Syria: Warfare creates a lost generation
Syria's ‘lost generation’ are children whose innocence was stolen in the Syrian conflict. It is not unusual to see a baby-faced boy with his Kalashnikov rifle balanced over his shoulder. Families have to depend on children for tasks usually performed by men. A mother of four said, ‘Their childhood has gone.’ Barrel bombs have had a devastating effect, especially in Aleppo, the city with the largest concentration of Christians. They are made from oil drums packed with explosives and bits of metal and are tossed over the sides of helicopters. Their indiscriminate devastation has forced tens of thousands to flee Aleppo this year. Many refugees have fled to Jordan. In the refugee camps in Amman, two teachers set up schools to help the children keep up their education. Even in adverse weather, the eager children huddle together, hungry to learn.
Afghanistan: Aid reaching landslide victims
The village of Aab Barik was buried by a tide of rock and mud last Friday after heavy rains. The government confirmed 300 deaths, and has given up looking for 2,100 missing. Hundreds of homes are now underneath 300ft of mud, and families are staying in tents from aid agencies. Villagers spoke of their grief at losing husbands, wives and children as their homes were destroyed in moments. Andrew Morris, chief of Unicef for the Northern Region of Afghanistan, said, 'The whole area has been declared a burial ground; our staff described it in some places to be as deep as 50 metres of mud. Our first priority is getting water supplies going and we are urgently looking at sanitation. Then we have to help children to overcome this traumatic event. We have got to get them back to school as soon as we can. That is part of the return to normalcy.'
Iran: Rude homecoming for dissidents
Journalists and many on the wrong side of Mahmud Ahmadinejad fled Iran after his contentious re-election as president in 2009. When the 2013 election brought the relatively moderate Hassan Rohani to power, "A" took the opportunity to return. But while the political atmosphere has opened up in the Islamic republic under Rohani, it apparently is not enough to shield returnees from harassment, or worse. Some like A, who declined to give his name, have been subjected to hours of interrogation. Others have been arrested for their role in the postelection unrest in 2009. Speaking in New York in September to a group of Iranian-Americans, Rohani said no one had the right to prevent Iranians from visiting their homeland. ‘Iranians are the owners of Iran,’ he said. ‘Iran belongs to all Iranians.’ A says he's gone through tens of hours of intensive interrogations by the intelligence office of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
North America: Obama called the 'Abortion President'
California Democratic Representative Janice Hahn walked out of the National Day of Prayer event on Capitol Hill after hearing Dr. James Dobson refer to President Barack Obama as ‘the abortion president.’ Later In a TV interview Dr Dobson said, ‘President Obama has done everything he could to promote abortion.’ adding that in his opinion Obama's policies show he’s determined that people of faith and people of conscience are going to have to go along with it and be part of it. (abortion) On April 17th a federal judge granted an injunction for Dobson and his ‘Family Talk’ radio show, blocking the Obamacare mandate that would have required the coverage of abortion-inducing drugs under the healthcare plan, despite religious objections to abortion. Dobson said that in his speech he wasn't only referencing Obama but was also talking about people's response to the mandate and abortion in general.
