Insurgency in Iraq by the numbers...
The insurgency in Iraq represents a fraction of the overall violence in that country despite the Bush Administration's untruthful statements to the contrary.
The Los Angeles Times, citing Pentagon data, reveals that almost half (45%) of foreign-born insurgents are from Saudi Arabia, 15% are from Syria or Lebanon, and 10% are from North Africa.
What's more, foreign-born insurgents make up just a fraction, well below 10%, of the so-called insurgency in Iraq. Clearly, the current wave of murder and destruction, and, in fact, the sectarian violence that has grown exponentially in Iraq since the United States' invasion of that country, is Iraqi on Iraqi killing inspired by the US invasion.
The decision by Iraqi Sunni Arabs today to walk out of Nouri al-Malaki's coalition government is yet another side of the fractious breakdown in Iraqi civil society and government since the Bush Administration's ill-fated "troop surge:" the Iraqi Accordance Front which holds five cabinet posts and 45 seats in parliament announced it was abandoning its membership in al-Maliki's ineffectual government.
Ivory Coast still plagued by violence and political persecution
Despite the March, 2007 peace accord, violence and political persecution are still mundane facts of life for many in this country on the western coast of Africa. After a ten year civil war that tore apart the country and its people, political reform and good governance remain an elusive, if hopeful, goal.
Despite 25 years of scientific breakthroughs, HIV still on rise
Officials at a major international HIV/AIDS conference meeting in Australia this week have announced that despite Herculean efforts to develop new and more effective medical treatments for controlling HIV disease, most of those at-risk of infection around the globe continue to become infected.
New HIV infections are vastly outpacing persons with HIV disease in treatment exposing weaknesses in global HIV prevention strategies due to government indifference, sexism, homophobia, and lack of funding among other issues.
