Six hundred delegates from more than 80 countries flocked toMontreal Aug. 20-23 for the CIVICUS World Assembly in searchof innovative ways to approach global challenges like povertyand climate change.

NEW DELHI, May 1– With elections underway in India, its 2.3 percent Christian minority – which faced a deadly spate of attacks in the eastern state of Orissa last year – is praying for a secular party to come to power.

Debt activists have said that they fear the aid to Pakistan will be dwarfed by its debt repayments and issued a warning over new loansDebt activists have said that they fear the aid to Pakistan will be dwarfed by its debt repayments and issued a warning over new loansAnti-poverty campaigners yesterday called on governments and international institutions to effect an immediate freeze on Pakistan's debt repayments, expressing fears that Pakistan's annual $3 billion repayments would dwarf current levels of emergency aid. In addition they urged a debt audit followed by a cancellation of some of the country's debts.They also expressed concern that international institutions like the World Bank had promised nearly $3 billion in new loans to Pakistan to withstand the disaster, rather than giving grant-aid. Jubilee Debt Campaign says this will only add to Pakistan's enormous and unsustainable $49 billion debt.Pakistan's debt repayments already amount to three times what the government spends on healthcare - in a country where 38% of under 5-year-olds are underweight, only 54% of people are literate, and 60% live below the poverty line. The United Nations says it has only raised 70% of the $460 million called for in emergency aid by the institution. But even this amount will be dwarfed by debt repayments unless serious relief is instituted.Longer term, the World Bank and Asian Development Bank recently announced loans of $900 million and $2 billion respectively. Campaigners say grants, rather than loans, are essential if countries like Pakistan are ever to develop the means to withstand such disasters in future.Pakistan's debt rose rapidly under the military regime of General Musharraf (2001-8) from $32 to nearly $50 billion. Campaigners point out that the vast majority of Pakistan's loans were run up under military governments, many offering little benefit to ordinary people.Pakistani groups like CADTM-Pakistan have long called for an audit of the debts, saying it is unjust for the poor of Pakistan to repay reckless loans that borrowers should never have lent. The group is currently calling on their government to repudiate its debts on the basis of a'state of necessity'.Nick Dearden, Director of Jubilee Debt Campaign said:"It is nothing short of criminal that a country as poor as Pakistan is bled of resources every year to repay borrowers who extended unjust loans to that country over decades. It is vital that desperately needed emergency aid is not effectively swallowed up in debt repayments and a freeze on such payments must be called immediately."But the international community also needs to accept responsibility for the poverty of Pakistan. If Pakistan is to build up the infrastructure to withstand such appalling disasters in future it must be freed from its debt trap. A debt audit is needed - and those debts found to be unjust and unbeneficial must be cancelled immediately to give the country a fresh start. Most certainly supposedly anti-poverty institutions like the World Bank should not be making Pakistan’s debts even worse."[Ekk/2]

The Wish Me A Merry Christmas Campaign is mobilizing advocates from Alaska to Florida, energized for a return to the traditional, convivial Christmas greeting, bearing buttons that make a clear statement - "It's OK, Wish Me A Merry Christmas"(TM)

The female shark -- not quite a year old now -- was starting to act like a hunter in the huge display tank where she has lived 198 days with a number of smaller sharks, tuna and other fishes and turtles, aquarium scientists said.

After two HIV vaccine trials were halted for safety reasons last year, a new trial is set to commence within the next few months in South Africa and the United States. Scientists will test a new vaccine formula produced in South Africa. It will be the first time a HIV vaccine manufactured in a developing country will be trialed in the developed world.

Contact: Tony Miano, Living Waters, 800-437-1893, Tony@livingwaters.comMEDIA ADVISORY, Aug. 19 /Christian Newswire/ -- In March 2008, Living Waters hosted its first Ambassadors'Academy -- 3½days of intensive evangelism training. Fifty participants from around the world attended the first Academy. Since then, more than eight hundred people -- including pilots, lawyers, pastors, and doctors -- from forty-nine states and seven foreign countries, have attended one of the seventeen Ambassado Source: Living Waters

Visitors to Philadelphia looking for music might think of only two options: the world-class orchestra, or national tours performing in big stadiums. But it's the smaller clubs in between where they'll find dance parties, open-mic nights, songwriter showcases, even the rare concerts where hip kids don't mind if their parents tag along.

SuperFunScience.com will be awarding at least $10,000 of college scholarships within the next 12 months. These merit based scholarships will be available for students enrolled in one of SuperFunScience.com's new science programs to be released on Tuesday November 11, 2008. Bring science home, and make it fun with SuperFunScience.com.

 

During every year that ends in an even number, the month of August is a special occasion for young men in Kenya's Western Province. During this month thousands of boys aged between 10 and 18 undergo male circumcision–something that is seen as an important rite of passage into manhood among their communities. But it is also a time were nearly half the young men circumcised will have to fight for their lives.