Blogging Booms Worldwide, Repression on its Heels

With Internet use booming worldwide, tens of thousands of new blogs written in Farsi, Arabic, Chinese and other languages are inspiring both civic activism and government crackdowns.

Worldwide, nearly half of all imprisoned media workers are online journalists or bloggers, according to a new study by the Committee to Protect Journalists that names Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Tunisia and Syria as leaders in online repression.

HIV Travel Ban Persists Abroad

Just a handful of nations persist in banning visits by HIV-positive foreigners, following President Barack Obama’s decision to lift the travel ban in the United States. Ki-moon, is working to end discrimination against those infected with HIV around the world—and in his home nation. South Korea has deported 521 foreigners diagnosed with HIV since 2008, and requires foreign residents to take HIV tests annually, as well as if they want to extend a work or residency permit.

Pakistan’s Schools in Terrorist Crosshairs

Schools in Pakistan are increasingly targeted by terrorists, prompting widespread closures, and frustrating the dreams of students in a nation fraught with civil strife and illiteracy. After a pair of October 20 suicide bombings at one of Pakistan’s largest universities killed eight people and injured dozens more, officials shut down schools around the country. They were the latest in a series of attacks that have targeted or destroyed more than 600 Pakistani schools since 2007, reported Inter Press Service. Yet some students decried the most recent closures. One first-grader complained that she was “bored at home,” while a fourth grader told IPS that the closures were interfering with her goal of becoming a doctor to “take care of my fellow women.”

When High-Speed Internet Isn't, Try a Carrier Pigeon

South Africa’s largest Internet service provider has been one-upped by a carrier pigeon with a four gigabyte memory stick strapped to its leg. Winston, the bird in question, took off for a 60-mile trip at the same time that four gigabytes of data were transmitted to a computer at the destination. The plucky pigeon got there first, beating out Telkom’s ADSL service by more than an hour, according to BBC and other sources. Wealthy nations, as well as the developing world, are often plagued by poor Internet connectivity — and the slow speeds come at a cost. The U.S. Department of Agriculture noted in an August study that rural economic growth and broadband go hand in hand.

Guns, Not Butter, for Latin America's Poorest

Military spending is increasing in South and Central America — and so is poverty, as regional governments are opting to spending limited resources weapons instead of development. Defense spending in the region has nearly doubled in the past five years to $47.2 billion in 2008, according to studies cited in a Miami Herald column, which also notes a simmering border dispute between Chile and Peru. Elsewhere in the region, Brazil struck a multi-billion-dollar deal with France to buy fighter jets and other weapons systems, according to news reports, while Venezuela just secured a $2 billion line of credit with Russia to buy combat helicopters, tanks and advanced anti-aircraft missiles, Reuters reports. Meanwhile, World Bank statistics anticipate that the ranks of the poor in the region will swell by 6 million people this year. A report by Knowledge @ Wharton confirms increasing poverty in the region, with millions of people expected to join the ranks of the unemployed and underemployed.

Costa Rica's Ecotourism Marred by Development, Evictions

Costa Rica’s lauded ecotourism industry is under new, and not always positive, scrutiny. Community-based ecotourism is getting raves for creating jobs in agricultural areas, where tourists delight in glimpsing and sharing a day in the life of a Costa Rican farmer, Inter Press Service reports. President Oscar Arias approved a law in July to support “agro-ecotourism” as a way to let small farmers and some indigenous communities share in the tourism boom. Yet another law protecting coastal resources is being used to remove impoverished communities living on beachfront plots on or near ecotourism destinations. Lacking titles to land they say their families have occupied for decades, residents near the Ostional Wildlife Refuge, a haven for sea turtles on Costa Rica’s northern Pacific coast, are set for removal.

Who'll Pay for the Climate Change Refugees?

Island and coastal nations are grappling with rising sea levels attributed to global warming — and some want industrialized nations to help foot the bill for an expected surge in evacuations, refugee crises and other impacts. Papua New Guinea’s Carteret Islands are quickly becoming a paradise lost, with ocean waters expected to submerge the seven low-lying atolls by 2015. Already, rising tides and storm surges have polluted freshwater supplies and devastated crops. Evacuation of the 2,700 residents is underway, and will continue over the next five years, reports Australia’s The Age. Climate change could force as many as 75 million people from their homes in Asia-Pacific over the next 40 years, Radio Australia reports.

Cloudy Skies at the Microfinance Horizon?

Microfinance may be in for some rough times, as the impact of the global recession works its way down the economic food chain. In Africa, less money for microfinance projects is coming in from Europe and the United States, the Daily Nation of Kenya reports. Meanwhile, the demand for microfunds is up threefold, reports the Africa Microfinance Action Forum, as people lose their regular jobs and look to become entrepreneurs. The same scenario is playing out in Europe. Although a new European Union microfinance institution is being set up to provide small-business loans for the unemployed, New Europe reports that critics are already saying it offers too little.

No Pregnant Pause

Teen pregnancies are in the pop spotlight, from the Oscar-winning film “Juno” (right) to MTV’s new reality show “16 and Pregnant.” Talk about reality: More than 750,000 U.S. teens will become pregnant in 2009, while globally the number reaches 14 million. Photo: Handout

Many Goals for the Homeless World Cup

Now in its sixth year, the Homeless World Cup comes to Milan, Italy, in September, bringing together teams of homeless people from at least 56 countries to compete for a unique world championship title. The real prize, however, is winning the game of life — something fans worldwide are lining up to support. Rio de Janeiro and Paris have already agreed to host the 2010 and 2011 games, notes Happy News, while Poland.com boasts that the city of Poznan will host in 2013, beating out Amsterdam and Manchester. Women from eight nations competed for the first-ever Women’s Cup last year — and are taking their game, and their goals for better lives, to Milan in 2009 as well. One such player is Auma Okot of Uganda, who was once in the grip of the infamous Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency.