international aid

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'Unforgivable': 7 Die Delivering Food Aid in Gaza

World Central Kitchen halts its Gaza operations as a result

(Newser) - An apparent Israeli airstrike killed six international aid workers with the World Central Kitchen and their Palestinian driver, the charity said Tuesday, in a potentially major setback to efforts to deliver aid by sea to Gaza, where Israel's offensive against Hamas has pushed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to...

UN Wanted Affordable Housing, Got a Pop Song Instead

In some corners of the UN, bad ideas have too much room to grow

(Newser) - Officials at a UN agency squandered millions of dollars through a demonstrably poor series of decisions, according to a recent New York Times investigation. It was born of good intentions: to build affordable housing in needy areas around the world, along with renewable energy projects. The project gained legs in...

Dinner Party's Goal: 194 Global Meals

Couple cooks meals from all the United Nations member states

(Newser) - How to combine passions for food, friends, and global aid? A Portland couple is cooking 194 dinner-party meals that recreate food from all the United Nations member states. Laura Hadden and her husband, Jesse Friedman, started the United Noshes project about three and a half years ago when they lived...

Russia: We Have No Control Over Crimea Troops

Says troops are Crimean ahead of first face to face negotiations with West

(Newser) - Today will be a day of high-stakes diplomacy in Paris, as John Kerry meets with his Russian counterpart for the first time since Russia's invasion of Crimea—an invasion Russia is denying has even happened. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today repeated Russia's assertion that those aren't Russian...

Haiti Needs Trade More Than Aid
 Haiti Needs Trade 
 More Than Aid 
Nicholas Kristof
Dec 2, 2010 1:55 PM CST

Haiti Needs Trade More Than Aid

Kristof: For long-term fixes, the nation needs investors and jobs

(Newser) - The miseries of Haiti have been well chronicled in the past year, and the nation surely needs medical help and aid workers, writes Nicholas Kristof. But "ultimately what Haiti most needs isn’t so much aid, but trade," he writes in the New York Times . "Aid accounts...

US Accepts Foreign Help on Oil Spill

A dozen nations and agencies will assist with the cleanup

(Newser) - The United States has taken the rare step of accepting help from 12 countries and international organizations in cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf. Most of the countries and groups have offered skimmers, boom, or dispersant chemicals. A chart on the State Department website indicates that help has...

Haitians: 'We Didn't Feel Like We Had a Gov't'

Shy President Préval has been largely MIA since quake

(Newser) - Since Haiti was devastated by last Tuesday's earthquake, the country's president has been so invisible that many Haitians are wondering whether they have a government at all. Haitian officials say the government of President René Préval is too incapacitated to take any public role, but longtime politician Préval...

As Gov't Bickers, Drought Ravages Kenya

Squabbling government fails to prepare for the worst as 4M starve

(Newser) - While countries like Ethiopia and Somalia have been long associated with drought and famine, it's the robust safari destination of Kenya that's wasting away. Nearly 4 million Kenyans, 10% of the population, are desperate for food due to a lack of rainfall—some villages haven't seen rain in years, the...

Clinton Heads to Haiti With $325M Boost

New aid will combat drug trafficking, island's economic crisis

(Newser) - Hillary Clinton is headed to Haiti to meet with the president and pledge her support for economic help for the hemisphere’s poorest nation. The trip comes on the heels of an international fundraiser that generated $325 million for programs aimed at the nation’s 70% unemployment, reports NPR. The...

Somalia Piracy Hampers Food Aid: UN

Danger of hijacking has raised costs dramatically, WFP official says

(Newser) - Piracy off the coast of Somalia is making relief organizations' work even more difficult, Reuters reports. The UN’s World Food Program  today decried both the hijacking of ships bearing aid supplies—the Maersk Alabama, for example, had 232 WFP containers on board when it was seized this week—and...

West Should Buy Out Pakistan's Nukes
 West Should Buy Out 
 Pakistan's Nukes 
OPINION
Dec 16, 2008 4:05 PM CST

West Should Buy Out Pakistan's Nukes

Trading needed aid dollars for elimination of WMDs would be cheap compared to bailout

(Newser) - Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal has done nothing to steady its economy or deter terrorism, Bret Stephens notes in the Wall Street Journal—so why not sell it to the West? Pakistan has already lobbied for economic aid; for eliminating “its entire nuclear stockpile and the industrial base that sustains...

Chavez's Stature Shrinks as Price of Oil Plummets

Venezuela's largesse depends on high volume, expense

(Newser) - Hugo Chavez’s days as an international sugar daddy may be ending, at least for now. Chavez has made a habit of lavishing gifts on his political allies, but with crude around $70—less than half its peak price—he may not have the wealth to spread, the Christian Science ...

Megapastor Aims to Save Not Only Souls, but Lives

Critics blast megapastor's worldwide efforts as more hype

(Newser) - Megapastor Rick Warren, he of The Purpose Driven Life, has moved from organizing churches to save souls to organizing churches to save lives, Time reports. At the forefront of the new wave of Evangelicals, the hyper-energetic Warren launched a worldwide initiative, called PEACE, to use churches to fight poverty and...

US Military Showing Softer Side
 US Military Showing Softer Side 
ANALYSIS
Jul 28, 2008 2:08 PM CDT

US Military Showing Softer Side

Greater emphasis on humanitarian operations seen by some as 'out of whack'

(Newser) - Despite recent focus on shooting wars, the Defense Department has tweaked the core mission of US armed forces to promote “soft power,” such as humanitarian aid, the Boston Globe reports. Some civilian onlookers say the foreign policy is “out of whack,” and “too dominated by...

In Afghanistan, Laura Bush Urges Support

Int'l community dare not pull out during 'crucial' Taliban uprising

(Newser) - During an unannounced visit to Kabul today, Laura Bush urged the international community not to pull support from Afghanistan, highlighting successes in reconstruction and improved women’s rights, Reuters reports. The first lady's visit came even as Afghan, US, and NATO forces fight to contain a Taliban guerilla war in...

Make Dams and Food, Not War and Ethanol
 Make Dams and Food,
 Not War and Ethanol 
OPINION
May 22, 2008 4:55 PM CDT

Make Dams and Food, Not War and Ethanol

A dollar of prevention is worth many times that in cure, researcher pleads

(Newser) - Ethanol is among the "poor solutions to high-profile problems" researcher Bjorn Lomborg blasts in the Wall Street Journal. According to calculations by his Copenhagen Consensus, “carbon mitigation policies” return only 90 cents for every dollar spent; in contrast, he writes, $1 billion spent on tuberculosis would result in...

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