Jonathan's blog

According to various blogs (for example this one and this one), Max Lucado, Rick Atchley, and various others met with Chinese officials in Washington, D.C., in mid-July and were hoping (scheduled?) to meet with the president of China in Beijing this past Friday. The subject of these conversations was to be religious freedom in China.

On Friday of our week in Sylva, NC, the Mannings and Tysons came over from eastern NC, and we went to visit Thomas the Tank Engine...

From a Reuters article of the same title by Lesley Wroughton on Yahoo News:

The world's richest countries are falling short on pledges made last year to provide Africa with life-saving AIDS drugs, expanded trade and increased aid, said rocker-activist Bono… "They started out to climb an Everest but over the past year they got lost at base camp," Bono told Reuters in an interview after the release of a report by his lobby group Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa group, or DATA… The report said wealthy countries had delivered on their promise to cancel the debts of 19 poor countries, most of them in Africa, with 44 countries eligible under World Bank and International Monetary Fund programs… The report said relief from burdensome debt payments in Cameroon, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia has already swelled spending on education, health and AIDS… The report said much more was needed to provide access to drug therapy to fight HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Globally, AIDS funding has grown to $8.3 billion in 2005 from $300 million in the late 1990's. In Africa, the number of people being treated rose to 800,000 last year from 100,000 in 2003. DATA said, however, that donors were spending half of what was needed to meet the goal of getting AIDS treatment to at least four million Africans by 2010. The report commended the United States for leadership on AIDS programs in Africa, and Britain and France for their contributions to a Geneva-based global fund for AIDS. Canada, Italy, Japan and Germany were laggards, it said. "Breaking your promise is always bad but breaking a promise to people whose life depends on it is unforgivable," said Bono, who recently traveled to Africa. The report castigated the G8 for failure to reach a trade deal that would open markets for African products

From an article titled "Historic Vote: Women Hit the Polls in Kuwait" by Diana Elias on abcnews.com:

Women in this conservative oil-rich emirate voted in parliamentary elections for the first time Thursday, a vote that also inspired surprisingly vocal calls for reform and criticism of the ruling family The polls marked a new stage in the U.S. ally's tentative moves toward greater democracy and not just because of the entry of women. The election brought unprecedented political activism in a country where the ruling family has strong influence over politics, with conservative Islamists joining liberals in demanding electoral reform and protesting corruption. Women, who won the right to vote and run for office last year, went to separate polling stations from men, choosing among 252 candidates competing for 50 parliamentary seats. Twenty-eight candidates were women.

On Thursday of our week in western NC, some friends from Knoxville visited us in Sylva. We had lunch at Lulu's on Main, took the Dill's Creek hike, etc.