Stories of Human Abuse and Human being in wretched plight all around the World

Source : BBC 14 November 2010 Haiti cholera death toll tops 900 More than 14,000 people have been hospitalised since the outbreak The number of people in Haiti who have died from cholera has reached 917, the country's health ministry says. The disease is present in six out of 10 provinces and 14,642 people have been hospitalised since the outbreak of the waterborne disease began last month. Aid agencies are battling to contain cholera in the capital Port-au-Prince, amid fears it will spread through camps housing 1.1m earthquake survivors. The UN is appealing for $164m (£101m) to treat the disease in the next year. The death toll has risen by 121 since Friday. Elections due The worst affected area remains the central province of Artibonite, where 595 people have died, said an update on the health ministry's website . In Port-au-Prince - which was badly damaged by the earthquake in January - 27 deaths have been rec...

Pakistani Christians in church Rights groups say the blasphemy law is often exploited by Islamist extremists or people harbouring personal grudges. Pakistani Christian woman appeals over death sentence Relatives of a Pakistani Christian woman sentenced to death for insulting the Prophet Muhammad say they will appeal against her conviction. Asia Bibi is believed to be the first woman sentenced to death under Pakistan's blasphemy law. Her husband told the BBC her conviction was based on "false accusations". Although no-one has ever been executed under the law, about 10 accused have been murdered before the completion of their trials. The 45-year-old mother was sentenced to death on Monday by a court in the town of Nankana, around 75km (45 miles) from the city of Lahore in Punjab province. Altercation over water Her husband, Ashiq Masih, who is a field labourer, said: "We have never ever insulted the Prophet Muhammad or Islamic scripture, and we will contest the charges...

Read in this blog relating story, click In India, greed creeps into microlending, critics say By Rama Lakshmi Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, October 29, 2010 NEW DELHI - The microcredit revolution has been celebrated for helping poor women in developing countries start small businesses. By lending them money for purchases such as a buffalo or sewing machine, the women were able to help lift their families out of poverty. But critics say the microcredit model has been perverted by commercial greed in India , with reports of abusive collection methods and sky-high interest rates. "What began as a simple, innovative model of providing credit for the poor women who were excluded from mainstream banks underwent a paradigm shift in India," said R. Subramaniam, principal secretary for rural development in Andhra Pradesh. "Many of these microfinance lenders morphed into for-profit companies six years ago." In the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, whi...

Indonesia tsunami kills By JOHN NEDI The Associated Press Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Source : The Washington Post PADANG, Indonesia -- Navy ships packed with medicine and food and rescuers in helicopters headed Tuesday to remote Indonesian islands that were pounded by a 10-foot (3-meter) tsunami, sweeping away villages and killing at least 113 people Rough seas and bad weather have hampered relief operations, leaving villagers to fend for themselves for nearly two days. With not enough people to dig graves, corpses littered beaches and roads, according to district chief, Edison Salelo Baja. Fisherman were scouring waters in search of survivors. The fault line that ruptured Monday on Sumatra island's coast also caused the 2004 quake and monster Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries. Disaster officials have been unable so far to reach many of the villages on the hardest hit Mentawai islands - a popular surfer's destination that is ...

Pic. credit :BBC Haiti cholera outbreak causes not clear, experts say By Sigrun Rottmann . BBC News . 25 October 2010. Until the current outbreak, cholera had not been documented in Haiti since 1960 The cholera outbreak in central Haiti that so far has killed more than 250 people and infected more than 3,000 is the worst health challenge the country faces since the earthquake in January. There had been no documented outbreak of the disease in Haiti since 1960. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said after the earthquake that while cholera testing should be carried out, the disease was "extremely unlikely to occur". So why has the epidemic struck now? It is not clear if the cause of the outbreak will ever be identified, but health experts agree that for cholera to occur, bad sanitation and hygiene have to coincide with people carryi...

In Burma , criticising the government is still grounds for arrest, torture and a decades-long prison sentence. There hasn't been an election in over 20 years, and the last time they held one, the results were ignored and the winner locked away. So as Burma plans to hold its first election in a generation, I've created a powerful act of solidarity: http://3freedoms.amnesty.org/ Upload your photo and see yourself behind bars. The message? As long as Burma isn't free, I am not free. In 2007, courageous barefoot monks led 100,000 people in peaceful demonstrations through the city streets. The military used bullets and beatings to disperse the crowds - including monks, women, children and students. They killed over 100 people - yet a year later, authorities passed a law granting full immunity to perpetrators of human rights violations , including government officials and security forces. It's hard to imagine that conditions inside Burma before, during and...

When Myanmar's Not Free, None Of Us Are Free Myanmar is about to hold its first national election in two decades. In the last elections in 1990, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a resounding victory — only for the military government to ignore the results and arrest scores of opposition activists who threatened their grip on power. We cannot let this happen again Many of Myanmar's 50 million people live in poverty. And those who express views contrary to that of the ruling authorities face harassment, arrest, torture, imprisonment and, sometimes, execution. Many are held in solitary confinement, denied access to medical care and cut off from their families and loved ones. More than 2,200 political prisoners are behind bar...

Earthquake devastates Haiti A most desperate struggle Haiti's 'invisible' elderly become increasingly desperate Elderly Haitians and those with disabilities have been disproportionately affected by January's earthquake, which laid waste to the capital, Port-au-Prince, and made essential medical supplies scarce. If you want to see the heart rending state of elderly people click here and see it in washington post It was always hard to be old in Haiti, but after the earthquake, to be old and poor feels like a curse, say those who are both. sOURCE : The washingtonpost Old and poor in Haiti suffer mightily after the quake By William Booth Saturday, March 13, 2010 PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- It was always hard to be old in Haiti, but after the earthquake, to be old and poor feels like a curse, say those who are both. "We struggle to maintain a little dignity, but look at us," said Lauranise Gedeon, who sat, embarrassed, in soiled sheets in the ruins o...

Honour Killings Robert Fisk: The crimewave that shames the world It's one of the last great taboos: the murder of at least 20,000 women a year in the name of 'honour'. Nor is the problem confined to the Middle East: the contagion is spreading rapidly Tuesday, 7 September 2010 It is a tragedy, a horror, a crime against humanity. The details of the murders – of the women beheaded, burned to death, stoned to death, stabbed, electrocuted, strangled and buried alive for the "honour" of their families – are as barbaric as they are shameful. Many women's groups in the Middle East and South-west Asia suspect the victims are at least four times the United Nations' latest world figure of around 5,000 deaths a year. Most of the victims are young, ma...