International

In response to a comment about global warming, I looked up the data for CO2 emissions from the US and China over the last 25 years and made the plots below. The data are from the Energy Information Administration's "Official Energy Statistics from the U.S. Government" on the web here. The data represent emissions of CO2 from the consumption and flaring of fossil fuels. The first plot shows that since 1980, the U.S. has released 2 times as much carbon dioxide as China has.

The second shows that the contrast is even greater per capita (per person): each year since 1980 the U.S. has released between 4 and 10 times as much CO2 per person as China.

The third plot shows that there is reason to be cocerned about China. Though in recent years the U.S. has continued to emit more CO2 than China, China's emissions are accelerating drastically and will eclipse ours.

From an article of the same title in the LA Times by Henry Chu:

As temp jobs go, Saroj Mehli has landed what she feels is a pretty sweet deal. It's a nine-month gig, no special skills needed, and the only real labor comes at the end - when she gives birth. If everything goes according to plan, Mehli, 32, will deliver a healthy baby early next year. But rather than join her other three children, the newborn will be handed over to an American couple who are unable to bear a child on their own and are hiring Mehli to do it for them. She'll be paid about $5,000 for acting as a surrogate mother, a bonanza that would take her more than six years to earn on her salary as a schoolteacher in a village near here. "I might renovate or add to the house, or spend it on my kids' education or my daughter's wedding," Mehli said. Beyond the money, she said, there is the reward of bringing happiness to a childless couple in the United States, where such a service would cost them thousands of dollars more, not to mention the potential legal hassles. Driven by many of the same factors that have led Western businesses to outsource some of their operations to India in recent years, an increasing number of infertile couples from abroad are coming here in search of women such as Mehli who are willing, in effect, to rent out their wombs… Current figures are tough to pin down, but the Indian Council of Medical Research estimates that helping residents and visitors beget children could bloom into a nearly $6-billion-a-year industry.

I posted previously about Uganda and the LRA here. From an article on bbcnews.com:

Uganda's government has dismissed as "ridiculous" rebel leader Joseph Kony's claims that his Lord's Resistance Army was not involved in atrocities. International rights group Human Rights Watch expressed surprise at Mr Kony's claim but said he must defend himself at the International Criminal Court. Thousands have died in a conflict in which the LRA targetted children… Former BBC correspondent in Uganda, Will Ross, says Joseph Kony may describe himself as a freedom fighter but the LRA has had no clear political agenda and freedom is the last thing that he has brought as his rebels have caused widespread suffering and fear. The rebels, claiming to be guided by the Bible's Ten Commandments, have caused insecurity in northern Uganda and southern Sudan. The LRA has kidnapped many thousands of children over the years. It turns the boys into fighters or porters and uses many of the girls as sex slaves.

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.

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