A team of international experts investigating the Fukushima nuclear accident says Japan underestimated the risk posed by tsunamis to its nuclear plants.
The finding is contained in a preliminary report prepared for delivery to the Japanese government Wednesday. The 18-member team's full report will be delivered to an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting beginning June 20 in Vienna.
Wednesday's report says Japanese officials did everything possible in the aftermath of the March 11 tsunami, which knocked out electric power and cooling systems leading to likely core meltdowns at three of the Fukushima plant's six reactors.
But it says the accident shows that nuclear plant designers in Japan and around the world must make greater efforts to anticipate and prepare for natural disasters.
The team also criticized Japan for failing to act on an IAEA recommendation three years ago that it separate its nuclear regulatory agency from its trade and industry ministry.
The IAEA team includes experts from France, Russia, China and the United States. They have been in Japan since May 24.
New evidence of radioactive leakage continues at the plant, almost three months after the accident. National broadcaster NHK reported Wednesday that high levels of dangerous strontium 90 have been found in soil samples around the plant.
Officials are also struggling to cope with rising levels of radioactive water in the basements of several of the reactors, fed by heavy recent rains.
The broadcaster also reported that a charity offering scholarships to children orphaned by the earthquake and tsunami has received applications on behalf of more than 1,100 children.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic is in prison in The Hague, Netherlands, where he will stand trial before the International War Crimes Tribunal.
Serbian authorities put Mladic on a plane Tuesday after judges turned down his appeal against extradition. Another court ruled earlier that Mladic is healthy enough to face a trial, rejecting his lawyer's argument that he is too sick.
Before leaving Serbia, police escorted him to a Belgrade cemetery so he could visit the grave of his daughter Ana, who committed suicide in 1994.
Mladic was the head of the Bosnian Serb military during Bosnia's civil war in the early 1990s. The Hague tribunal has charged him with genocide, terrorism, and other crimes against humanity.
He is accused of the massacre of 8,000 Muslim males at what was supposed to be the U.N. safe haven of Srebrenica in 1995.
Serbian police arrested Mladic last week in the village of Lazarevo after 16 years on the run. Serbian President Boris Tadic said Tuesday his government is investigating whether Serbian officials helped hide Mladic.
Tadic said police arrested Mladic as soon as they were informed where he was.
At least 10,000 Bosnian Serb nationalists who regard Mladic as a hero marched Tuesday in the Bosnian Serb capital of Banja Luka to protest his arrest.
Meanwhile, the trial war crimes trial of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic resumed Tuesday in the Hague after a two-month recess. Karadzic is also charged with genocide and other crimes against humanity.
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Yemeni government troops in Sana'a are again fighting members of the Hashid tribe, just one of several forces, including militants and anti-government protesters, seeking to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The street battles followed a brief truce between the government and forces loyal to Sheikh Sadek al-Ahmar, and threatened once again to push Yemen toward civil war.
The two sides had tentatively achieved a cease-fire Sunday, but al-Ahmar loyalists accused the government of breaking the deal with renewed attacks on the sheikh's Sana'a compound. The government countered that fault lay with Hashid fighters who retook key government buildings in Sana'a.
Meanwhile, officials and medics say suspected militants have killed at least five soldiers near the southern town of Zinjibar, which was seized by fighters described as Islamist militants in recent days. Government forces have carried out air strikes over the town.
The underlying opposition demand - that President Saleh step down as outlined in a deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council - remains unchanged. Saleh has three times rejected the plan.
Tom Finn, a journalist in Sana'a, described the fighting in the past days as the heaviest since protests began against Saleh four months ago.
"There was continuous machine gun fire and very loud, heavy explosions which were rattling the windows of houses across Sana'a," recalled Finn.
He says both sides are firing shells and anti-aircraft missiles at the other, ravaging part of the capital.
"The east of the capital has pretty much been evacuated. It's an area called Hasaba. It's a heavily, densely populated residential area which is now a ghost town," Finn said. "The houses are empty, the streets are filled with smashed up walls and concrete and bullet holes. It's essentially a battle zone in this neighborhood."
More residents were reported trying to leave the capital, after others fled during fighting between the two sides last week.
"What I'm seeing and hearing on the streets of Sana'a is sort of widespread panic and fear of what's coming in Yemen," said Finn.
The clashes in Sana'a and Zinjibar are but two of the fronts in the effort to force President Saleh from power. Witnesses in the southwestern city Taiz say more anti-government protesters were killed by troops Tuesday.
The government's deadly push to clear the city's central square began Sunday. The United Nations refugee agency says it has reports that more than 50 people have been killed in the crackdown in Taiz.
While the pressure on Saleh is clearly growing, whether his disparate opponents can, or even want to unite, is less apparent.
Tom Finn says the matter is dividing political protesters in Sana'a, who, inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, have been seeking a democratic alternative to more than three decades of Saleh's authoritarian rule.
"There's mixed opinion of whether they want the support of these tribes, whether or not they want to see armed groups with them because generally speaking, one of the main mottos of their urban movement is that it is peaceful," Finn said.
He says a big worry for the political protesters now is that their movement is going to be "completely eclipsed" by the violence.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has not engaged in serious reform efforts and its position becomes "less tenable" every day. There have been more deaths in a Syrian crackdown on protesters that human rights groups say has now claimed one thousand lives.
Clinton's comments, triggered by reports of the torture death of a 13-year-old Syrian boy in police custody, were some of the strongest to date by an Obama administration official about the Syrian crackdown.
At a press conference with Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin, Clinton said the mutilation killing of the Syrian youngster, Hamza Ali al-Khatib, may have once and for all dashed hopes by everyday Syrians that the government will be responsive to reform demands.
"I think what that symbolizes for many Syrians is the total collapse of any effort by the Syrian government to work with and listen to their own people. And I think that as the President [Obama] said in his speech last week, President Assad has a choice. And every day that goes by the choice is made by default. He has not called an end to the violence to his own people. And he has not engaged seriously in any kind of reform effort," Clinton said.
Clinton sidestepped a question about whether Mr. Assad has lost his legitimacy, saying that is up to the Syrian people to decide. But she said the standing of the Syrian government, in the face of international sanctions and condemnation, is steadily eroding.
"I think that every day that goes by, the position of the government become less tenable and the demands of the Syrian people for change only grow stronger. Therefore we continue to urge an end to the violence and a commencement of a real process that can lead to the kinds of changes that are called for," Clinton said.
Earlier the State Department dismissed an announcement of a general amnesty by the Syrian leader, saying Mr. Assad has talked about reform but there has been little in the way of action.
Clinton's press event capped a day-long high-level U.S.-Colombian dialogue focusing on human rights, trade and joint efforts against regional drug trafficking.
The Secretary publicly assured her Colombian counterpart of the Obama administration's commitment to getting final Congressional approval this year for the long-delayed U.S.-Colombia free trade accord.
"I hope that the people of Colombia do not lose heart watching the activities of our Congress. Because there always is a lot of rhetoric and skirmishing between the parties before they finally hit the deadline to get the work done. And so I am absolutely sure we're going to get it passed," Clinton said.
Clinton hailed Colombia's lead effort to have Honduras readmitted to the Organization of American States after its 2009 constitutional crisis, a process expected to be climaxed by an OAS vote Wednesday.
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North and south Sudan have agreed to set up a joint security mechanism to manage tensions along their disputed frontier once the country splits into two in July. The deal establishes a demilitarized zone to be jointly monitored under international supervision. Ethiopia is offering to send peacekeepers to act as a buffer between opposing forces.
Senior northern and southern military commanders signed the accord late Monday after three days of talks at an Addis Ababa hotel.
The deal, brokered by former South African President Thabo Mbeki's African Union panel on Sudan, sets up a high-level mechanism through which senior officials from both sides will meet regularly to discuss security issues.
AU Panel adviser Alex de Waal says the coordination mechanism is one of two significant items in the agreement aimed at ensuring the long-term future of north-south Sudan relations.
"Perhaps more importantly, it sets up a common border zone," De Wall said. "Ten kilometers on each side of the border is to be demilitarized across the entire 2,175-kilometer length of the North-South border. There is to be this 20-kilometer-broad demilitarized zone to be monitored jointly by the parties, and this is to be established by the 9th of July."
Diplomats close to the Addis Ababa talks say Ethiopia has offered to send a contingent of troops to act as a buffer between northern and southern units in monitoring the demilitarized zone. The United Nations Security Council is said to be considering a plan in which the Ethiopians would become a full-fledged U.N. Peacekeeping unit.
Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti told VOA by telephone that any decision to send peacekeepers would only be considered if both north and south Sudan request their presence.
"Ethiopia is determined to see that things go well for north and south Sudanese and peace and stability can prevail in the region," Dina Mufti said. "If both sides request the presence of Ethiopian help, Ethiopia would consider to help them. As long as they seek for it, it can be considered."
The immediate issue, however, is the flareup of tensions in recent days in the bitterly contested Abyei region. Northern troops seized Abyei's largest town in a lightning offensive last week, forcing an estimated 60,000 southerners to flee their homes.
AU panel adviser De Waal, who facilitated the north-south security talks, says the agreement signed in Addis Ababa Monday outlines a strategy for easing tensions by returning Abyei to normal before the south's Independence Day.
"The question of the security and administrative status of Abyei in the immediate term, that needs to be resolved very quickly," De Wall said. "And what this agreement does is set up the framework in which Abyei can be demilitarized, in which military forces could be withdrawn, and in which some sort of interim administration could be created."
De Waal says the Addis Ababa talks are scheduled to resume later in the week, after the UN Security Council meets in New York, and after further discussions in Khartoum and in the southern capital, Juba.
The Mbeki Panel adviser says the month of June will be consumed by negotiations on other sensitive questions, such as how to split the revenue from oil produced in Abyei, and how to settle Sudan's $38 billion foreign debt. He held out hope that, in the current atmosphere of negotiation, the final status of Abyei might be settled before July 9.
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NATO aircraft bombed targets near the Libyan capital Tripoli overnight, just hours after South African President Jacob Zuma met with embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in his military camp. Zuma's attempt at mediation was followed by a visit Tuesday by Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will travel to United Arab Emirates next week for a meeting on Libya's conflict. The State Department said Tuesday that Clinton will attend a June 9 meeting of the Libyan Contact Group.
The Italian foreign minister offered a biting assessment of Colonel Gadhafi's grip on power, insisting that his regime is "finished" and that it is time for him to go. He also pledged Italy's support to the rebel Transitional National Council in Benghazi.
"I confirm once again my full political support and the Italian full political support to the national council, and of course I repeated that Gadhafi regime is over [and] he has to leave the country," said Frattini.
His statement was in stark contrast to statements from Tripoli that Gadhafi has no intention of giving up power. South African President Jacob Zuma's meeting Monday with the embattled Libyan leader focused on the already unsuccessful African Union "roadmap."
"You make the point that let the Libyan people be given a chance to talk among themselves. Therefore, he's ready to implement the roadmap [of the African Union]," he said.
Both NATO and rebel leader Mustapha Abdel Jalil have repeatedly rejected any peace plan that does not include the departure of Gadhafi and his sons.
Frattini's visit to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi Tuesday struck another blow at Gadhafi's grip on power, as the foreign minister inaugurated a new Italian consulate in the city.
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Both Frattini and the rebels' foreign policy chief, Ali al-Essawi, said the Libyan leader has lost the support of top confidants and the international community. Eight Libyan military officers defected to Italy on Monday.
Fathi Baja, the man often identified as the rebel "foreign minister" also told journalists that in his estimation, the international community is becoming more insistent in its demands that Colonel Gadhafi step down and leave the country.
"The discourse now of the international community in general has been changed. Now, they are not talking about political initiatives. Now, they're talking about - most of them - they are talking about steps for Gadhafi [to] leave, and this is really for us, some kind of change," he said.
Overnight, NATO warplanes struck near the Libyan capital, triggering several explosions. NATO indicated Tuesday it had struck four military sites to destroy missile launchers, radar and a vehicle storage facility.
Libyan government-run TV slammed the attacks, complaining that NATO had hit military and civilian targets, causing casualties and destruction.
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There is no end in sight to the constant flow of desperate people making the crossing from North Africa to Italy. The latest fishing vessel to be rescued by Italian officials was carrying more than 900 immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
The Italian Finance Police and Coast Guard boats rescued more than 900 Africans on a fishing vessel during the night off the southern coast of Sicily. The passengers, many of whom were women and children from Libya and sub-Saharan Africa, had left the Libyan coastline three days earlier.
The commander of the Port Authority in Pozzallo, Sicily is Ennio Garro. He says it is not immediately clear how many people were on board the vessel. The majority, he said, were inside the vessel. Five of them were in complicated health conditions, with one woman about to give birth.
He said the coast guard immediately took those who required medical attention to the hospital for treatment. All the others were taken to a temporary holding center for identification procedures and were being moved to other reception centers.
The immigrants said the Maltese coast guard had come to seen them at sea and had limited themselves to escorting the vessel to the limit of Malta's territorial waters. The failure of the Maltese to rescue immigrants at sea is irritating Italian authorities, who feel they are being left alone to deal with the immigrant emergency.
Just two days ago, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni accused Malta of having "washed its hands" one more time when it failed to rescue more than 200 immigrants, leaving it to the Italian Coast Guard.
Meanwhile, more than 1,400 immigrants arrived on an Italian ferry in Taranto, on the mainland. They are being taken to a reception center, after having been transferred from the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.
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As the work of Rwanda's Gacaca court system nears its end, Human Rights Watch has issued a report that finds mixed results for the community-based courts in dealing with the genocide.
On Tuesday, New York-based Human Rights Watch released Justice Compromised, a 144-page report on Rwanda's genocide courts.
In the aftermath of Rwanda's 1994 genocide that left an estimated 800,000 dead, the country struggled to come to terms with the extent of the killings and crime that took place in just more than three months. By 1998, less than 1,300 genocide suspects had been tried, with another 130,000 in Rwandan jails designed to hold 12,000 inmates. According to the report, Rwanda's jails were so overcrowded prisoners began to die by the thousands.
Human Rights Watch researcher Carina Tertsakian said the unprecedented situation forced Rwanda to find an alternative.
"For these reasons primarily they decided to explore what they call Gacaca, which is a cross between a traditional form of community-based conflict resolution, and on the other hand a more conventional system of punitive justice that has some of the features of a modern criminal system," said Tertsakian.
The Gacaca system allows the accused to face members of the community and victims to face punishment for their crimes and unearth details about the genocide itself. Through the community courts, family and friends of victims have been able to learn what happened to their loved ones and, in many cases, where they are buried.
Since implementing Gacaca in 2001, more than 12,000 courts have tried 1.2 million genocide cases. The courts have alleviated the massive pressures placed on the Rwandan justice systems. But according to the Human Rights Watch report, many judicial standards were sacrificed in order to implement Gacaca.
The report details many abuses, including intimidation of defense witness, corruption of judges and the use of the courts to settle personal scores. It says many of Gacaca's judges also are inadequately trained, often leading to unfair proceedings.
In addition to the court's failures, many of the crimes committed during the genocide have simply been ignored, such as rapes and acts committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Front - now Rwanda's ruling party.
"The law was amended in 2004 and it was amended in such a way that it excluded those crimes," said Tertsakian. "The government, in fact, launched a campaign at that time to ensure that crimes allegedly committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Front were not discussed in Gacaca."
While such crimes were supposed to be dealt with by Rwanda's regular courts, Tertsakian said very few of those crimes have made it to trial.
On May 20, Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama announced the Gacaca courts would officially close in December, nearly 10 years after they began.
Human Rights Watch is urging the Rwandan government to establish a review board staffed by professional judges to investigate possible abuses or shortcomings in the Gacaca proceedings and to address any failures of justice.
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Forensic experts say video footage that documents the extrajudicial executions of Tamil civilians, allegedly by members of the Sri Lankan Army, is authentic.
What the video shows
This five-minute soul-searing video graphically shows Sri Lankan soldiers shooting people at close range. Fourteen corpses of naked men and women are lying on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs. In one scene, a group of laughing soldiers is standing around a dead, naked woman.
The video, which was broadcast by a British Television Channel last year, was filmed on cell phones during the last phase of Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war that ended in 2009. Thousands of people allegedly were killed during this final battle between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.
Authorities claim it's fake
Sri Lankan authorities reject the video as a fake and accuse the United Nations of bias and meddling in its state affairs.
To lay these charges to rest, U.N. Special Investigator on Extrajudicial Killings Christof Heynes hired four independent forensic experts to examine the authenticity of the video.
He says the experts looked to see if there was any tampering of the video and whether the people who were filmed were actors.
"The claim that I make is that the video is authentic," said Heynes. "The claim that I make is that these are real people being killed. I do not make, as I have said, the claim that particular individuals are guilty of a crime. I am not in a position to do that and where things are at the moment is then to make the claim there is a prime facie case, a case that should be taken seriously and it should go to the next level of investigation-both on the domestic and on the international level then."
Analysis process
Forensic video analyst Jeff Spivack says there are limitations to any analysis. But he says there is a long list of things analysts look at to determine when a film is real or fake.
These include evidence of image manipulation, image creation, staging, discontinuity, and indoor evidence of undisclosed image processing.
"While absolute confirmation of authenticity is not possible, all available evidence suggests to a high probability of authenticity from a technical perspective," Spivack said.
U.N. Special Investigator Heynes presented his findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council and says he has provided the Sri Lankan government with the video.
He urges the government to undertake its own independent investigation. Heynes also is calling for an international investigation into serious crimes that may have been committed.
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A scientific report released Tuesday by the World Health Organization concludes radio frequencies and electromagnetic fields - including those routinely emitted by mobile phones - are "possibly" carcinogenic to humans.
The World Health Organization and its subsidiary investigative panel, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, or IARC, stated today what many scientific studies have been suggesting for decades: that there is a possible connection between mobile phone use and malignant brain tumors. Dr. Jonathan Samet, who heads IARC's Working Group of 31 international scientists from 14 countries, made the announcement at the conclusion of the group's week-long meeting in Lyon, France.
"The working group classifies the radio and electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans; that is within the classification used by the International Agency for Research on Cancer," he said.
The group advised that, because five billion people around the world currently use mobile phones, therefore, much further research in the subject is needed. The report places at most risk those with the greatest use of cell phones and exposure to other sources of radiation. "We also carefully consider the sources of exposure of populations to radio frequency electromagnetic fields, the nature of these fields as they come from various devises, including wireless phones, and we look carefully at the physical phenomenon by which exposure to such fields may perturb biological systems and lead to cancers," he said.
The IARC working group had gathered in France for the past eight days, reviewing all previous studies done on electromagnetic radiation's effects on humans and animals over the past decade.
Health advocacy groups that have been warning of possible cell phone-cancer links are praising the WHO pronouncement.
Camilla Rees, the founder of a U.S. based group called Electromagnetic Health, says she is pleased but said much more needs to be done. "They focused on brain cancer, and brain cancer includes a relatively small number of people. But we only have had this technology for about 15 years and most carcinogens will take several decades before they develop into a cancer. Early indicators from scientists are projecting a tsunami of brain cancer unless we do something to educate people to lower their exposure," she said.
Rees says there are many other health effects of radiation, including damage to human cell tissue, that the World Health Organization has yet to recognize. But for now, she believes the most urgent need is to begin a campaign to protect children from the effects of electromagnetic fields, and in particular, from cell phones.
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In Nepal, thousands of young Nepalese have launched a campaign, using social networking sites, to pressure political parties to draw up a new constitution for the country.
For four straight Saturdays, hundreds of young Nepalese men and women have demonstrated in the capital, Kathmandu, demanding that lawmakers should forego their salaries if they cannot give the country its long overdue democratic constitution.
They are being mobilized through social network sites like Facebook. The campaign, "Nepal Unites," has been triggered by deep anger with political parties, which have failed to reach a consensus and produce a new constitution.
The constitution was to have been drafted by May 2010, after a bloody civil war ended and the monarchy was abolished. But two deadlines have already been missed. The latest passed on Saturday.
The young, urban elite backing the campaign say they fear that squabbling political parties are endangering the country's hard-won democracy.
"We are totally apolitical," said Prashant Singh, one of the founders of the Facebook campaign. "We don't want to promote any kind of violence. We are not trying to derail the political process or by any means belittle the political parties, in general, because we all are believers in democracy and liberal values. It is already democracy, we are just trying to strengthen it."
In less than a month, thousands of young professionals, activists and students have joined the campaign to press lawmakers to complete the transition to democracy. For most of them, this is the first time they have turned out to take part in such protests - whether on the streets or on the net. Their message to lawmakers is simple: "No work, no pay."
Political analysts say the campaign highlights the deep frustration in the country at the stalled peace process.
Analyst Yuvaraj Ghimire in Nepal says the three major political parties have not even decided on a first draft and have fundamental differences on what system of government to adopt.
"These parties have basically taken a rigid stance, now trying to impose their individual lines to be the ingredients of future constitutions, whereas four years ago when they decided to come together, they had taken a pledge to pursue the political consensus. So from what they said four years ago, and what they are doing now, there is a world of difference," Ghimire says.
Lawmakers voted Saturday to give parliament a three-month extension to write the constitution. But there are fears that this, too, might be frittered away.
Prashant Singh says, for the next three months, they will keep up the pressure on political parties.
"We are not going to sleep [become distracted] again. Very soon we will have hoardings at very important places of Kathmandu, which is like a countdown, 89 days left, 88 days left and things like that. And, even on Facebook for example, people will change their profile pictures everyday, so it is like a constant reminder that we are awake and we are looking at it," he says.
The campaigners say their message is hitting home. Many lawmakers had wanted a longer extension to write the constitution, but decided not to risk deepening public anger by giving parliament more than 90 days to complete the task.
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A pilot project in rural Senegal uses text messaging to remind women of upcoming doctor's appointments and local health meetings.
Health reminders
The sound of a text message, recognizable the world over, but in a small village tucked away down the sandy back-roads of Senegal, a few short beeps can be vital reminders. For mothers living in and around the Mbosse, receiving an SMS (cellphone small message service, text) from their doctor's helps keep themselves, and their babies, alive and healthy.
At the Mbosse health clinic, a hundred kilometers northeast of Dakar, villagers are gathered from more than a dozen nearby communities. On one side of the courtyard are the men. They sit on white plastic chairs in the sand and under the shade of sprawling tents. Off to the side, three young kids put on face paint and costumes in preparation for a skit on malaria prevention.
Next to them, on colorful woven mats, is a group of mothers. They balance babies on their laps and spoon-feed a grainy mixture of dried fish, millet, tomato and peanuts into their tiny mouths. In a corner, four young women sit around a board game called "safe motherhood" in the local Wolof language. A young woman called Ndeye picks up a card from the deck. It is a picture of a pregnant woman carrying a large bag on her head.
Ndeye says this card means that a woman who is pregnant should not be carrying heavy weight. It is a risk. It can be bad for her and bad for the baby.
Empowering families
It is all part of a five-year health plan funded by USAID to helping improve family health in rural Senegal. 150 women were given cell phones to keep them informed of upcoming doctor's appointments -- before, during and after pregnancy -- to remind them of vital immunizations for their babies and to invite them to different health talks at the Mbosse health clinic.
Deguène Fall is in charge of the community health programs for Plan International in Thiès, one of five nongovernmental organizations collaborating on the SMS program.
Fall says it has been an excellent project for areas where women have difficulty in accessing health clinics -- either financially or geographically.
Fall says that, before the cell phone project started, women only learned about health matters through discussions. But many felt there was too much talking and got bored. Fall says, when they came for their pre-natal consultations, doctors would write their next appointment down, but most of these women are illiterate. Even with immunizations, they would forget because they were out working in the field or too busy helping in the house. Fall says that now that they receive direct messages they do not usually forget.
Fatou Tine is a 25-year-old mother of four. She joined the text message program a year ago during her last pregnancy, but continues to attend meetings on other health topics, such as diarrhea, malaria prevention, HIV and family planning. Fatou is illiterate and so is her husband.
Tine says the project has been useful for her because her last pregnancy was a lot easier than the three before. Two days before every doctor's appointment she got a text message. But, because she cannot read, the person she lives with helped her. Tine says that, in total, she received three messages during her pregnancy and four messages after to remind her about getting her baby vaccinated.
Health-care workers at the Mbosse clinic estimate about 95 percent of the women who receive texts do show up for their appointments. And, many also join in the regular health meetings, bringing their friends or husbands along.
Program helps to keep health cost down
The costs of visits range from about 20 cents for a child and 65 cents for an adult. Food and nutritional advice is 30 cents and medication is free. Although these prices are subsidized by the state, it can still be a lot in an area where a single visit to the doctor can mean half a day's income.
The African Child Policy Fund ranks Senegal 13th in health expenditure, below Burkina Faso and Chad but well above Ghana. The Senegalese government spends slightly more than 12 percent of its annual budget on health. That is more than richer countries, such as South Africa, Morocco or Egypt, but still falls short of targets, set by African leaders to spend 15 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) on health before 2015.
David Mugawe, an executive director of the African Child Policy Fund, says traditional means of communication are being sidelined. Media is playing a big part in creating awareness and passing on information at a low cost. Mothers can share experiences and learn from each other.
Mugawe says fathers are also being targeted because they make many of the decisions at home. He says they are the breadwinners and have access to resources, so they need to be supportive of the mother by going to health centers with them, supporting the well-being of their children.
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U.S. Senator John McCain will visit Burma on Wednesday for talks with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi aimed at assessing how serious the new Burmese government is about human rights reforms.
McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is a long-time critic of Burma's military government, and a supporter of its pro-democracy opposition. He said he will use the trip to urge the nominally civilian government sworn in earlier this year to release an estimated 2,200 political prisoners languishing in Burmese jails.
On Tuesday in Bangkok, McCain told reporters that Burma's commitment to rights reforms will be measured by how the government handles Aung San Suu Kyi's upcoming tour of the provinces. He said he will ask government officials to allow her to travel freely.
Suu Kyi announced Tuesday that she will tour the country next month. It will be her first trip to the provinces since 2003, when a similar trip ended with her arrest.
The Nobel laureate marked the eighth anniversary of her arrest by announcing the tour, and said she has not received any safety assurances from the government.
On May 30, 2003, she and her entourage were ambushed by supporters of the military junta while touring upper Burma. U.S. analysts at the time said up to 70 people may have been killed. Suu Kyi escaped, but later was captured and placed under house arrest, where she remained until November 2010.
In advance of his trip, McCain visited the biggest refugee camp for Burmese in Thailand, at Mae Sot. Tens of thousands of refugees there are waiting either to return home or to be resettled elsewhere.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
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Serbian judges have rejected an appeal by wartime General Ratko Mladic against his extradition, and a Serbian minister said the Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic is on a plane from Belgrade to the Dutch city of The Hague to face trial on charges of genocide.
The lawyers defending the 69-year-old Mladic had argued he is not in good enough health to face trial at The Hague. But ruling on appeal, Serbian judges stood by the decision made last Friday after doctors said he was fit for the trip.
A special police convoy transported Mladic from the Belgrade courthouse and jail complex to the Serbian capital's airport, where he boarded the flight.
As judges paved the way for Mladic's extradition, about 10,000 Bosnian Serbs protested against his arrest.
Mladic was an army general during Bosnia's civil war and many Bosnian Serbs consider him a wartime hero.
They gathered on the streets of Bosnian city Banja Luka. One former Bosnian-Serb soldier said Mladic, for him, is a symbol of freedom.
He said Mladic is an invincible Serb hero and immortal for the Serb Republic.
Mladic is accused of orchestrating a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Muslims during the civil war in the 1990s, namely at Srebrenica in 1995, when about 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed.
His arrest also appears to be stoking historic tensions between Serbs and Bosnian Muslims.
London School of Economics southeast Europe expert James Ker-Lindsay said it is important that Mladic's trial proceeds quickly.
Former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic died in custody at The Hague before his trial ended and Ker-Lindsay said that must not be repeated.
"I think after Slobodan Milosevic died while he was on trial, there was a real sense that this can not be allowed to happen again," he said. "Every step will be taken to make sure that General Mladic is kept in as best health as possible."
Ker-Lindsay said prosecutors at The Hague will try to keep the trial straight forward so that it does not drag on.
"Rather than try and go for a mass case taking in as many different charges as possible, to narrowly focus it down, to concentrate on just what is necessary in order to get that key conviction and show the world that justice has been done in this case," he said.
Earlier in the day, Mladic was taken to the grave of his daughter, who killed herself in 1994. Mladic was arrested Thursday after 16 years on the run. The European Union had made his arrest a precondition for Serbia joining the bloc.
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Syrian state television has announced that President Bashar al-Assad is offering government opponents general amnesty.
Facing a tide of protests, Mr. Assad's offer Tuesday extends to members of varied political movements including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
In response to the announcement, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the Obama administration recently has seen very little "concrete action" from Mr. Assad.
Toner said that the Syrian government's legitimacy is "fading" as government forces continue to meet peaceful protests with a crackdown.
Activists say Syria's military forces have fired heavy machine guns and artillery in the country's center in operations against anti-government protesters.
Tuesday's continued attacks in Rastan are likely to add more casualties to the death toll from the military crackdown.
Syrian rights activists have said the crackdown in the center of the country has killed at least 15 civilians and injured dozens of others since Sunday.
Government forces backed by tanks, artillery and helicopters continue operations in the cities of Talbiseh, Rastan and other central communities where residents have staged anti-government protests in recent days.
Rights groups said three civilians were killed Monday in Talbiseh. Residents also found the bodies of two people thought to have been killed by Syrian troops in Homs, Syria's third-largest city.
Witness reports in Syria, as well as official accounts, are difficult to verify independently because the government barred most international journalists from the country soon after the unrest began in March.
Syrian opposition activists have been protesting almost daily since March for democratic reforms and an end to President Bashar al-Assad's 11-year autocratic rule. Rights groups say Mr. Assad's security forces have killed more than 1,000 people and arrested 10,000 more in a campaign to crush the uprising.
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Pakistani fighter jets have attacked militant positions in the northwestern tribal region along the Afghan border, killing at least 17 suspected militants.
A local government official, Javed Khan, said Tuesday's airstrikes took place in the Orakzai tribal area, a known militant stronghold. Khan said at least six other militants were wounded.
It is not possible to independently verify the information because the region is largely off-limits to independent journalists.
The air strikes are the most recent attempt by the Pakistan military to root out Taliban and al-Qaida-linked fighters operating in the country's tribal areas.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
17-year-old Scotty McCreery is this year's American Idol winner. The Garner, North Carolina native beat out 16-year-old Lauren Alaina from Rossville, Georgia. Both singers will pursue a career in Country music. A record 122 million votes were cast by viewers following Scotty and Lauren's final performances on May 24. The May 25 finale featured appearances by such superstars as Lady Gaga, Carrie Underwood, Marc Anthony with Jennifer Lopez, Tom Jones, Tony Bennett, and U2's Bono and the Edge, among others. The day after winning the "American Idol" title, Scotty's debut single, "I Love You This Big," was the Number One song on iTunes. Lauren's debut single is her version of the Country-pop ballad, "Like My Mother Does."
Country's John Rich Wins Celebrity Apprentice
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Country singer John Rich is the winner of this season's Celebrity Apprentice reality show. His victory earned $250,000 for St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. During the finale, John sang his new song "For The Kids," while runner-up Marlie Matlin, who is deaf, signed the lyrics. Rich has also teamed with fellow Celebrity Apprentice contestants Meatloaf, Lil Jon and Mark McGrath to record the charity song "Stand In The Storm." Each artist will donate 100% of the proceeds from worldwide sales of the single to his favorite charity. Mark McGrath's earnings will go to the Save the Music Foundation, Meat Loaf's go to The Painted Turtle, John Rich's go to St. Jude Children's Hospital and Lil Jon will donate his proceeds to The United Methodist Children's Home of North Georgia Conference.
Joe Jonas Releases Solo Single
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On June 3, the debut solo single by the Jonas Brothers' Joe Jonas will be released. "See No More" was co-written by hip-hop singer Chris Brown. Joe's first solo album will be out on September 6 on Hollywood Records. His younger brother, Nick Jonas, made his solo debut on the same label last year with "Who I Am."
X Factor Drops British Judge Cheryl Cole
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TMZ.com reports that British pop singer Cheryl Cole has been dropped as a judge for the upcoming American debut of X Factor. According to the website, reasons for her exit include Cole's "thick accent" and a "lack of chemistry" with fellow judge Paula Abdul. The Pussycat Dolls' Nicole Scherzinger will replace Cole, who has judged the British version of X Factor since 2008.
Swift Raises Money for US Tornado Victims
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Country star Taylor Swift opened the final rehearsal for her "Speak Now" tour to the public to raise money for victims of the recent tornadoes that struck the Southeastern United States. The May 21 concert at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena brought in $750,000 in tickets sales. Taylor is also donating all proceeds from tour merchandise that was sold at the show.
New Album Releases May 31:
"Codes and Keys" by Death Cab For Cutie "Ukulele Songs" by Eddie Vedder "Circuital" by My Morning Jacket "Unfinished" by Jordan Knight "Natural History" by JD Souther "Director's Cut" by Kate Bush "Light My Fire" by Eliane Elias "Anything Goes" the Broadway Cast Recording
Awards Presentations/Winners:
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Rapper Eminem and teen pop star Justin Bieber led the winners of the 2011 Billboard Music Awards, which were handed out on May 22. Eminem was named Top Artist, Top Male Artist and Top Rap Artist. His "Recovery" album also brought him the Top Rap Album and Top Billboard 200 Album awards, and he shared the Top Rap Song honor with Rihanna for their hit, "Love The Way You Lie." Justin Bieber took home the Top New Artist, Top Social Artist, Top Streaming Artist and Top Digital Media Artist trophies. He also earned the Top Pop Album award for "My World 2.0" and the Top Streaming Song (Video) award for "Baby." Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Usher, Taylor Swift, Mumford & Sons and Taio Cruz each won three Billboard Music Awards. Double winners included Katy Perry, Shakira, Chris Tomlin and Train.
R&B singer Chris Brown leads the nominees for the 2011 BET (Black Entertainment Television) Awards. His six nominations include Best Male R&B Artist, Best Actor for his role in "Takers" and Video of the Year for "Look at Me Now." Following close behind with five nods is rapper Lil Wayne with five mentions. Drake, Kanye West and Rihanna received three nominations apiece. (Complete list at www.bet.com.) The 2011 BET Awards will be presented on June 26 in Los Angeles.
Look Who's Going On Tour!
The Go-Go's "Ladies Gone Wild" tour launched on May 29 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The 1980's pop-rock band recently released the 30th Anniversary Edition of its multi-million-selling debut album, "Beauty and the Beat." The collection produced the hits "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "We Got the Beat." The digitally remastered 30th Anniversary Edition features the complete original album and a second disc of previously unreleased concert audio recordings from 1981. A vinyl version was also released. The Go-Go's will be added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in August.
On June 2, R. Kelly will begin an 18-date U.S. tour in Southaven, Mississippi. He'll be supporting his latest album, "Love Letter." Joining the Grammy-winning R&B singer are Keyshia Cole and former Floetry vocalist Marsha Ambrosius. The outing wraps up on July 3rd in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Country star Brad Paisley kicks off his "H2O II World Tour" on June 3 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Special guests on the 33-city trek include Blake Shelton and Jerrod Niemann. Similar to his first "H2O Tour," each city will have a "Water World Plaza" with a concert stage featuring opening acts Brent Anderson, Edens Edge and Sunny Sweeney, as well as various water-themed activities. Brad is the Country Music Association's reigning Entertainer of the Year. His new CD, "This Is Country Music" was released last week (May 24).
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