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- UN, foreign entities prepare Somalia return
The United Nations and other foreign representatives will return to Somalia in the coming months after 17 years of absence, said Augustine Mahiga, the UN special representative to Somalia. The UN, embassies and aid organizations have been based out of Nairobi since 1993 because of security concerns. Officials are looking to re-establish presence on Puntland, Somaliland and Mogadishu. AlertNet.org/Reuters (8/8)       - UN flotilla panel is staffed and ready
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has named senior Turkish and Israeli diplomats Ozdem Sanberk and Joseph Ceichanover to a panel tasked with investigating a May 31 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will lead the panel, which is scheduled to begin work Tuesday. AlertNet.org/Reuters (8/7)  - Researchers urge broader rotavirus vaccinations
Rotavirus vaccines can prevent 39% to 48% of infections among even the poorest children in developing countries, according to reports published in the journal Lancet. More than 400,000 children die from rotavirus every year. Vaccination programs, already standard for newborns in the U.S. and other developed countries, should be launched in developing countries immediately, researchers said. Reuters (8/6) - Floods in Pakistan eclipse earthquake, tsunami devastation
The UN says that this year's floods in Pakistan have eclipsed the earthquake in 2005 and the tsunami in 2004 in terms of general devastation -- with no signs of the water abating soon. Waters have recently exceeded the tolerance levels of the Sukkur Barrage in Sindh, meaning that Sindh could soon see the same flooding that has ravaged the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab farther north. At least 1,600 people have died in the floods, which are the worst reported in the country's history. Google/Agence France-Presse (8/9) , BBC (8/9) Top five news stories selected by UN Wire readers in the past week. - Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.
- Ecuador cuts eco oil deal to leave oil underground
A new $5.7 billion scheme in Ecuador promises to provide the first blueprint for a truly green oil deal -- one that would leave the oil in the ground. Ecuador has pledged not to develop the oil reserves located under the ecologically sensitive and bio-diverse Yasuni National Park provided that wealthy countries pay out at least half the market value as compensation for their oil abstinence. The deal came about after the UN Development Program agreed to serve as the administrator for the ecological trust fund, which would preserve the reserve that is home to the world's last remaining uncontacted tribes. The Independent (London) (8/8) - Critics charge Kagame with crackdown
Although Rwandan President Paul Kagame deserves credit for much of the progress seen in Rwanda in recent years, critics charge that his administration is cracking down in advance of the presidential election. Journalists working in the capital of Kigali say that they are forced to censor themselves, while students report that administration spies have infiltrated their campuses. Los Angeles Times (8/8) - North Korea seizes vessel, fires into sea
North Korea seized a South Korean fishing ship that sailed into waters it claims as its own, and fired 110 rounds of artillery into the sea -- acts of aggression that threaten to exacerbate high tensions between North and South Korea. South Korean officials view the North Korean artillery firing as a military drill enacted as a response to massive joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises recently conducted. The Washington Post (8/9) , The Washington Post (8/9) - Colombia, Venezuela presidents look to reduce tensions
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will travel to Colombia to meet his counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos, this week in a bid to reduce tensions between the two neighbors. A long-running dispute between the two over FARC rebels flared in recent months as Colombian President Alvaro Uribe accused Venezuela of harboring and training rebels. Chavez has called on rebels to abandon their armed struggle in favor of a negotiated settlement. BBC (8/8) - Taliban gunmen rob, kill 10 foreign aid workers in northern Afghanistan
In one of the worst attacks on civilian aid workers since the outbreak of the war in 2001, gunmen killed 10 foreign aid workers in the bucolic northern Afghan province of Badakhshan, considered to be a safe haven despite the ongoing war in Afghanistan. The workers, a medical team working with a Christian charity, included six U.S. members. Afghan police officials say that the attack may have been motivated by robbery, because the bodies were stripped of their possessions. However, the attacks -- which were claimed quickly by the Taliban -- may demonstrate that the insurgent group has ambitions to spread as far as the northern border with Tajikistan. The Washington Post (8/8) , The Independent (London) (8/9) - Floods could usher the resurgence of Taliban in Pakistan
With some 1,500 people killed by the ongoing floods in Pakistan -- the worst in the country's history -- officials fear that the humanitarian disaster could give Taliban figures a new handhold in the devastated country. Although the 2005 earthquake killed significantly more people, the higher physical toll paid in the form of destruction to infrastructure and distribution networks will likely be more debilitating to Pakistan -- and serve as a opportunity for the Taliban, whose success in Pakistan has come through the exploitation of the government's inability to provide basic social services. Officials acknowledge that recent gains against the Taliban in South Waziristan and Swat Valley are unlikely to last unless infrastructure is rebuilt rapidly. The Washington Post (8/9) - South Korean president shakes up Cabinet, but not defensive posture
In a shake-up to his Cabinet, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak appointed Kim Tae-ho to become prime minister -- the youngest in the country's history. Though the position is largely ceremonial, Kim's meteoric rise may enable him to parlay the post into a launching ground for the presidency. South Korea's foreign, defense and economic ministers were among the Cabinet members to retain their positions in the shake-up -- one that Lee has hinted at since his Grand National Party suffered election setbacks in June. In retaining his foreign and defense ministers, Lee has signaled that there will be no change to the country's tough stance against North Korea -- the dominant issue in South Korean foreign policy. The New York Times (free registration) (8/8)  | |  | | | | | | | | Director of IT | Trivedi Foundation | San Francisco / Los Angeles / New York, CA | | Sales Manager | Trivedi Foundation | San Francisco / Los Angeles / New York, CA | | Director of Marketing | Trivedi Foundation | San Francisco / Los Angeles / New York, CA | | Executive Director, United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) | United Nations Foundations | Washington DC, DC | | Executive Assistant to the Executive Director, Global Partnerships | United Nations Foundations | Washington DC, DC | | Administrative Assistant, Global Partnerships | United Nations Foundations | Washington DC, DC | | SENIOR ADVOCATE/RESEARCHER (International Financial Institutions) | Human Rights Watch | Washington, DC | | Director, Online Communications – Public Affairs | United Nations Foundations | Washington DC, DC | | Director, Maternal Newborn mHealth Initiative (MNMI) | United Nations Foundations | Washington DC, DC | | Staff Accountant | United Nations Foundations | Washington DC, DC | | | |  | |  | |
- Which of these preventable diseases has the highest mortality rate among children?
 | Malaria | | Pneumonia | | Measles | | HIV/AIDS | | Polio |
- American mom finds Nothing But Nets inspiration
After her 8-year-old daughter raised $135,000 to support the United Nations Foundation's Nothing But Nets campaign, Lynda Commale traveled to Uganda to hand out nets to internally displaced persons living in refugee camps. The campaign aims to end the spread of malaria by 2015 through the distribution of insecticide-treated nets. Commale saw firsthand the vulnerability of displaced populations and returned determined to keep supporting the initiative. The Philadelphia Inquirer (8/8) |
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