Radiohead takes on human rights, sweatshops, and trafficking

Source: Reuters | by Mike Collett-White

Pioneering British rock band Radiohead has lent one of its songs to an MTV campaign to raise awareness about sweatshop labour and human trafficking.

Climate change and the impact on children

Source: Reuters | by Jeremy Lovell

Millions of the world’s poorest children are among the principal victims of climate change caused by the rich developed world, a United Nations report said on Tuesday, calling for urgent action.

The UNICEF report “Our Climate, Our Children, Our Responsibility” measured action on targets set in the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, aimed at halving child poverty by 2015. It found failure on counts from health to survival, education and gender equality.

U.N. creates task force to tackle global food crisis

Source: United Nations

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced that he will lead a high-powered task force to coordinate the efforts of the United Nations system in addressing the global crisis arising from the surge in food prices.

Who’s the U.N. Secretary-General?

By Andreas S. von Warburg

If you’re answer is Mr. Moon… Well, you’re wrong!

After more than a year in office, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is still struggling for name recognition, according to a recent memo by his Chief of Cabinet, Vijay Nambiar. Too many, even within UN circles, are still not sure about his name or how to address him.

U.N. troops overworked and outgunned in the badlands of Darfur

Source: The Times | by Rob Crilly

The peacekeepers could do nothing to stop the huge Antonov aircraft flying over the tiny town of Sileia, close to Sudan’s border with Chad.

U.N. says Bush climate plan just a “first offer”

Source: Reuters | by Emma Graham-Harrison

The top UN official on climate change said on Thursday that he sees a U.S. plan to cap rising emissions by 2025 as only a “first offer”, adding that all three presidential candidates had promised a tougher stand.

Standing U.N. force could help fragile democracies

Source: Reuters | by Mark Trevelyan

The international community would get better value for money from peacekeeping operations if it created a standing military force to come to the rescue of democracies threatened by coup or civil war, a new study argues.

The Arctic Survey: measuring the size of the problem… 2 million times

Source: WWF International Arctic Programme

Photo Copyright © Martin Hartley

The Arctic Survey is a ground-breaking venture, which aims to measure the thickness of the Arctic sea ice cap along a complete traverse from Point Barrow, Alaska to the North Pole. It is the first detailed mapping of the sea ice with state-of-the-art impulse radar technology. Satellites and submarines currently provide the scientific community with such data, but this is respectively imprecise and patchy, and critically, neither method can distinguish between the snow layer and the sea ice beneath.