The Alan Guttmacher Institute has issued a new report on global abortion rates. They found that while the total number of abortions globally fell from 45.5 million in 1995 to 41.6 million in 2003, 20 million unsafe abortions still occur every year. That’s a huge number. These 20 million unsafe abortions kill 70,000 women each year and seriously harm millions more.
A lot of ink has been spilled so far about the dispute in the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) between the mission's former deputy Peter W. Galbraith and his boss, Kai Eide. What has been lost in the discussion, though, is the basic point that the disagreement over how to handle fraud in the Afghan elections is an honest one between two people who both believe that they have the best interests of Afghans at heart.
Tomorrow, UN Dispatch will be one of nearly 7,000 blogs in 135 countries that will send up a post on climate change. The event is being organized by the same folks who brought you the 2007 Blog Action Day on Environment and the 2008 Blog Action Day on Poverty. The idea is that no matter what kind of content a blog covers, you should take time out of your regular blogging schedule to educate and inform readers about a globally critical topic. This year climate change is the obvious choice as the world heads to the COP 15 summit in Copenhagen. UN Dispatch w
I'm leaving Turkey this evening. As I mentioned last week, this was a very politically significant time to be in Turkey. On Saturday, the foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia (beneath the helpful gaze of Hillary Clinton) signed the Turkey-Armenia Protocols which pave the way for the opening of the Turkey-Armenia border and the restoration of full diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The World Food Program suffered a devastating loss last week in Pakistan. But their work continues elsewhere. Via the UN News Center, the WFP is still hard at work in one of the world's most dangerous places: Somalia.
The Secretary General made the following statement on Obama's Nobel Peace Prize:
The Secretary-General wholeheartedly congratulates U.S. President Barack Obama on winning the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.