Top stories from DAWNS Digest.
145 Arab NGOs Can’t Be Wrong
A massive and coordinated effort from Arab civil society organizations is underway to petition the Arab League to end the farcical Syria observer mission and urge the Security Council to take action. “A coalition of 145 Arab organisations working in nineteen countries across the Arab world has demanded that the League of Arab States recognize the flaws that have severely undermined the efficacy of the Arab observers mission, to publicly release the monitoring mission’s report, to withdraw the monitoring mission given the Syrian regime’s failure to implement the terms of the Arab League protocol and to call for the UN Security Council to take action to address the violence. With over 400 civilians killed by Syrian security forces in the first three weeks of the Arab mission according to documented UN figures, the coalition has written to the League of Arab States in view of its upcoming meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of January 21, urging them to send a strong message to the Syrian Government and to the UN. The request from leading Arab human rights organizations follows a continuous and blatant violation of the Arab road map. The latter requires that Syria immediately stops the violence and killings against peaceful protesters, withdraws its military from cities and residential areas, release all political detainees related to the uprising and grant full access to all parts of Syria by both International and Arab media as well as Arab organizations.” (Cairo Institute for human rights studies http://bit.ly/x5mWAu)
Science > Malaria
Some great news on the scientific front. “In a medical breakthrough, scientists have determined the workings of a protein vital to the parasite that causes malaria, a disease that annually sickens more than 200 million people around the world, and kills more than 500,000. Researchers say their analysis of the protein reveals an important weakness in the microscopic parasite, and provides a good starting point for new anti-malarial drugs.” (VOA http://bit.ly/AktpB8)
Everybody Needs Money, Even the IMF
$1 trillion is about how much the IMF may need to help bail out failing economies if conditions worsen in the coming years. “The International Monetary Fund is seeking to boost its war chest by $600 billion to help countries reeling from the euro zone debt crisis, but some nations insist Europe must first do more to support its ailing members, international financial sources said on Wednesday. Group of 20 officials will discuss increasing IMF resources at a meeting in Mexico City on Thursday and Friday, the first under Mexico’s 2012 presidency of the group of developed and emerging economies. The IMF said it will need $500 billion to lend to member countries in need and IMF sources who were present at an IMF board meeting on the issue on Tuesday told Reuters that another $100 billion is needed as a “protection buffer.” The IMF also estimated there would be a $1 trillion global financing gap over the next two years if global economic conditions worsened considerably, the sources added. (Reuters http://reut.rs/zi2az6)