"It's unfortunate that it's only the fairly high-profile emergencies, such as Darfur, Ethiopia and Eritrea, that are receiving these funds, as there is a silent emergency in Southern Africa - due to HIV/AIDS, erratic weather and weak economies - that is claiming more lives on a daily basis," World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman Mike Huggins told IRIN.

The JCP tried hard to inform the public that it brought the construction of a wasteful complex to a halt; corrected unfair public projects in favor of a special interest group (Kaido) taking advantage of the past discrimination against a particular section of the population; proposed to cut assembly members' salaries by ten percent; and showed feasibilities of a reduction of national insurance premiums, an expansion of free medical care for children, and subsidies for housing improvement.

Minister for Public Service and Administration, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, said in her budget vote speech that "we are still faced with strong divides between urban and rural, male and female, rich and poor, white and black, literate and illiterate"...Poverty also remains inextricably linked to race in South Africa. The highest incidence of joblessness is found among rural black women, with more than 47 percent out of work...

“Asbestos is a threat to everyone, not just workers”, Ryder [General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)] said, “from children in schools, to young and old in private and public buildings where asbestos is present and to whole communities where it exists as a pollutant".

The British Prime Minister’s slavish support is appreciated by the Bush administration, but it is not crucial and it is not seen as having to be paid for. Rather, it is viewed as the president’s due...President Bush has no deep interest in, or commitment to, Africa.

Yesterday’s announcement of a proposal for a small increase in humanitarian assistance to African countries by the Bush administration ahead of the G-8 weekend meeting was met with harsh criticism by observers of Bush’s policy toward African countries...Critics of Bush’s aid increase proposal described it as "disingenuous."

After a brief delay orchestrated by Senate Democrats, Bush’s controversial choice for UN ambassador, John Bolton will likely get a Senate vote this week, says Senate Democrat Joe Biden.

During Japan's war of aggression against China, I committed crimes against the Chinese. For the past 60 years I have been suffering from a strong uneasiness caused by a sense of guilt. Kneeling down, in that sense, is the best way to express my feeling. Nobody asked me to do so, and I did this voluntarily," added Tatsutaro while referring to his act of kneeling down on the Marco Polo Bridge in southwest Beijing.

A retrospective overview of the role of India's first prime minister,Jawaharlal Nehru, and the non-aligned foreign policy pursued by the government. Famous words: "India[will] not allow foreign troops on her soil under any circumstances and any pretext."

After the Bush administration yesterday (June 1) lined up numerous officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, to attack Amnesty International for its report that criticizes the administration’s human rights record, the respected human rights organization fired back.

In 2003, the Bush administration transferred weapons to 18 of the 25 nations engaged in active conflicts. Thirteen of the 25 nations who received weapons were classified by the U.S. State Department as “undemocratic” governments. These 13 governments received over $2.7 billion on U.S. weapons.

"...until recently it would have been hard to imagine there would be a widely-reported public debate on legalising the use of torture in Australia...over the past few weeks there has been a lively exchange in the media with some academics, law enforcement officials and military spokespersons calling for a rethinking of what constitutes torture and the circumstances they believe justify its use."

In a desperate effort to stop a plummeting approval rating, President Bush yesterday dismissed an Amnesty International Human Rights Report that criticized the administration’s treatment of US-held prisoners of war.
[Bush press conference quote,"...absurd...absurd...absurd..."]

The hypocrisy of the United States is stunning in its shamelessness. From nuclear proliferation, to human rights, to due process, the U.S. persistently and arrogantly pursues a policy of do as we say, not as we do.

.. It is not exaggerating to say that the blame can be laid fairly and squarely at the door of one country — the United States...It is time that the politicians of the world listened a little more closely to the biggest world movement there is — the peace movement.

The Sudanese government should drop charges against all aid workers, including the head of Médecins Sans Frontières in Khartoum, Paul Foreman, who was arrested yesterday and released on bail...Sudanese authorities claim that an MSF report on rape published on March 8 violated Sudanese law and that the report is “false.”

A housing shortage mixed with grinding poverty has led to the common practice of home owners renting out overcrowded illegal shacks, built literally in their backyards, to families scrabbling to make a living in the city...The Zimbabwe National Pastors Conference condemned the crackdown in a statement and urged the government to make war on poverty, not the poor.

When former Arizona Cardinals football player turned Army Ranger Pat Tillman died in Afghanistan, sonorous bugles moaned from coast to coast.

This week, the administration forced The Global Fund to accept Randall Tobias, U.S. Ambassador for AIDS Coordination, as the chairman of the Policy and Strategy Committee. This will give the Bush administration undue influence on international HIV/AIDS policy, and will likely be a death sentence for many living with the disease.

US activists released an open letter to President Bush at a press conference Tuesday calling for specific and immediate actions to stop ongoing atrocities in the Darfur region of the Sudan.