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The Road To The Horizon
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Stories about life as a humanitarian aid worker, about remote places and the people I met there, about expeditions... From being ambushed in Burundi to sailing trans-Atlantic, the stories are mostly about enjoying the road more than reaching the dest
Recent Posts Tagged With 'news item'
Neda is the "Times person of the Year"
Back in June, violent protests erupted all over Iran to contest the obvious election fraud. During the time, I reported on the influence of social media in the street fights, and had one article about "Neda", a 26 year old girl who was shot in the he...
Security amiss: Firecrackers on plane and pope attacked
Further to my post about how security all boils down to "the people who implement it", rather that to "the systems themselves":The pope was attacked at the start of the midnight Christmas mass, and someone set off firecrackers aboard a US transatlant...
The US plan for Afghanistan. Page 22
It's officially called "COIN" abbreviation for "COunter INtelligence".Should probably be called WIN: "Without INtelligence".Or HOTOSOFET: "HOw TO Stimulate Our Failing Economy Through foreign wars".According to a recent figures, one gallon oil costs ...
News Feed: Somalia Fighting
News feed courtesy Humanitarian News.Create your own RSS feed based on your search criteria for the latest humanitarian news. ...
Security... Much blabla, little boumboum.
Case #1:Yesterday, Italian prime minister Berlusconi was hit by a guy hurling a statuette at him. He was taken away with blood all over his face. The hospital later confirmed he broke his nose and two teeth.Berlusconi was amidst a crowd handing out ...
Security these days
From The Morning Tribune May 9, 1903.Courtesy The Tribune News. ...
Asia typhoons: Curing is more costly than preparing
In 2008, the world spent US$12 billion on humanitarian responses to disasters. 99% of those killed by natural phenomena were in the Asia Pacific region, according to John Holmes, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.Holmes said 10% of what we spend on...
The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka
Tens of thousands of detained refugees from the war in Sri Lanka are threatened by the imminent arrival of monsoon rains in the north of the country, according to an internal United Nations document.The UN believes that about 66,000 people held in th...
Picture of the day: Suicide bomb in Peshawar
A huge and lethal blast rocked a crowded market in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday, in what appeared to be a warning about the government’s plans to launch a military offensive against militants in the frontier region of South Wazirista...
We lost five colleagues in Islamabad today
Today, it is my birthday. But not much reason to celebrate. This morning, someone got into our office in Islamabad, Pakistan, and blew himself up.He took the lives away from Botan, Farzana, Abid, GulRukh and Mohammad. Our colleagues and friends.Botan...
Copenhagen Climate Summit Heat: from business to condoms.
The more the December Copenhagen Climate Change Summit comes closer, it is interesting just watching the headlines flashing by. It seems everyone and his dog is starting to claim their stake, and to put their own spin onto climate change trying to en...
Climate change: The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes
With the media heating up for the December Climate Change Summit in Denmark, it is time to for some reflection.Does the name "Severn Cullis-Suzuki" mean anything to you? Severn was 12 when in 1992, she raised money to attend the Earth Summit in Rio d...
Hunger in the news: disaster in the making (again?)
Just watching the articles on AidNews flowing by, it looks like hunger in the world is still here, and it is not getting better. The alarm bells are ringing everywhere:Kenya drought worsens hunger riskNumber of Kenyans in need of food aid jumps by ov...
World Humanitarian Day: August 19
OCHA (the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) launches the "World Humanitarian Day". It is dedicated to "thousands of aid workers who have devoted their lives to humanitarian work, matching idealism with action, and principles wit...
British children's authors considered potential child sex offenders
How weird a well-intended legislation sometimes goes...The UK Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) is managed by the Independent Safeguarding Authority, set up after the 2002 murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells by Ian Huntley, a janitor at their s...
Children in the US are worse off than 30 years ago
The FCD Child Well-Being Index (CWI) is an annual comprehensive measure of how children are faring in the United States. It is based on 28 key indicators of well-being.This year's CWI is an updated measure of trends over the 32-year period from 1975 ...
Is the US already at war with Iran?
Support to fractions at war in a country where a third country has a political, or economical interest is not new. We have seen it throughout the Cold War, we witnessed it in Afghanistan and Iraq throughout the past decennia. We have seen it in South...
Who is on Twitter from Iran?
Here is the updated list of Twitter-ers on the ground in Iran:@2hamed@abzole@alirezasha@avahedi@azarnoush@bahadorn@Bahram81@Change_for_Iran@hamednz@huti_421@iran09@iranbaan@IranElection09@IranRiggedElect@IranUltimatum@jadi@jimsciuttoABC@jubinahdi@Key...
#CNNfail: CNN versus Twitter on the Iran protests
Since the onset of the post-election violence in Teheran on Saturday, Iranian Twitter-ers have been using two main tags to identify their updates: #iranelection and #CNNfail.The latter was to protest the lack of coverage of the protests by the mainst...
Social media buzzing after the Iran elections
Updated June 14 2009 11:00 GMTSomething is brewing in Iran. And the people are reporting.Thousands of angry protesters have clashed with police in several cities in Iran after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of Iran's presidenti...
Peshawar bombing hits the aid community
Last night, a suicide bomb attack on a luxury hotel in the north-west Pakistani city of Peshawar, has killed 15 people and injured at least 60.Gunmen stormed the outer security barrier at the Pearl Continental Hotel before blowing up a vehicle contai...
Worrying events...
There is always something going on, somewhere in the world, that keeps us, aidworkers, busy. Here is what is on our mind these days:8,000 Somalis are displaced in one day of fighting around Mogadishu (Full)A rebellion seems to be on the raise in Nige...
The UN in the news today. Spot the politics.
On Aid Topics page of NewsFeeds, I keep track of news articles in which the UN are mentioned.Today's selection gives a good overview of what the world body is tackling.U.N. Health Aid Plan Unites Air Travelers and Bill Clinton: Clinton, ex-president,...
The Red Cross is 150 years young.
A counselor listens to a rape victim at an ICRC-supported "listening house" one of numerous such sanctuaries near the fighting in the DRC where victims can receive medical support and emotional support.On 24 June 1859, during the War of Italian Unifi...
The Gaza War Crimes Saga continued.
The Gaza Saga on human rights abuses seems to get a nasty tail...A United Nations inquiry into the Gaza conflict earlier this year concluded that Israel intentionally struck a U.N.-run elementary school, killing three young men seeking shelter from t...
The cases of Swine Flu - The casualty maps
One source:View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger mapView H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger mapHere are the cases of the H1N1 Swine flu infections (in 2009).Pink markers are suspected infectionsPurple markers are confirmed infectionsYellow markers are negative.Fat...
Bad PR: Airforce One flying low over Manhattan
Someone thought it would be a good idea for a photo shoot today: fly AirForce One, escorted with military planes, low over Manhattan.Why does this footage give me the creeps?Update: It seems someone at the White House is not happy... (Thanks, Jonatha...
