It’s hard to believe, but even today, people are forced into slavery, girls are sexually exploited and children are forced to do hard labor — all for the sake of profits.
Author: WHES
Child trafficking rampant in poor Indian villages
In a country where well over half the population lives on less than two dollars a day, it takes a lot to shock people. The sight of desperate families traveling in search of money and food, whole communities defecating in the open, old women performing back-breaking labour, all this is simply part of life in India, home to 1.2 billion people.
Thai military declares a coup, detains key political leaders
Soldiers swept into the streets of Bangkok, protest leaders were rounded up and international TV networks went dark Thursday after a military coup pitched Thailand into an unsettling new period of settings
America’s growing food inequality problem
Part of that divide is likely price-driven. Health foods, while growing in popularity (and fast), can be expensive, and, in turn, inaccessible to poorer people not just in America, but anywhere. “Price is a major determinant of food choice, and healthful foods generally cost more than unhealthful foods in the United States,” the study said. A significant portion of the U.S. population, after all, has enough trouble feeding itself any food, let alone fancy food—some 15 percent of the U.S. population and 17 percent of U.S. households were food “insecure” as of 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which means that they occasionally run out of money for food, or food entirely.
Laos “land grabs” drive subsistence farmers into deeper poverty
“When these lands [are given] to companies and converted to industrial agriculture or other uses, it destroys the foundation of rural people’s lives, livelihoods and knowledge systems, as well as their access to food, nutrition, medicines and incomes,” Shalmali Guttal, a senior analyst with Focus on the Global South, a Bangkok-based NGO which campaigns for social justice in Laos, told IRIN.
North Korea’s capital, with its water parks and new buildings, coddles the elite
Cars, for instance. A recent visitor, in the capital for the first time since 2008, found many more of them on the streets — and not just the locally produced “Pyonghwa” brand or Chinese BYDs, but Lexus sport-utility vehicles and late-model BMWs and Audis.
Mubarak gets three years for embezzlement, and his sons get 4
CAIRO — A criminal court here convicted former President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday of embezzling millions of dollars of public money for his personal use in private homes and palaces, in a case that rights advocates say could now implicate the current prime minister and spy chief.
U.S. carries out counter-terrorism strike in Somalia
The U.S. military carried out a counterterrorism strike Monday against leaders of the militant group al-Shabab in Somalia, Pentagon officials said, although it was unclear whether the operation was successful.
Great Society at 50: LBJ’s Job Corps will cost taxpayers $1.7 billion this year. Does it work?
INDIAHOMA, Okla. — In the middle of an Oklahoma wildlife refuge — at a campus so remote that buffalo wander in — about 100 young people are taking classes in the hope that the U.S. government can turn their lives around.
Military footprints in the Sahara (graphic)
The United States and France are expanding their military presence in West Africa with a complementary network of small bases to support counterterrorism missions and drone flights. Read related article.
