab League said a half-to-one-metre sea level rise over the coming 100 years could cause much of the Delta to be submerged. It also said soil erosion on the banks of the Delta could lead to a decline in agricultural yields.

In response, Egyptian Environment Minister Maged George said the government was studying "the adverse effects of climate change in coordination with the specialized authorities" and working "to raise society's environmental behaviours through raising environmental awareness among individuals and institutions".

He said the government was offering financial incentives to support environmentally friendly facilities or initiatives and would "toughen penalties against violations and risky environmental practices".

Some parts of the Delta nearest to the Mediterranean Sea have already been inundated, including parts of the ancient city of Rosetta.

The Mediterranean has risen 20cm in the past century and saltwater intrusion is now a major problem, experts say. They expect the sea level to keep rising and flood large swathes of land in Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city.

Concrete blocks

In response, the government has had huge concrete blocks and thousands of tons of sand placed along the shore.

Alexandria governor Adel Labib said the government gave his office 150 million Egyptian pounds (US$27.5 million) to take the necessary measures to protect the coast.

Irrigation Minister Mohamed Nasr Allam said his ministry had drawn up plans to protect Egypt's shores, but this does not seem to have allayed fears of a sinking Delta.

The NGO Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights recently called on the authorities to provide evacuation tips to Delta residents in case of a major flood. It also said the government should to start making plans to compensate residents if they lost their homes and farms.

A sea level rise of half a metre would force around 1.5 million people from their homes in Alexandria alone, according to local environmentalists.

If the sea level were to rise by another one metre, around 10.5 percent of the population of the Delta would be at risk and 12.5 percent of its agricultural land inundated, according to a 2007 World Bank research paper. [http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:21215328~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:469382,00.html]

Scientists generally predict that the Mediterranean, and the world's other seas, will rise 30-100cm by the end of the century, flooding coastal areas along the Delta.

"There must be proper political dialogue on means of evading the crisis," said Mustafa Kamal Tolba, another leading Egyptian environmentalist, adding that Egypt could evade the effects of climate change on the Delta if it earmarked 5 percent of its budget for finding measures to protect its coasts. "If we don't act now, we can only blame ourselves."

ae/ed/cb

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AFGHANISTAN: Displacement fears ahead of Kandahar operation

KANDAHAR, 30 March 2010 (IRIN) - Mir Ahmad has decided to leave for Pakistan ahead of a much-heralded pro-government Afghan and foreign forces offensive against Taliban insurgents in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.

"I want to save my family no matter how difficult life could be in Pakistan," Ahmad told IRIN, adding that he was a refugee in Pakistan during the Soviet invasion (1979-1989).

Kandahar Province's estimated more than one million people, already affected by drought and conflict, could be in for a difficult and dangerous time, aid agencies say. Large-scale displacement is the most obvious risk.

The governor of Kandahar, Toryalai Weesa, has earmarked food and non-food aid for up to 5,000 displaced families, but there will be no camps.

"The government has decided that no camp will be established for the IDPs [internally displaced people] because it could attract people from everywhere and it would not be easy to close it after the military operation," Najibullah Barith, provincial director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, told IRIN.

Officials say any conflict-related displacement would be temporary, and IDPs would be hosted by friends and relatives in Kandahar city or elsewhere.

Impunity

Officially, the government has no, or very weak, control in four of Kandahar's 17 districts. However, people say the Taliban are present everywhere and have real authority.

A strategy of violence and intimidation deters people from working with the government: On 24 February they assassinated Abdul Majid Babai, director of Kandahar's cultural affairs department, as he was walking to his office. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/13/AR2010031300574.html]

"The Taliban assassinated my husband [a police officer] and have threatened to kill me because of my job," said Razeqa Nezami, a female teacher.

On 13 March the insurgents carried out a series of coordinated attacks [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8566774.stm] which killed up to 35 people and wounded dozens.

Objectives

US and NATO officials say the success of the forthcoming operation will not be achieved by military means alone.

"The main objective is to assert GIRoA's [Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan] authority in order to increase governance, development, stability and freedom of movement for the Afghan people living in and around the [Kandahar] city," Paul Scott, a NATO spokesman in southern Afghanistan, told IRIN.

He said the Kandahar operation would differ from the recent offensive in neighbouring Helmand Province as there would be no "D-Day" or starting date for it.

Tackling corruption and bad governance, which are believed to be alienating people from the government, are also deemed crucial.

"We will be unable to succeed in Kandahar if we cannot eliminate a vast majority of corruption there," Adml Mike Mullen, chairman of US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, was quoted in the media as saying on 30 March. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7080660.ece]

"Deteriorating security situation"

Meanwhile, the UN is taking security concerns seriously.

"On 19 February, the UN Secretary-General approved a move to Security Phase IV in the South in recognition of the deteriorating security situation in the region," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a 30 March report. [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MUMA-84278W/$File/full_report.pdf]

The new security phase includes placing "a ceiling on the numbers of international staff in Kandahar and Tirin Kot; no international staff presence in Helmand, Zabul, or Nimroz provinces; and a realignment of agency programs to focus on emergency operations, humanitarian relief, and security activities, and a downscaling of other activities," the report said.

The UN decision has been criticized by local NGO Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM): "The UN must seek reliable information from NATO and Afghan government about the location, scale and duration of major counter-insurgency operations and help draw appropriate response planning," ARM said in a 16 March statement, [http://www.arm.org.af/index.php?page=en_Latest+News+13] adding that aid workers should not be deterred by insecurity.

Wael Haj-Ibrahim, head of OCHA in Afghanistan, said UN agencies were not withdrawing from the south completely but were prioritizing humanitarian activities there.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which supports healthcare services for war victims through several local health structures, said it had expanded its operations in Kandahar Province.

"The ICRC is in constant contact with authorities in Afghanistan, including Kandahar, and stands ready to adapt its humanitarian response in relation to the needs as they may arise," Bijan Frederic Farnoudi, an ICRC spokesman in Kabul, told IRIN.

sa/ad/cb/oa

[END]

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MeeHive - Your Top Stories - March 30, 2010

Your Top Stories for March 30, 2010

Xerox exec who turned company around to retire - Yahoo! News

Business - news.yahoo.com - 03/30/2010 05:26AM

AP - Xerox says Chairman Anne Mulcahy, who is credited with turning the company around over the past decade, plans to retire in May.

FT.com / Technology - Ex-IBM executive admits to Galleon tip-offs

Ibm - ft.com - 03/29/2010 07:00PM

Robert Moffat, a former senior vice-president at IBM, admitted yesterday he provided inside information to a person involved with the Galleon Group hedge fund...

Chinese Users Report New Google Disruptions - WSJ.com

Google - wsj.com - 03/30/2010 03:53AM

Internet users in China reported new disruptions to Google Internet search services Tuesday, with many saying they are unable to search for any term on the Google site.

Foreclosure fund gets $600 million to help residents of 5 more states save homes - washingtonpost.com

Fund - washingtonpost.com - 03/30/2010 12:13AM

The Obama administration announced Monday that it is expanding by $600 million a fund aimed at helping states tackle the

Oil prices tread water after big gains - Yahoo! News

Gas Prices - news.yahoo.com - 03/30/2010 05:13AM

AFP - Crude oil prices paused on Tuesday, as traders digested bumper gains made the previous day, and awaited this week's weekly US energy inventories report, analysts said.

Facebook veterans in venture capital spotlight - Yahoo! India News

Venture Capital - news.yahoo.com - 03/29/2010 08:08PM

As Wall Street eagerly awaits signs that Internet sensation Facebook will offer shares to the public, the venture capitalists that prowl California's Silicon Valley are keeping close tabs on another hot commodity: the employees leaving Facebook.

foreclosurers: Broward launches online auctions of foreclosed homes - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Real Estate - sun-sentinel.com - 03/30/2010 04:58AM

Broward County's foreclosure auction system moves from courthouse to computer screen today After two weeks of technological testing and bidder training sessions, Broward's online foreclosure auction website is set to hold its first sale Tuesday.

KeyOn Files Applications under Round Two of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - Yahoo! Finance

Electronics Industry - biz.yahoo.com - 03/30/2010 12:16AM

OMAHA, Neb.----KeyOn Communications Holdings, Inc. , one of the largest providers of wireless broadband, satellite video and voice over Internet protocol services in the United States, announced today it has submitted multiple applications for $36...

Four short links: 30 March 2010 - O'Reilly Radar

Entrepreneurship - oreilly.com - 03/30/2010 03:00AM

PublicACTA -- New Zealand is hosting the final round of ACTA negotiations, and InternetNZ and other concerned technology-aware citizens will also host a PublicACTA conference. The goal is to produce a statement from the citizens, one which can be...

Helpless Beijing Watches The Housing Bubble Spreads To Rural China

Housing Market Crisis - businessinsider.com - 03/30/2010 05:10AM

Real estate developers have bought up cheap land in rural China, despite laws against land hoarding, according to Caing . But getting around the laws is laughably easy: Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) Chief Inspector Xu Shaoshi recently warn...

Alternet Systems, Inc. (ALYI) Debuts Updated Internet Presence Including Mobile Commerce Industry Resources

Wireless Industry - newsblaze.com - 03/30/2010 06:01AM

Alternet Systems, Inc. today announced that it has updated its corporate website www.alternetsystems.com. The new website was designed in part to keep the investor community better informed of Alternet's accomplishments and goals in enabling secur...

Central central Vietnam Hoi An, Vietnam

Marble - travelpod.com - 03/30/2010 04:18AM

Jump to the full entry & travel map Hoi An, Vietnam 26 degrees, not a cloud in the sky Breakfast at 08:00, checked out and met our drivers around 09:00, they dutifully strapped all our kit to the bikes and off we set. ...

No Race to the Top funds for Florida - Bay News 9

Fund - baynews9.com - 03/30/2010 12:13AM

The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that Delaware and Tennessee won the first round of competition.

Stock Futures Point to Higher Open - WSJ.com

Business - wsj.com - 03/30/2010 05:02AM

U.S. stock futures inched higher, with markets retaining a recent rally on hopes U.S. jobs data later this week will feed into a growing view of an improving economy.

Geely to plow further $900 million into Volvo - Yahoo! News

Business - news.yahoo.com - 03/30/2010 04:28AM

AP - Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group expects to spend hundreds of millions of dollars beyond the $1.8 billion purchase price for Volvo Cars to make the Swedish car company profitable, Geely's chairman said Tuesday.

Google adds file transfer feature to chat software - Yahoo! News UK

Google - news.yahoo.com - 03/30/2010 04:01AM

Google has updated the chat function in its iGoogle and Orkut services toallow users to send files directly through the programs.

IBM spent $1.1 million on lobbying in 4Q

Ibm - sfgate.com - 03/29/2010 07:39PM

IBM Corp. spent $1.1 million on lobbying Congress and other government agencies in the fourth quarter, slightly more than what the technology company spent in the same quarter last year. One focus of IBM's lobbying has been on legislation surround...

Obama vows to press ahead on big challenges - Yahoo! News

Business - news.yahoo.com - 03/30/2010 04:28AM

Reuters - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that he would not be dissuaded from taking on new economic challenges after his healthcare reform victory, despite the prospect for continued Republican opposition.

Yahoo Mail adds Facebook status updates - Yahoo! News UK

Internet Industry - news.yahoo.com - 03/30/2010 06:02AM

Yahoo has announced that Facebook users with a Yahoo Mail account will now beable to update their profile directly through the email client.

Google Chrome might come bundled with Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins!

Internet Industry - techwhack.com - 03/30/2010 04:52AM

Google Chrome might come bundled with Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins! Online sources are indicating that Google and Adobe are likely to announce a partnership soon. This partnership would see Google... ...

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2010年3月31日星期三

BURUNDI: Daphrose Mpawenimana, "If it rains, we stay standing to avoid the water"

SYRIA: Undocumented, overlooked and struggling to survive

SOMALIA: Importing food against all odds

PAKISTAN: On the run from a violent husband

EAST AFRICA: One region, one HIV law

MeeHive - Your Top Stories - March 31, 2010

Your Top Stories for March 31, 2010

KENYA: HIV funding begins at home

PHILIPPINES: Mindanao conflict fuels trafficking

2010年3月30日星期二

GLOBAL: Fleeing disaster can be a good thing

In Brief: "Large" Rift Valley Fever outbreak in South Africa

ZIMBABWE: Men take a hands-on approach to pregnancy

BURUNDI: "Peace" villages come with a price

EGYPT: Pressure mounts on authorities over Nile Delta

AFGHANISTAN: Displacement fears ahead of Kandahar operation

MeeHive - Your Top Stories - March 30, 2010

Your Top Stories for March 30, 2010

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2010年3月31日 星期三

Your Top Stories for March 31, 2010

2010年3月30日 星期二

Your Top Stories for March 30, 2010

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2010年3月31日星期三

2010年3月30日星期二