Archive for the ‘world news’ Category

It’s been over a week since the Haitian earthquake devastated the country. Sadly, at this point, finding survivors is becoming increasingly rare. Still, there are glorious exceptions — like Kiki, the young boy who flashed a million-dollar smile after being lifted from the rubble.

The rescue was captured on camera. As you’ll see below, Kiki’s older sister, Sabrina, was pulled out first. Seven-year-old Kiki comes out next, looking a bit dazed. However, after seeing the crowd, the survivor immediately smiles and extends his arms in triumph. A photographer from the New York Post described the scene and the crowd’s reaction.

After so much heartbreak and tragedy, this was a rescue that inspired the masses. When asked why he smiled so broadly, Kiki responded, “I smiled because I was free, I smiled because I was alive.”

After being treated for their injuries and dehydration, the two children were reunited with their parents. No doubt the children were happy. In time they’ll understand just how happy they’d made everyone else.

Watch the incredible moment below, and learn how you can donate to Haiti here.

When I read this story I was excited then saddened all within 30 seconds. I think this girl and her mother are two very people. I did more research on this story and came across on many asian sites..to say the comments were cruel and insensitive is an understatement. The Chinese clearly have a long way to go when working on their racists attitudes. Thank God I live in America. Read the full story below from Time.com

In many ways, Lou Jing is a typical young woman from Shanghai. Pretty and confident, she speaks Mandarin heavily accented with the lilting tones of the Shanghai dialect and browses the malls of this huge city for the latest fashions.

But there is one thing that distinguishes this 20-year-old from her peers, something that has made her the unwitting focus of an intense public debate about what exactly it means to be Chinese: the color of her skin. Born to a Chinese mother and an African-American father whom she has never met, the theater student rocketed into the public consciousness last month when she took part in an American Idol–esque TV show, Go! Oriental Angel. (See pictures of modern Shanghai.)

The marketing gurus for the series could hardly have dreamed of a better promotional gimmick when they started to investigate the backgrounds of the dozens of pop-star wannabes to root out the competitors’ mushy stories of triumph over adversity that are a well-worn staple of the genre. Here was a tale guaranteed to attract eyeballs: a girl of mixed race, brought up by a single Chinese mother, struggling to gain acceptance in a deeply conservative, some would say racist, society. Read the rest of this entry »

Now this is what they call moxy. What a strong minded young woman….  Story by Emerald Catron. In a perfect world, you’d know Caster Semenya as the teenage woman who can run half a mile in under two minutes. What you probably know her as is the athlete whose muscular physique prompted officials to order a test to verify her gender. But her femininity isn’t a question at all in the “after” shots of her makeover from South African magazine You.

Smiling Despite a Scandal
The makeover proved to be a learning experience for Semenya, 18, who admits she doesn’t know how to put on makeup. The photo shoots also gave her the rare opportunity to get dressed up, something a girl who’s in school and race training doesn’t get the chance to do very often. Says Semenya, “I didn’t do this to prove a point but rather to have fun. I don’t give a damn what people say about me. I like me the way I am, and who cares what other people say?”

Regardless of the controversy, South Africa has embraced its daughter since she took gold in the 800-meter race at the World Championships in Germany last month, She even met with Nelson Mandela, who praised her.

Testing Comes Under Fire
Presently the results of the gender test required by the International Association of Athletics Federation are still being analyzed, so an independent panel of experts has been called in to decipher the results. Her coach quit this week, admitting that he didn’t tell Semenya that her gender was being tested — he told her she was being screened for steroids and other illicit substances.

Semenya may suffer from a rare chromosomal disorder that causes her body to produce too much testosterone. This isn’t the first time an athlete’s gender has been questioned or a genetic condition has wreaked havoc on qualifying tests. Whether or not that extra dose of testosterone gives her an edge over her competitors will have to be decided.

The results of the medical test will not be made public, since they warrant patient confidentiality. Regardless of what the results say, there’s at least one teenage girl out there who likes herself just the way she is — and we love that.

First lady Michelle Obama continued to charm Russia on Tuesday, where she and the president attended a graduation ceremony at the New Economic School and a President Medvedev-hosted lunch at the Kremlin. President Obama did a bunch of business as well.

Mrs. Obama wore a black and white dress with a black flower brooch on Tuesday. She had also worn a black and white frock on the Fourth of July, and the same color combination to dinner with the Medvedevs on Monday night.

See the photos of Michelle Obama with Russian First Lady Svetlana Medvedeva, Sasha, Malia and others! Read the rest of this entry »

So now the usually liberal open minded Canadians want to make racist assassination jokes about Obama?
Oh gawd, here we go with the racism crap….

In a rehash of a tasteless and ignorant sentiment shared by few Americans, a Canadian comedy program, shown on the French-language Radio-Canada network, recently came under fire for joking about the possible assassination of President Barack Obama. Oddly enough, the show (“Bye-Bye 2008″) took place on New Year’s Eve, nearly six months ago. But due to hundreds of complaints, something is finally being done about it.

The radio segment featured a slew of offensive statements in which the hosts seemed to revel in their own banter. At one point, one of the hosts stated, “We’re not racists. It will be good to have a Negro in the White House. It will be practical. Black on white, it will be easier to shoot him.”

To its credit, the Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council said it found, “nothing redeeming in the allegedly comedic notion that an American president should be shot, still less that this would be easier to achieve because of the color of the president’s skin. It was a disturbing, wounding, abusive racial comment.”

On another segment of the show, an Obama impersonator was featured in a faux interview in which the host said, “The blacks, you all look alike,” and then warned viewers to hide their purses. Talk About It: Is It Ever Funny To Joke About Killing the President? Read the rest of this entry »

Milan, 9 June (AKI) – A black woman backed by the anti-immigrant Northern League has been elected mayor of the small Italian town of Viggiu close to the Swiss border. Sandy Cane, elected in local elections held across Italy at the weekend, won by a slim margin of only 38 votes.

The 48-year-old mayor will govern the town and surrounding district of Valceresio, on the border of Varesotto and the Swiss canton of Ticino.

The daughter of an American soldier and a woman from Viggiu who emigrated to northern France, Cane was born in Springfield in the US state of Massachusetts. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s hard to find any good deeds anyone can point out that President Bush has done throughout his presidency, but one that many seem to overlook is how much Bush has helped save millions of lives in Africa by funding some controversial, but effective medical aid for those with H.I.V. and AIDS. This has always been something I had to tell people about beause in most cases they were not aware. I never liked Bush as a president, and I never voted for him or any Republican in my life, but I do believe it’s important to show that as a President he was not a total failure. President Bush has done more for HIV and AIDS in Africa than any other US President, and that is a fact. Show respect. After watching the video read this story from earlier last year about the Bush’s legacy in Africa. It’s really going to surprise you.

Bush AIDS Fund Credited With Saving Lives
$15 Billion Fund Made U.S. President Popular Across Africa
By JOHN HENDREN
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, Feb. 17, 2008

President Bush may be struggling at home, but he remains surprisingly popular here in Africa, where his face adorns everything from billboards of thanks, to women’s dresses.

U.S. President George W. Bush hands a mosquito net as part of efforts to combat malaria during a tour of Meru District Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania, Monday, Feb. 18, 2008.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)The main reason for his popularity is that the fund to combat AIDS, which he created in 2003, has spent more than $15 billion on the continent over the past five years.

“It was incumbent upon us to help deal with this pandemic that … could have literally wiped out an entire generation of Africans,” Bush told reporters in the Tanzanian capital today.

The fund is the largest international health initiative ever to fight a single disease, and Bush wants to double that amount to $30 billion over the next five years.

“Different people may have different views about you and your administration and your legacy,” Tanzanian President Jikaya Kikwete said. “But we, in Tanzania, if we are to speak for ourselves, and for Africa, we know for sure that you, Mr. President, and your administration, have been good friends of our country, and have been good friends of Africa.”

Critics want even more funding and fewer strings, like the requirement that some money go to abstinence programs. But even critics concede what is obvious to thousands of HIV-positive patients, like James Kan, a patient at a clinic in the capital — the program has saved lives.

“I would have died,” Kan said. “Yeah, that is exactly what could have happened.”
continue reading the full story

A high court in South Africa ruled on Wednesday that Chinese-South Africans will be reclassified as “black,” a term that includes black Africans, Indians and others who were subject to discrimination under apartheid. As a result of this ruling, ethnically Chinese citizens will be able to benefit from government affirmative action policies aimed at undoing the effects of apartheid.

In 2006, the Chinese Association of South Africa sued the government, claiming that its members were being discriminated against because they were being treated as whites and thus failed to qualify for business contracts and job promotions reserved for victims of apartheid. The association successfully argued that, since Chinese-South Africans had been treated unequally under apartheid, they should be reclassified in order to redress wrongs of the past.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lucian Freud’s one-time muse was paid £20 a day to sit for a painting expected to fetch more than £17m. But Londoner Sue Tilley said she did not do it for the money and had “lovely lunches” with the artist. Freud’s 1995 work, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, looks set to become the most expensive painting by a living artist when it is sold in New York next month.

Ms Tilley – who is now a job centre manager – joked she had now become a broadsheet pin-up.
Ms Tilley – nicknamed Big Sue – told the BBC’s Today programme: “I can’t quite believe it, to be honest.

“I only found out on Thursday afternoon. You know, I didn’t have any idea it was going to happen, so I’m a bit in shock.

“I was reading on the internet…all the things about it. And I was just going ‘Oh my god’, I could hardly believe it was about me.”

‘Lovely lunches’

Referring to her portrait gracing the front-page of Saturday’s Financial Times, she said: “Am I the first naked pin-up in the history of the FT?
Read the rest of this entry »

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A desperate appeal from the president Wednesday failed to restore order to Haiti’s shattered capital, and bands of looters sacked stores, warehouses and government offices.
 
 
Gunfire rang out from the wealthy suburbs in the hills to the starving slums below as 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers were unable to halt a frenzy of looting and violence that has grown out of protests over rising food prices.

Thousands of people were in the streets of Port-au-Prince following President Rene Preval’s speech, many looting stores and terrorizing drivers and shopkeepers with rocks. Thousands more took part other in protests across the country. An uneasy calm settled in by late Wednesday, with stores remaining closed but protesters mostly dispersed and many roadblocks abandoned. Read the rest of this entry »