Malawi child tobacco pickers being poisoned

Children in Malawi who are forced to work as tobacco pickers are exposed to nicotine poisoning equivalent to smoking 50 cigarettes a day, an investigation has found.

Child labourers as young as five are suffering severe health problems from a daily skin absorption of up to 54 milligrams of dissolved nicotine, according to the international children's organisation Plan.

Malawian tobacco is found in the blend of almost every cigarette smoked in the west. The low-grade, high-nicotine tobacco is often used as a filler by manufacturers, reflecting a long-term global shift in production.

Read the full story on the Gaurdian News website

Web Pries Lid of Iranian Censorship

Thanks to my good friend Bill Amos in Vancouver for pointing out this fascinating article in the New York Times on the the role the web is playing in the current protests in Iran.

Shortly after Neda Agha-Soltan bled her life out on the Tehran pavement, the man whose 40-second video of her death has ricocheted around the world made a somber calculation in what has become the cat-and-mouse game of evading Iran’s censors. Read the full story here.

Igloolik: 69 North, 81 West

If you look at a map of Canada, trace your finger north — way north — up past James Bay and into Nunavut, you'll see a small island just off the northwest coast of Baffin island near the entrance to the Northwest Passage.

That's where you'll find Igloolik, an Inuit community of about 2,000 people. Read about by clicking on this link: Igloolik: 69 North, 81 West

Mogadishu carnage devastates lives

By Mohamed Olad Hassan
BBC News, Mogadishu

Cradling her baby brother in stick-thin arms, eight-year-old Halima Mayow says little about the incident which wiped out their family in Mogadishu. But, at a camp on the outskirts of the Somali capital, the only word she does utter - "Mortar! Mortar!" - sums up the tragedy which has spawned two more orphans in this war-torn country.
Read the full BBC story here!

Gadget Graveyard: 10 Technologies About to Go Extinct

Looking back at the 20th century, it's clear that even the biggest and baddest gadget sensations will one day fall victim to technological evolution.

As each year brings tinier, shinier toys, it's easy to forget that not too long ago typewriters were the professional alternative to freehand, Walkmen ruled the portable-music market and extra-long phone cords would let you speak to friends while standing 10 feet away from the wall-mounted base. Read the full story at FOX News.

Faith in student pays off

Boy succeeds beyond expectations after school saw potential and mobilized support. Read this wonderful story in the April 7, 2009 edition of the Toronto Star by Andrea Gordon, Family Issues reporter. Click here.

Twitter and the Meaning of Life

Apr 06, 2009 -- Last week, the Toronto Star issued a Twitter challenge: express the meaning of life in less than 140 characters.

The response was overwhelming – every few minutes, we receive another tweet. A sample:

THE MEANING OF LIFE IS ... Read the responses in the Toronto Star

Watching mum die from HIV/Aids

Only half of those infected in South Africa by HIV - the virus that causes Aids - have access to life-saving medicines and as Claudia Hammond found out, the care for those dying can still fall on children. Read this touching story from the BBC Program "From our own Correspondent."

Mia Farrow: We owe them protection

At 6 a.m. on Aug. 25, Kalma camp, home to 90,000 displaced Darfuris, was surrounded by Sudanese government forces. By 7 a.m., 60 heavily armed military vehicles had entered the camp, shooting and setting straw huts ablaze. Read this commentary by actress Mia Farrow from the Globe and Mail.

Where is the church-led economic recovery?

There was a time when Canadian churches knew how to help you face the worst that economic storms could wreak. In the Great Depression, for example, there were pockets of faith-based activists who launched social change on such a scale that much of it is still with us today. What are the churches doing today? Read Lorna Dueck's opinion piece on Faith Matters, on the CBC website.

Science is my job - faith is my rock

This week, when Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology, declined to discuss his Christian beliefs in the face of accusations that they were influencing his work, the fallout cast new light on the challenges of religious individuals who work in science fields: How do they reconcile their professional passions with their belief in God? Read the full story in the Globe and Mail.

Delhi Notebook - Agony of Missing Children

The streets of the Badli Industrial Area in north Delhi are teeming with children. This is the kind of place where migrant families settle, after coming to Delhi to look for work. In a small courtyard on a side street Sangeeta Giri is washing her family's clothes. Her husband Harishankar, a driver, is sitting nearby. It looks like a normal domestic scene, but there's something wrong. Their daughter Sunita went missing last June, two weeks after they arrived in the city. Full story from the BBC.

Catholic Bishops in BC and Yukon Sound Off on Human Trafficking

The Catholic Bishops of British Columbia and the Yukon have published a Pastoral Letter on the trafficking of women and children. The publication of this Letter coincided with the Vancouver launch of the resource and awareness kit We are a Global Vlllage, published by the Canadian Religious Conference (CRC). The event took place February 10 At Saint Patrick Regional High School with more than 80 students present. The CRC has made the letter available on its website.

Nation of lost souls

'I knew God Himself didn't want me'

TIMMINS – The last time Marcia Martel saw her mother at home, it was late summer and she was a chubby little Indian kid of 4. She doesn't remember much because she was crying and clutching the tall grass as strange people pulled her away. Read the full story in the Toronto Star by Linda Diebel.