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Tag Archives: population
Malaysia frees woman scheduled for caning
A Malaysian model, who was set to become the first woman to be caned in the southeast Asian country for drinking beer in public, was inexplicably spared her sentence Monday, her father said. Authorities had picked up Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, from her father’s house Monday morning and were taking her to a prison in the eastern state of Pahang when the car turned around and brought her back. “They sent her back to the house.
World population projected to reach 7 billion next year
The world’s population is forecast to hit 7 billion next year, the vast majority of its growth coming in developing and, in many cases, the poorest nations, a report released Wednesday said. A staggering 97 percent of global growth over the next 40 years will happen in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the Population Reference Bureau’s 2009 World Population Data Sheet.
Global swine flu deaths top 1,100
More than 1,100 people worldwide have died from swine flu since it emerged in Mexico and the U.S. in April, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization. As of July 31, the total number of victims killed by the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, stood at 1,154 — an increase of 338 since WHO’s previous update on July 27.
France set to relax Sunday shopping ban
The French are in for a significant cultural shift next week if the Senate approves a new law from President Nicolas Sarkozy to allow more shops to open on Sundays. What seems routine in much of the Western world has been fiercely resisted in France, where Sundays have officially been set aside as a day of rest for more than a century and where a 35-hour workweek remains the norm.
Commentary: West stares into Afghan abyss
Given its long history of warfare, the United Kingdom is not squeamish about fatalities in time of war and yet a debate has been ignited by the deaths of 15 British soldiers in Afghanistan over the last few weeks. The question now is whether this profound soul-searching results in a more efficient policy towards the war-torn country. The West became involved in fighting in Afghanistan principally because the Taliban government allowed a non-state actor to carry out acts of terrorism unhindered from within its borders
Why Obama’s Afghan War is Different
World Bank: Poor nations hit hard by fall in global trade
Bill Gates: Don’t cut aid due to recession
Billionaire Bill Gates has urged industrialized nations to honor aid pledges to developing nations despite the recession. ONE, the advocacy group backed by Gates and rock musicians Bob Geldof Bono released a report Thursday attacking several Group of Eight nations for meeting financial aid goals, set in 2005, to countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The report said that Italy, host to the next G8 summit, has “performed especially poorly” in its share of aid spending and that France has fallen behind on its commitment.