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Monday, May 6, 2013

Mrs Ban Soon-taek: Every Woman, Every Child

This post is part of the Global Mom Relay. Every time you share this blog, $5 will go to women and girls around the world. Scroll to the bottom to find out more.

I have seen the power of mothers around the world, from Angolan women carrying their babies to bustling health posts in Luanda to Indian women soothing their little ones at primary care centres in Mumbai to expectant mothers at a maternity ward in Sarajevo and beyond. I travel as the wife of the United Nations Secretary-General, but I view their struggles and triumphs through the lens of my experiences as a mother and grandmother.

Few people know that my own birthday was recorded four months late. My father waited, like so many others of his generation in our embattled country, until at least 100 days had passed. In those days in Korea, you weren't sure if your baby would survive. This remains true around the world.

If my experiences in Korea have taught me anything, it is that any country, no matter how poor or destroyed by fighting, can rebuild to become a stable and prosperous place. The foundation for advancement is caring for women and children. This demands first and foremost making sure they survive, so that parents do not have to hesitate to register a birth or bury a mother who died giving life.

Routine obstetric care is essential, but Every Woman Every Child is about more than mothers -- it aims to reach all women. This requires attention to their needs throughout the reproductive health cycle. This is a fundamental human right, and a key component of human dignity.

Women and especially mothers have a critical role in raising healthy children. Study after study shows that the more you nourish a girl, send her to school, give her opportunities for work and protect her from violence, the stronger her children will be. This is true in the world's poorest countries -- but it is just as important in wealthy societies. Everywhere, women deserve protection and support.

My husband takes special pride in having appointed more women to leadership positions than ever before in the history of the United Nations. He does this out of a sense of conviction that women leaders can help empower women globally -- and that when you unleash the power of women, they will change the world.

The United Nations is leading a worldwide campaign to advance this cause. Everyone can be part of it, whether you join an organization working for progress or an individual speaking out for what you believe.

An old Korean saying points out that precious stones are just rocks if they are not strung together to form jewellery. I applaud this Global Mom Relay for pulling together the wisdom and insights of people from so many different fields around a common goal, giving greater meaning to our international campaign for women and children.

Each time you share this Global Mom Relay piece on Facebook, Twitter via the sharing icons above, or through clicking on the above graphic, or donate $5 or more, a $5 donation (up to $500,000) will be donated by Johnson & Johnson and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the Girl Up. $5 pays for school for 5 months of education for a girl in Ethiopia. Girl Up is able to help thousands of girls around the world go to school, see a doctor, stay safe from violence and work toward a brighter future for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Join us by sharing it forward and unlock the potential for women and children around the globe. For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org/globalmomrelay. The United Nations Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, BabyCenter, The Huffington Post, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation created the Global Mom Relay, a first-of-its-kind virtual relay with a goal of improving the lives of women and children around the globe.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mrs-ban-soontaek/every-woman-every-child_b_3216408.html

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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Samsung Knox gets official DoD approval for government use

Samsung announced in March that its Knox security suite would debut with the Galaxy S 4. That might not have happened exactly as planned, but just as the WSJ predicted the Department of Defense has given it the official hat-tip for use in government departments. Good news for Samsung, who will now see its Knox-enabled devices added to the alongside BlackBerry on the official list of approved hardware. This also represents the first time any Android devices have been deemed secure enough for use by US services. With iOS believed to be going through the same boot-camp trials, agencies could be about to get a lot more choice.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/03/samsung-knox-gets-official-dod-approval-for-government-use/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Saturday, May 4, 2013

Miley Cyrus #1 on Maxim Hot 100 List: Whoa ...

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Officials: Israel launches airstrike into Syria

FILE - In this June 3, 2012 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad delivers a speech at the parliament in Damascus, Syria. Israel launched an airstrike into Syria, apparently targeting a suspected weapons site, U.S. officials said Friday night, May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/SANA, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Israel launched an airstrike into Syria, apparently targeting a suspected weapons site, U.S. officials said Friday night.

The strike occurred overnight Thursday into Friday, the officials told The Associated Press. It did not appear that a chemical weapons site was targeted, they said, and one official said the strike appeared to have hit a warehouse.

The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Israel has targeted weapons in the past that it believes are being delivered to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. Earlier this week, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said his group would assist Syrian President Bashar Assad if needed in the effort to put down a 2-year-old uprising.

Israeli Embassy spokesman Aaron Sagui would not comment Friday night specifically on the report of an Israeli strike into Syria.

"What we can say is that Israel is determined to prevent the transfer of chemical weapons or other game-changing weaponry by the Syrian regime to terrorists, specially to Hezbollah in Lebanon," Sagui said in an email to the AP.

In 2007, Israeli jets bombed a suspected nuclear reactor site along the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria, an attack that embarrassed and jolted the Assad regime and led to a buildup of the Syrian air defense system. Russia provided the hardware for the defense systems upgrade and continues to be a reliable supplier of military equipment to the Assad regime.

The airstrike, first reported by CNN, came hours before President Barack Obama told reporters at a news conference in Costa Rica on Friday that he didn't foresee a scenario in which the U.S. would send troops to Syria. More than 70,000 peoples have died and hundreds of thousands have fled the country as the Assad regime has battled rebels.

The Israeli strike also follows days of renewed concerns that Syria might be using chemical weapons against opposition forces. Obama has characterized evidence of the use of chemical weapons as a "game-changer" that would have "enormous consequences."

While the U.S. has been providing nonlethal aide to opposition forces in Syria, even stepping up that form of support in recent days, the Obama administration has resisted calls from some American lawmakers to arm the rebels or to work to establish a no-fly zone to aid the insurgency.

On Thursday, however, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the administration is rethinking its opposition to providing arms to the rebels. He said it was one of several options as the U.S. consults with allies about steps to be taken to drive Assad from power. Officials in the administration who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss strategy said earlier this week that arming the opposition forces was seen as more likely than any other military option.

Obama followed Hagel's comments by saying options will continue to be evaluated, though he did not cite providing arms specifically. Concerns that U.S. weapons could end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked groups helping the Syrian opposition or other extremists, including Hezbollah, have stood in the way of that change in strategy.

"We want to make sure that we look before we leap and that what we're doing is actually helpful to the situation as opposed to making it more deadly or more complex," Obama said Thursday at a news conference in Mexico.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-03-Syria-Israeli%20Airstrike/id-559314e656d440389e61c98f80197832

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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Explosion kills Calif. man; neighbors evacuated (Providence Journal)

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Monday, April 15, 2013

Venezuela's choice: Chavez heir or fresh start

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? Voters who kept Hugo Chavez in office for 14 years were deciding Sunday whether to elect the devoted lieutenant he chose to carry on the revolution that endeared him to the poor but that many Venezuelans believe is ruining the nation.

Across Caracas, trucks blaring bugle calls awoke Venezuelans long before dawn in the ruling socialists' traditional election day get-out-the-vote tactic. This time, they also boomed Chavez's voice singing the national anthem.

Nicolas Maduro was seeking to ride Chavez's endorsement to victory with a campaign nearly bereft of promises but freighted with personal attacks that was otherwise little more than an unflagging tribute to the polarizing leader who died of cancer March 5.

The 50-year-old longtime Chavez foreign minister pinned his hopes on the immense loyalty for his boss among millions of poor beneficiaries of a socialist government's largesse and the heft of a state apparatus that Chavez skillfully consolidated.

The governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela deployed a well-worn, get-out-the-vote machine spearheaded by loyal state employees. It also enjoyed a pervasive state media apparatus as part of a near monopoly on institutional power.

Challenger Henrique Capriles' aides accused Chavista loyalists in the judiciary of putting them at glaring disadvantage. Prosecutors and state regulators impoverished the campaign and opposition broadcast media by targeting them with unwarranted fines and prosecutions, they said

Capriles' main campaign weapon was thus jujutsu: To simply point out "the incompetence of the state," as he put it to reporters in a news conference Saturday night.

Maduro was still favored, but his early big lead in opinion polls halved over the past two weeks in a country struggling with the legacy of Chavez's management of the world's largest oil reserves. Many Venezuelans believe his confederates not only squandered but plundered much of the $1 trillion in oil revenues during his time in office.

People are fed up with chronic power outages, crumbling infrastructure, unfinished public works projects, double-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages and rampant crime that has given Venezuela among the world's highest homicide and kidnapping rates.

"We can't continue to believe in messiahs," said Jose Romero, a 48-year-old industrial engineer voting in the central city of Valencia. "This country has learned a lot and today we know that one person can't fix everything."

Capriles is a 40-year-old state governor who lost to Chavez in October's presidential election by a nearly 11-point margin, the best showing ever by a challenger to the longtime president. He showed for Maduro none of the respect he accorded Chavez. Maduro hit back hard, at one point calling Capriles' backers "heirs of Hitler." It was an odd accusation considering that Capriles is the grandson of Holocaust survivors from Poland.

"Capriles ran a remarkable campaign that shows he has creativity, tenacity and disposition to play political hardball," said David Smilde, an analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America think tank.

At his campaign rallies, Capriles would read out a list of unfinished road, bridge and rail projects. Then he asked people what goods were scarce on store shelves. The opposition contends Chavez emptied the treasury last year to buy re-election with government largesse.

Maduro, a former union activist and bus driver with close ties to Cuba's leaders, constantly alleged that Capriles was conspiring with U.S. putschists to destabilize Venezuela and even suggested Washington had somehow infected Chavez with the cancer that killed him.

But mainly he focused his campaign message on the simple theme of his mentor's October campaign: "I am Chavez. We are all Chavez."

Maduro promised to expand anti-poverty programs, but without explaining how he'd pay for them.

On Saturday evening, Maduro met with members of Venezuela's 125,000-strong citizen militias outside the museum that holds Chavez's remains to mark a poignant anniversary: Eleven years since Chavez was triumphantly restored to power after a failed coup initially recognized by the U.S. government.

Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank said Maduro campaigned "ineptly," trying too hard to "replay the Chavez script" and alienating moderate Chavistas.

Whoever wins Sunday will face no end of hard choices.

Many Venezuelan factories operate at half capacity because strict currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials. Business leaders say some companies are on verging on bankruptcy because they are unable to extend lines of credit with foreign suppliers.

Chavez imposed currency controls a decade ago trying to stem capital flight as his government expropriated large land parcels and dozens of businesses. Now, dollars sell on the black market at three times the official exchange rate and Maduro has had to devalue Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, twice this year.

Meanwhile, consumers grumble that stores are short of milk, butter, corn flour and other food staples. The government blames hoarding, while the opposition points at the price controls imposed by Chavez in an attempt to bring down double-digit inflation.

Capriles said he will reverse land expropriations, which he says have ruined many farms and forced Venezuela to import food after previously being a net exporter of beef, rice, coffee and other foods. But even Capriles said currency and price controls cannot be immediately scrapped without triggering a disastrous run on the bolivar.

High international oil prices remain a boon for Venezuela, underpinning its economy. Chavez spent $500 billion to bolster social programs, trimming the poverty rate from 50 percent to about 30 percent.

But critics say the government has misused the oil industry, ordering the state oil company PDVSA into food distribution and financing of social programs while neglecting needed investment that has caused production and refining to drop.

Venezuela's oil revenue is down from $5.6 billion five years ago to $3.8 billion in 2012, and PDVSA's debt climbed to $40 billion last year. The country even imports 100,000 barrels a day of gasoline from the United States.

___

Alexandra Olson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alexolson99

Frank Bajak on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fbajak

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelas-choice-chavez-heir-fresh-start-060843388.html

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Who's really behind 'I'm in love with Margaret Thatcher'?

Thatcher opponents have driven the song 'Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead' to the top of Britain's pop charts. Was the 'retaliatory' promotion of a 1979 punk song fanned by fans - or a good capitalist moment?

By Jason Walsh,?Correspondent / April 13, 2013

Two songs are battling to the top of the British music charts in memory of Margret Thatcher. One is, her supporters say, in bad taste, but the one adopted by fans of the late Conservative prime minister isn't quite what it seems, either.

Skip to next paragraph Jason Walsh

Ireland Correspondent

Jason Walsh has been the Monitor's Ireland correspondent since 2009, dividing his time primarily between Belfast, Northern Ireland and?Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. During that time he has reported on stumbling blocks in the peace process, the dissident republican threat,?pro-British unionist riots, demands for abortion legislation and Ireland's economic crash.

Would Maggie be proud?

In some press interviews, Hargreaves has implied, rather unconvincingly, that he is a supporter of Mrs. Thatcher. But if the song is a hit, the royalty checks may represent some private enterprise Margaret Thatcher would approve of.

Hargreaves, an ex-punk rocker who now works with adults with learning disabilities, is an unlikely figure for adoption by Conservative Party members, though he did say "Ding Dong" was disrespectful. (Read a in-depth profile of Margaret Thatcher here.)

"My grandfather was [both] a Christian and a communist. I'm a fat, 50-year-old punk. You make your mind up about my political sensibilities," he says.

Hargreaves, who is due to perform with his old band on BBC television news in Manchester on Monday, says he doesn't really mind how high the song charts in the end, but that the experience has been fun.?"We dunked a pebble in the lake and there seems to be a few ripples."

Eighty-five seconds of the song were previously featured in the 2011 biopic movie "The Iron Lady," starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher.

"I find it hilarious that Tories have adopted it," he says. "The song is a sort-of tribute and sort-of not."

The official chart will be announced on Sunday afternoon, but by today it had already reached No. 6 in the iTunes chart.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/i67ay5w_EFM/Who-s-really-behind-I-m-in-love-with-Margaret-Thatcher

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