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- UN-backed court issues Hariri murder indictments
Six years after Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated by a bomb that targeted his motorcade, a UN-backed tribunal has issued arrest warrants that reportedly assign blame to high-ranking members of Hezbollah. The Shia militant and political group -- which now dominates the Lebanese government -- denies any involvement, and Hezbollah's leader has vowed retaliation against anyone who arrests its members. BBC (6/30), The Daily Star (Lebanon) (6/30)       - UN official raises alarm on Sudan border clashes
Clashes along border areas between north and south Sudan could trigger a full-blown war, says Kyung-wha Kang, the UN's deputy high commissioner for human rights. Armed conflict in the area has raged over ethnic disputes and the future of the Abyei region, and Kang called for investigations into widespread allegations of human-rights abuses against civilians. Google/The Associated Press (6/29) - Study links UN peacekeepers to Haiti cholera outbreak
Nepalese peacekeepers are the likely source for a cholera outbreak in Haiti that has killed more than 5,500 people, according to a report from epidemiologists and physicians published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. Researchers cite a significant body of evidence, including a precise timeline that connects the arrival of Nepalese troops to participate in United Nations peacekeeping efforts to the start of the outbreak. Google/The Associated Press (6/29)  - Pakistan faces pressure to meet polio goals
Pakistani officials reportedly have received warnings from European and World Bank leaders that the country's citizens may soon face travel restrictions if Pakistan fails to meet polio-eradication goals by 2012. Pakistan is one of only four countries where polio remains endemic, and it has reported the largest number of cases so far in 2011. DAWN Media Group (Pakistan) (6/29) - Matt Damon takes on water-, sanitation-access issues
Actor Matt Damon is spearheading a campaign to help bring clean water supplies to communities in the developing world through the creation of sustainable water and sanitation systems that residents help plan and maintain. Damon, co-founder of Water.org, says he sees the presence of clean water and proper sanitation facilities as central to communities' efforts to address development issues associated with health, education and poverty. FastCompany.com (6/20)  | - Daughters of Indian sex workers unite
 A filmmaker discusses the stories from the lives of sex workers and their daughters in an infamous brothel in the Indian state of Bihar that dates back some 300 years. This article and a related documentary look at Naseema, a girl raised amid the world of the brothel, but who was sent to school by the woman who raised her. Naseema has founded a group that works to free trafficked women, offers prostitutes alternative forms of employment, persuades sex workers to send their children to school and publishes a handwritten monthly magazine. Al-Jazeera (6/29) - Drug to prevent postpartum hemorrhaging raises hopes, concerns
The use of misoprostol to help prevent postpartum bleeding is gaining support in Africa as a means to address what is the leading cause of maternal death in developing countries. Misoprostol use has drawn criticism -- if administered improperly the drug can rupture the uterus, and it can be used to induce abortion -- but traditional birth attendants who participated in a Mozambique trial reported positive results. National Public Radio (text and audio) (6/29)  | - Norway tracks climate change in Arctic
Scientists accompanied members of the United Nations Foundation's board of directors on a visit to the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic to see firsthand the symptoms of climate change in the region. UN Foundation founder and Chairman Ted Turner and President Timothy Wirth both commended Norwegian authorities for their efforts to make the Svalbard region a central focus for tracking climate change and for researching the impact of changes at high latitudes. The InterDependent (6/29), UN Dispatch (6/29) - Chavez's health woes delay summit
Speculation is rife over the health of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez after the country canceled a regional summit -- set for next week on the 200th anniversary of its independence -- nearly three weeks after the incendiary leader sought emergency medical treatment in Cuba. If Chavez is ill, observers say, it could spark a fierce succession battle among his supporters and the military because there is no heir apparent in Chavez's inner circle. The Guardian (London) (6/29), The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model) (6/30) - Suu Kyi is warned off pending Myanmar tour
Pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, one of the world's most famous dissidents, has been warned by Myanmar authorities to cease all political activities in the run-up to her planned nationwide tour. In 2003, a similar tour by Suu Kyi was cut short by attacks from a pro-government mob -- killing many of her followers and culminating in her house arrest for seven years. The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model) (6/30) - France arms Libya's rebels, spurring NATO review
NATO is re-examining its campaign in the skies over Libya after France, a member of the alliance, admitted to arming rebels in apparent contravention of a UN mandate. The French ambassador to the United Nations defended the airlift earlier this month of large amounts of munitions to rebel fighters in the western Nafusa mountains. The Guardian (London) (6/29), Reuters (6/29)
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