WHO to consider declaring swine flu pandemic

The World Health Organization scheduled an emergency meeting for Thursday to decide whether to declare a global swine flu pandemic as confirmed cases of H1N1 virus continue to soar worldwide. By early Thursday morning, the U.N. health agency had recorded more than 27,700 cases in 74 countries, with 141 deaths.

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Sustainable Aquaculture: Net Profits

It is rare for a farmer to appreciate the predators that eat the animals he raises. But Miguel Medialdea is hardly an ordinary farmer. Looking out on to the carpet of flamingos that covers one of the lagoons that make up Veta la Palma, the fish farm in southern Spain where he is biologist, Medialdea shrugs

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Commentary: Obama must speak to young Muslims

In his speech Thursday to the Muslim world from Egypt, President Obama must seize the moment to stress that the U.S. is not at war with Islam, to appeal to millions of young men and women burdened by economic hardship and political oppression, and to help broker an Arab-Israeli peace settlement

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Pakistan secures key Swat Valley city

The Pakistani military says security forces have taken back the city of Mingora from the Taliban, calling it a significant victory in its offensive against the Taliban. Mingora is the largest city in Pakistan’s Swat Valley where security forces have been fighting the Taliban in a month-long offensive. “It is a great accomplishment,” said Pakistani Maj

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Paper: 20,000 killed in Sri Lanka conflict

More than 20,000 civilians were killed in the final months of Sri Lanka’s civil war — nearly three times previous estimates, The Times newspaper in Britain reported Friday. The Times said it had acquired confidential U.N. documents that record nearly 7,000 civilian deaths in the no-fire zone up to the end of April.

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More Somalis flee heavy fighting in capital

Described as the largest single gathering of displaced residents in the world today, tens of thousands of civilians are seeking shelter along the Afgooye corridor outside Mogadishu, according to the United Nations. Fighting between government forces and Islamist militias has triggered the flight of more than 67,000 Somalis in and around Mogadishu since May 8, the U.N

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Taliban seek return to peace deal in Pakistan

The Pakistani Taliban says it wants to return to a peace deal that recently collapsed, sparking an ongoing massive military operation, a spokesman said Tuesday. Taliban militants in Swat Valley have announced that they are willing to disarm if the government allows sharia, or Islamic law, to be implemented in the region, a spokesman for Taliban mediator Sufi Mohammed said.

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What Next for Sri Lanka’s 2.5 Million Tamils?

The Sri Lankan national flag is everywhere in Colombo these days. In the last months of the Sri Lankan government’s 26-year war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , the national flag — a sword-bearing lion on a deep red field — was flown at rallies each time the Sri Lankan army gained ground against the LTTE.

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