The Pacific island of Guam, the United States is planning an enormous military buildup of some $15 billion on the Pacific Island of Guam.  The project would turn the thirty-mile-long island into a major hub for US military operations in the Pacific. It has been described as the largest military buildup in recent history and could bring as many as 50,000 [...]

According to the president of Venezuela’s National Statistics Institute (INE), Elías Eljuri, poverty in Venezuela declined to 23% in the second semester of 2009, while extreme poverty has fallen to 6%. This contrasts substantially with poverty rates of 70% and extreme poverty of 40% in 1996, before the election of Venezuela’s current president, Hugo Chávez. Venezuela will  also [...]

It has been eight years since the Taliban has theoretically been removed from power, yet women’s rights have not improved for the larger population.  In 2004 the Constitution proclaimed equality for sexes under the law, yet abuse, rape, arrests, and inadequate schooling for women are still issues that have not been fixed.  The United Kingdom’s [...]

College for $99 a month may eventually destroy our traditional system of higher education. One fifth of the student population in 2008 took some sort of distance learning course showing a major increase in online student population compared to only one year prior. Companies like StraighterLine offer online courses in subjects like accounting, statistics and [...]

Millions of Afro-Brazilians, who in some states like Bahia account for 75 per cent of the population, are mired in poverty, lack access to basic services and employment opportunities, and face serious discrimination, injustice and violence. These are some of the key conclusions that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has reached after a just ended weeklong visit [...]

India’s 1.2 billion citizens are to be issued biometric ID cards. These ID cards are an attempt to improve delivery of India’s public services. They will hold the person’s name, age, birth date, fingerprint and iris scan. A giant computer will hold the personal details of at least 600 million citizens, making this system on [...]

Irrigation in the Scott and Shasta river basins threaten salmon population. Water levels in these rivers are becoming so low that the fish cannot make it far enough up river to spawn.  The reason for the low levels of water is that much of the water is diverted away from the rivers for irrigation on [...]