[cross-posted at NPR Check]

More evidence that the Village really is a sack of pus comes from Saturday's Washington Post:
AIDS Funding Binds Longevity of Millions to U.S.
Open-Ended Commitment of Money Is Implied

President Bush plans to sign a bill next week that commits the United States to spending about $40 billion over the next five years to fight AIDS overseas, a major expansion of what many consider his most successful foreign policy initiative.

From Crossed Crocodiles because I could not resist the photo.

Cross-posted from The Global Sociology Blog.

It is a story that has made headlines in the UK because it involves some high-level British players, via The Guardian:

"The British mercenary Simon Mann was today sentenced to 34 years in prison for plotting to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.

The Eton-educated former SAS officer was sentenced after a trial last month during which it was claimed that a number of western governments knew about the coup plans. The court heard that Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of the former British prime minister, was a committed member of the group.

Mann was arrested in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 2004 with dozens of mercenaries when their private plane landed. He acknowledged knowingly taking part in the attempt to topple the government, but his lawyer argued Mann was a secondary player.

The sentence is longer than expected."

  Read more…

Cross-posted from The Global Sociology Blog.

Ok, Correntians, this is one of these long and substantial posts of mine where one of you shows up in the comments and summarizes the whole thing in 2 lines... making me look like a blabbering fool!

It's been a while since I've done one of these posts on reports - most of the time by IRIN - on the deplorable conditions under which women and girls live in many parts of the world. However, the articles have been piling up in my Newsreader, so, it's time for one. So here we go:  Read more…

First some surprsing facts, for example, did you know that Stuttgart is the capitol of Africa?

Resistance? Insurgents?

Like it or not, our next president will have to deal with conflicts all over the world. The nature of warfare has been changing (a lot of ink has been spent on this already) but obviously, this administration did not read the memo.

IRIN has done a tremendous job reporting on the global nature of child trafficking... in general media indifference. First stop, Mozambique:

"A truck packed with 40 children was intercepted in the central Mozambican province of Manica this week, sparking concern over increased child trafficking and the urgent need for effective legislation to address the problem."