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- Website to track Haiti humanitarian aid goes live
The United Nations Development Programme has teamed up with Haitian authorities to launch a website designed to chronicle the spending of humanitarian aid provided to help the country after the Jan. 12 earthquake. The site will ensure greater transparency and accountability in the use of the $9.9 billion provided by international donors, UNDP officials say. Google/Agence France-Presse (4/21)        - Beijing frowns on earthquake relief by monks
Chinese authorities have ordered Tibetan monks to leave areas affected by the April 14 earthquake, in a move widely seen as an attempt to minimize positive characterizations of their efforts. Monks rushed into the remote area to erect tents, search for survivors and deliver relief supplies. Google/The Associated Press (4/21) - Brazil, India join argument against Chinese currency policy
The U.S. has found unexpected allies in developing countries Brazil and India in its efforts to pressure China into allowing its currency to appreciate. Presidents of central banks from India and Brazil spoke at a meeting of the Group of 20, saying that China's currency policy was imposing costs on developing countries and causing distortions in the global economy. Singapore echoed their sentiments and added that it would fall within China's best interests to allow the renminbi to appreciate. Financial Times (free content) (4/21) - Clerics call for headscarves to prevent earthquakes
A group of influential Shiite clerics in Iran have taken an apocalyptic turn, warning that Iran will be visited by a major earthquake if it does not repent. Tehran is situated at the intersection of two significant tectonic plates and is prone to experience quakes, and apprehension about the possibility of a natural disaster have only grown with increased seismic activity that has led to earthquakes in Haiti, China, Mexi-California as well as a major volcanic eruption in Iceland. Clerics suggest that women wear headscarves in order to prevent an earthquake. The Washington Post (4/21) - Sana wins innovation awards
Sana, which is pioneering an open-source platform for mobile electronic records, was honored with the $50,000 mHealth Alliance Award and a third-place Wireless Innovation Prize worth $100,000 from the Vodafone Americas Foundation. Sana, which was formerly called MocaMobile, says it will use the prize money to build out its lab and create a curriculum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the effort is based. MobiHealthNews.com (4/19) - World Bank gives free access to data
The World Bank expanded the amount of data available for free download and use this week with the online release of upward of 2,000 data sets on its Open Data site. The release includes information once only available for a fee, covering finance, health, social welfare and other topics. "Statistics tell the story of people in developing and emerging countries and can play an important part in helping to overcome poverty," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said. InformationWeek/Government (4/21) - Clerics should take aim at female circumcision
 Efforts by Muslim clerics to clarify fatwas used to justify militancy are the result of improper interpretation should be coupled with similar edicts condemning female genital mutilation. Such practices are widely used across the Muslim world even though the Koran makes no mention of them, writes Sheema Khan. The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (4/21) - Violence escalates in remote Pakistan province
In the wilds of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province near the Afghanistan border, Pakistani and Taliban forces compete for influence over the local population -- a struggle that has had disastrous ramifications for the region. Though the Pakistani Taliban have largely retreated from the area, they continue to strike residents viewed as collaborators by using suicide bombers. The war-torn area, which suffers from dramatic poverty, has not been properly covered by journalists as it is deemed too unsafe to report there. The Independent (London) (4/22) - Thai military delivers stark warning
Opposition protesters are running out of time to vacate central Bangkok before the Thai military takes action to forcibly remove them and arrest protest leaders, Army spokesman Col. Sunsern Kaewkumnerd warned today. The government has faced six weeks of massive protests calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and has thus far been unable to reach a negotiated settlement with opposition leaders. BBC (4/22) - Iran kicks off war games as rejoinder to sanctions talk
Iranian media reported that the Iranian military has launched war games in the Persian Gulf, while Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that recent U.S. President Barack Obama's recent Nuclear Posture Review represented a threat to Iran. One section of that document assured countries that they would never be threatened by U.S. nuclear weapons so long as they were in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty -- a group that specifically excludes Iran and North Korea. The Iranian military, which described its war games as an exercise to demonstrate Iran's strength to its enemies, operated near the Strait of Hormuz, a valuable trade and transit passage. The New York Times (free registration) (4/21) - Juárez is a magnet for trade, murder
Sprawling, metropolitan Ciudad Juárez may be the most dangerous city in the world outside an active war zone, as evidenced by an alarming number of empty houses abandoned by fleeing residents. With 686 murders this year alone -- an alarming rate driven by the Juárez and Sinaloa cartels -- Juárez is a major pivot for drug trafficking, extortion and other crimes. U.S. officials fear that the Juárez-El Paso drug trafficking corridor could affect the legitimate $1 billion in trade the U.S. and Mexico do each day -- one-sixth of which comes through the same region. The Miami Herald/McClatchy Newspapers (free registration) (4/20) - Opposition leader blasts Sri Lanka government
General Sarath Fonseka used his first public appearance since his February arrest to denounce the government's lack of commitment to democracy and the rule of law. Fonseka is battling against a court martial trial the opposition pegs as a direct result of his electoral challenge to President Mahinda Rajapaksa in January elections. The Times (London) (4/22) - Troubles for Kyrgyzstan as deposed leader embraces dictator's asylum
Finding friends in low places, deposed Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev took up asylum in Belarus under the protection of autocratic Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko -- though he has not abdicated his claim to the presidency. Interim Kyrgyz leader Roza Otunbayeva condemned the decision by Belarus, calling on Lukashenko to hand over Bakiyev to Kyrgyz authorities. Facing unrest herself, Otunbayeva, who emerged as the leader of Kyrgyzstan after the coup, has authorized security forces to use deadly force to stop widespread looting and rioting. The Christian Science Monitor (4/21) - Ukraine's new leader cuts deal with Russia
Russian and Ukrainian officials have reached a deal to allow Russian naval presence in the Ukraine in exchange for deeply discounted prices on Russian natural gas. The decision to ink a deal by Ukraine's new President Viktor Yanukovych reverses the policies of his predecessor, and ends a five-year thaw in relations between the two countries. The Washington Post (4/22)
- Does the United States benefit from United Nations peacekeeping missions around the world?
 | Yes | | No |
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Increased funding and support for women tending small farms in the developing world is key to meeting Millennium Development Goals related to hunger and nutrition, ActionAid says in a new report. Women are the majority of small farmers in developing countries but are largely ignored by policymakers, the report warns. 
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