South African President Jacob Zuma has apologised for fathering a child with a woman who was not his wife.
Author: WHES
Amid starvation, runaway inflation, and food shortages in the Army, North Korea fires top economic officials, South Korean press reports
SEOUL — Amid accounts of starvation, food shortages in the army and runaway inflation, senior economic officials in North Korea have been fired in recent days, according to reports in the South Korean media.
President Zuma gives exactly the wrong lesson on HIV prevention (multiple sexual partners and no condoms–the principal way HIV is spread) to a nation where HIV is the biggest killer
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Burmese officials sentenced to death for revealing government visits to Russia and North Korea and information about military tunnels
Two Burmese officials have been sentenced to death for leaking details of secret government visits to North Korea and Russia, the BBC has learned.The officials were also found guilty of leaking information about military tunnels allegedly built in Burma by North Korea, a source in Burma said.
Indonesia: Internet facilitates illegal kidney trade–Thomas sells kidney through internet website to pay for mother’s hospitalization
Thomas, 30, said mounting debt forced him to take the desperate step of selling a kidney on the internet for 300 million rupiah (US$32,400).
“I have to take my chances because that’s the only way I can get the money to pay off my debt,” Thomas, who declined to give his surname, told IRIN by telephone.
North Korean currency crackdown fuels food shortages; government’s aim is to decrease reliance on markets, which now provide about half of North Korea’s food, but which also represent an alternative source of economic, and thus political, power
TOKYO — Strong-armed currency reform in North Korea, which has confiscated the savings of small businesses and forbidden the use of foreign money, is now causing runaway inflation and contributing to food shortages, according to several reports from inside the closed state
In Mali’s richest region, Sikasso, malnutrition is as high as in the country’s barren north, due in large part to concentration on cash crop, export-oriented production in the rich region
Sikasso is one of Mali’s most fertile regions, but under-five malnutrition is as high here as in the country’s barren north, according to government health data.Health workers and agricultural experts explain the paradox as a combination of a lack of nutritional awareness, and the concentration on export-oriented cash crop production.
With harsh sentence of Liu Xiaobo, China threatens democracy and human rights activists and signals to the West that its concerns don’t matter much
BEIJING — The harsh sentence handed down on Friday to Liu Xiaobo, one of China’s most prominent campaigners for democracy and human rights, prompted strong rebukes in the United States and Europe, but it also raised fresh questions over whether the West has much leverage over a government that is increasingly self-assured on the world stage.
Pastoralism unraveling in Mongolia due to low wool prices and high number of goats, creating environmental damage
A pungent odor like turpentine wafts over the hillsides north of the Mongolian capital. It comes from the sharilj, a wild plant that has taken over the scalloped landscape, a telltale sign of overgrazing since the plant is inedible for sheep and goats.
Aid to African families that take in orphaned children gives alternative to orphanages
MCHINJI DISTRICT, Malawi — The Home of Hope orphanage provides Chikodano Lupanga, 15, with three nutritious meals a day, new school uniforms, sensible black shoes and a decent education.
