19/01/2015
By Andre Damon*
19 January 2015 (WSWS) — For the first time in at least half a century, low-income children make up the majority of students enrolled in American public schools, according to a report by the Southern Education Foundation (SEF).
**United States Student Association Logo | Author: Cmichael.files | Wikimedia Commons
The percentage of public school students who are classified as low-income has risen steadily over the past quarter century, under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
In 1989, under 32 percent of public school students were classified as low-income, according to statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) cited by the report. This rose to 38 percent by 2000, 48 percent in 2011, and 51 percent in 2013.
These figures are the result of decades of deindustrialization, stagnating wages and cuts to antipoverty programs.
Since the 2008 financial crisis in particular, the US ruling class, with the Obama administration at its head, has waged an unrelenting assault on the social rights of working people, carrying out mass layoffs, driving down wages, and slashing social services during the recession and the “recovery.”
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19/01/2015
Hanoi, Viet Nam, January 2015 – The National Zero Hunger Challenge (ZHC), a major initiative to eradicate hunger in Viet Nam, was launched today by the Government of Viet Nam in collaboration with the United Nations, including FAO.
Vietnamese farmer harvesting longane fruits. Nhan My, Viet Nam. | Source: FAO
The launch, led by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dũng along with the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cao Duc Phat, and other leaders of line ministries symbolized the Government of Viet Nam’s commitment to achieving Zero Hunger by 2025.*
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19/01/2015
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 17-24 January 2015 — How the world’s smartest cities are re-imagining essential systems to solve the interlinked issues of water, energy and climate while also encouraging economic growth and resiliency will be discussed at next week’s World Future Energy Summit, the Middle East’s largest gathering of international leaders to drive viable solutions to address the world’s pressing energy challenges.
Source: World Future Energy Summit
Hosted by Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, WFES is part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW), January 17-24, a yearly platform to address the interconnected challenges of energy and water security, climate risk and sustainable development. Since its establishment, ADSW has helped reinforce Abu Dhabi’s position as an international energy hub – a true energy leader, promoting new and traditional sources of power.*
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16/01/2015
Children growing up in Nigeria’s crisis-riven northeast are in desperate need of protection from relentless violence, on 16 January 2015 said Leila Zerrougui, the United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, as she wrapped up a weeklong visit in the country.
Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Leila Zerrougui (3rd left) during a visit to Yola, Nigeria. UN Photo/Andrew Esiebo
On a day when the UN refugee agency has reported a steady stream of people fleeing violence in the region with ‘harrowing tales of killings and destruction,’ a news release from Zerrougui’s Office notes that throughout 2014, the armed conflict in north-eastern Nigeria was one of the world’s deadliest for children.
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16/01/2015
By EurActiv*, 16 January 2015 — Western fighters in Syria and Iraq have found some of their most willing recruits in tiny Belgium, a chilling trend highlighted by the killing of suspected terrorists by police on Thursday (15 January) and which likely has its roots in the despair many feel at home.
C215 mural. Paris, October 2014. [Pop H/Flickr] | Source: EurActiv
Belgian police killed two men who opened fire on them during one of about a dozen raids against an Islamist group that federal prosecutors said was about to launch “terrorist attacks on a grand scale”.
In France, the attack on satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo has called the world’s attention to the threat of radicalised Muslims returning from Syria, Iraq or Yemen, an issue which has been erected as an EU priority in the fight against terrorism.
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16/01/2015
By Andre Vltchek*– TRANSCEND Media Service
A hundred years ago, it would have been unimaginable to have a pair of Muslim men enter a cafe or a public transportation vehicle, and then blow themselves up, killing dozens. Or to massacre the staff of a satirical magazine in Paris! Things like that were simply not done.
**By the medieval era most of the countries on the Silk Road were Muslim majority. | Author: Whole_world_-_land_and_oceans_12000.jpg: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center | Wikimedia Commons
When you read the memoirs of Edward Said, or talk to old men and women in East Jerusalem, it becomes clear that the great part of Palestinian society used to be absolutely secular and moderate. It cared about life, culture, and even fashion, more than about religious dogmas.
The same could be said about many other Muslim societies, including those of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Egypt and Indonesia. Old photos speak for themselves. That is why it is so important to study old images again and again, carefully.
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16/01/2015
15 January 2015 (RT) — Are African lives worth less than the lives of people elsewhere in the world?
Agents of law enforcement and operative services work at the site of an explosion on a trolleybus near Kachinsky Market in Volgograd. (RIA Novosti) | Source: RT
Last week 17 people were killed by terrorists in France. The events were shocking and quite rightly the murders were subject to unequivocal condemnation. At the same time, considerably more people were reported to have been killed by gunmen in Baga, Nigeria, with figures ranging from 150 to over 2,000.
But it’s the French victims who we focus on, showing our solidarity with them by declaring ‘Je suis Charlie’, and holding vigils in Trafalgar Square and elsewhere- while the African victims of violence have – certainly until the last day or so – been ignored.
Even Nigeria‘s own President was keener to condemn the Paris attacks than those in his own country. How can this be right? Surely we should be mourning all victims equally?
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16/01/2015
15 January 2015 (RT)* — A former Guantanamo Bay prison guard and Marine explained in details what makes him believe three problematic detainees were killed at CIA black site in Guantanomo and their death was covered up as a triple suicide.
**Detainees upon arrival at Camp X-Ray | Wikimedia Commons
Army Staff Sergeant Joseph Hickman was on duty at the notorious prison camp when the three men died, and insists the official version of events is “impossible,” he told Vice News.
The three men were Salah Ahmed Al-Salami, 37, from Yemen, Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi, 30, from Saudi Arabia, and Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani, 22, also from Saudi Arabia. None of them had been charged with any crime.
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16/01/2015
‘After fleeing violence in South Sudan, young men find common ground in a traditional Dinka sport.’
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As the match begins, Athong (left) tries to gain the upper hand. | UNHCR/Frederic Noy
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16/01/2015
15 January 2015 – Looking to promote change in how men and boys think and talk about women’s empowerment and gender equality, the United Nations is hosting at its New York Headquarters a two-day high-level “Barbershop” event, which this afternoon focused on initiatives that aim to support non-sexist male attitudes and behaviours between men.
UN Women
The Barbershop Conference aimed at reflecting the casual setting in which men get their hair cut, while delving deeper into gender stereotypes perpetuated by social norms, and helping dispel the fallacy that women and girls cannot be equals in the economic, social or political life.
The event also highlighted that while historically women and girls have led the fight against gender inequality, discrimination and gender-based violence, the recent UN HeforShe initiative encourages men and boys to stand at forefront of the global discourse.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 