Afghan children face world's worst conditions-UN
18 March 2010 - Afghanistan is the hardest place in the world to be a child, the South Asia regional director for UNICEF said, with high child mortality rates, poor levels of nutrition and rampant abuse. Three decades of war and a worsening insurgency have made it ever tougher for an Afghan child just to survive, she told Reuters during a visit aimed at highlighting what UNICEF calls the worst conditions for children on earth. More than a quarter of Afghan children -- 257 out of 1,000 -- will die before they reach their fifth birthday and 165 out of every 1,000 will die in the first year of their lives, more than any place in the world, according to UNICEF data from 2008. Afghanistan also has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world after Sierra Leone, with 1,800 women per 100,000 live births dying during child birth. (more)

Fear grips Mexican border families amid violence
18 March 2010 - Parents in Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, are afraid to venture into the streets amid a turf war between two powerful drug cartels that has left more than 4,500 people dead during the past two years. The violence has risen to such levels in Ciudad Juarez that everyone feels at risk in the city of 1.3 million, where innocent people have been increasingly caught in the crossfire. Hit men have gone to wrong addresses or shot indiscriminately into homes, mowing down not only the targeted people but anyone nearby. Families in Ciudad Juarez started taking precautions years ago. At night, some couples drive in separate cars so one spouse can call the other on a cell phone upon seeing something suspicious. Many restrict their children to socializing at the homes of neighbours and relatives instead of meeting up at cafes and discos. (more)

North Korea executes official for blunder
18 March 2010 - North Korea has executed a ruling party official blamed for a botched currency reform, in a desperate attempt to quell public unrest and stem negative impact on Pyongyang's power succession, a news report said on Thursday. But both North Korean officials and even many in the communist country's public do not believe the explanation that Pak was a conspiring anti-revolutionary, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted sources knowledgeable about the issue as saying. 'The mood is the leadership has made Pak Nam-ki a scapegoat,' one source was quoted as saying. Analysts stated that the event showed the North was under intense pressure to relieve problems that could upset the stability of the leadership. (more)

US bank auditors got big bonuses despite missing meltdown signposts
18 March 2010 - Banks weren't the only ones giving big bonuses in the boom years before the worst financial crisis in generations. The government also was handing out millions of dollars to bank regulators, rewarding 'superior' work even as an avalanche of risky mortgages helped create the meltdown. Just as bank executives got bonuses despite taking on dangerous amounts of risk, regulators got taxpayer-funded bonuses despite missing or ignoring signs that the system was on the verge of a meltdown. The bonuses were part of a reward programme little known outside the government. Some government regulators got tens of thousands of dollars in perks, boosting their salaries by almost 25 per cent. (more)