Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Clinton to Push for Wider Kosovo Recognition

Clinton to Push for Wider Kosovo Recognition

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged to work for broader international recognition of Kosovo on Wednesday during a visit to Pristina, the first by a U.S. chief diplomat since Kosovo's independence in 2008. Clinton also stressed U.S. backing for the rights of Kosovo's Serb minority. Secretary Clinton in john randle jersey received a hero's welcome from hundreds of Pristina residents as she stopped her motorcade at a nearly four-meter-high statue honoring her husband - former President Bill Clinton - along a boulevard named for him.
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The Clinton administration is revered in Kosovo for having backed the 1999 NATO air campaign that ended a brutal crackdown by Serb forces, and put the majority ethnic-Albanian region for new orleans saints jersey on the road to independence. In talks with Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and other officials, the Secretary of State pledged continuing U.S. political support for Kosovo, and its quest for broader international recognition and full European Union and NATO membership. At a press event with Mr. Thaci in saints jerseys, Clinton said she was heading for Brussels, the last stop on her four-day European trip, with a list of countries the United States will try to persuade to recognize the Pristina government.

About 70 nations, with some EU members notably absent, have recognized Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. Clinton wearing reggie bush jersey said that number should increase following the International Court of Justice's ruling upholding the legality of the independence move. "We think it's important to continue to increase the numbers of countries that recognize, especially after the ICJ opinion, which we believe settles the matter of jeremy shockey jersey once and for all," she said. "I also believe that the approach that the government of Kosovo has been taking has really earned admiration and support from around the world."

Clinton, who visited Belgrade prior to her stop in Kosovo, welcomed Serbia's commitment to heed a U.N. General Assembly appeal to open dialogue with its former province, even though Serbian President Boris Tadic in drew brees jersey on Tuesday reaffirmed his government's refusal to recognize Kosovo. Standing alongside Clinton at a press event, Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said the ICJ opinion and the U.N. resolution should end any debate over his country's political legitimacy. He added that Kosovo is ready to engage with Serbia on an equal right to wear brees jersey. He is heard through an interpreter. "We see a new chapter being opened now, a new phase being opened in our relationships between the state of Kosovo and Serbia," he said.

"The future chapter of cooperation on archie manning jersey between these two countries has been opened. It's time to close the more that one century-long conflict between Serbia and Kosovo. The time is to cooperate and look toward the future." Clinton balanced her political support for Kosovo's government with gestures toward the country's ethnic-Serb minority, which has dwindled in recent years.  She went to the Serb enclave of Gracanica, outside of Pristina, and visited a 14th century Serbian Orthodox religious shrine, where the chief cleric complained to her that Kosovo is impeding the return of Serbs who had fled unrest in the country.

Clinton in miami dolphins jersey told a gathering of ethnic-Serb mayors in Gracanica that preservation of the cultural and religious heritage of all of the majority-Muslim country's people is essential to Kosovo's long-term stability.  "I believe the only way Kosovo will fully prosper is if Kosovo Serbs see a secure and peaceful future for themselves," she said with dolphins jerseys. "The United States strongly supports you - the Kosovo Serb mayors and other local leaders who are working to create that future. " the Kosovo Serb mayors and other local leaders who are working to create that future." Clinton in dan marino jersey said she will press for full European integration for Balkan states in meetings in Brussels with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and at a meeting of NATO defense and foreign ministers on Thursday.

India Plugs into Low-Cost Solar Technology

India Plugs into Low-Cost Solar Technology

India seems to excel at making things smaller and cheaper. The $2,500 car and the $35 computer are just two of the country's latest innovations. Now, India increasingly is focused on low-cost solar technology. The front lines of that effort are seen in a tiny village in the Indian state of Rajasthan called Tiloniya. In this sunlit workshop making bart starr jersey also, Tenzing Chonzom solders parts onto a device that regulates electrical currents. It will eventually be connected to a solar panel, allowing it to power everything from lamps to laptops.

Chonzom in jermichael finley jersey says she was chosen by her community to come here to learn about solar technology. She says she will take the knowledge back to the villages where she lives. She says many people in her region, in the Himalayan foothills, still do not have access to electricity. Chonzom wearing minnesota vikings jersey is 50 years old, and one of two dozen people being trained here as solar engineers. Most have had no formal education. It is all part of a program to help India's rural poor by teaching them to make and install low-cost solar panels.

Then they teach others to do the same things for vikings jerseys. It is called Barefoot College, and so far it has trained thousands. Sanjit Bunker Roy started the program 25 years ago. "You have to see how you can demystify the technology and bring it down to the community level so that they can manage, control and own the technology," said Roy in fran tarkenton jersey. Roy is among Time Magazine's Top 100 most influential people for 2010. He says grassroots solar technology is crucial for India. Nearly half the country's rural population – more than 300 million people – has either no sidney rice jersey or just a few hours of it a day.

That limits how much people can do in a day, whether its homework or handicrafts.  To help, Roy says he did what World Bank and U.N. aid projects often fail to do – that is, tap into the local ingenuity he sees every day. "You'll find jared allen jersey everywhere in India, this infinite capacity to be able to improvise and fix things without having gone through any formal education," he added. "They have this incredible inbuilt skill that we haven't been able to define, appreciate or respect yet." As if to illustrate their inbuilt skill, Roy in brett favre jersey points out a solar cooker that some of the women at Barefoot College helped design and build.

At its heart is a "solar tracker" made of old bicycle sprockets, springs and rocks. It allows a parabolic mirror – also homemade and about the size of a favre jersey – to follow the arc of the sun, focusing its rays into an aluminum stove. All the meals at the college are cooked on it. One of its main designers is Sita Devi, a 30-year-old mother of two with only a third-grade education. She says she wanted to make a solar adrian peterson jersey with materials that are easily available, even in remote villages.

She says the cooker saves time – and the environment – by reducing the need for women to wander outside the village in search of firewood for cooking. In this song, Devi and other women in peterson jersey of the Barefoot Brigade extol the benefits of their solar cookers and lamps. Roy says his program merely provides the space for the women to develop self-confidence. He says that is what drives the Barefoot Brigade's success in bringing power to more than 450 rural villages.

ILO Seeks Global Support for Domestic Worker Protection

ILO Seeks Global Support for Domestic Worker Protection

Steps to launch an international convention on domestic workers led by the United Nations are slowly gaining global support at a time of rising demand for domestic staff in the world economy. A senior U.N. International Labor Organization official is confident the convention - aimed at protecting domestic workers and children - will provide coverage against abuses. The fight for labor rights for millions of domestic workers loving football and detroit lions jersey made significant gains this year during growing support for an International Labor Organization-backed convention, despite initial resistance from countries such as China and Indonesia.

Senior ILO official Manuela Tomei in lions jerseys, who oversees work conditions and employment, said the convention - currently in draft form - would mark a major step in labor protection for domestic workers. "Huge, because it will lay down what minimum protection is for domestic workers in barry sanders jersey at the international level; knowing that nationally there are many countries that exclude from the scope of national legislation, domestic workers. So there is a problem about a lack of norms nationally that could help guide what decent treatment of domestic workers is," said Tomei wearing ndamukong suh jersey.

In the June talks, more than 60 countries voted for a set of binding international standards in a convention to protect and empower domestic workers. Asia has the largest number of domestic workers. China is reported to have up to 20 million domestic workers, while the ILO estimates Thailand has as many as 700,000 employed domestic workers making green bay packers jersey. Efforts are underway in Indonesia to organize domestic workers with national networks. Labor groups said Indonesia and China are among countries that appeared to initially resist the draft convention.

The convention deals with issues that include the right to work for packers jerseys cooperation, discrimination, exclusion of child labor from domestic work, freedom to organize and engage in collective action, labor contracts, insurance, and rights to payment. In the Middle East, rights groups recently have cited Kuwait for failure to protect the more than 600,000 domestic workers in charles woodson jersey as uniforms from abuses, including unpaid salaries, no weekend leave, enforced servitude, and inadequate food.

Tomei said a key concern remains the high incidence of child domestic workers in South Asia and Africa. Asia faces regular reports of abuse of domestic workers in aaron rodgers jersey however. Indonesia and Malaysia recently have held talks to reach agreement on protecting domestic workers. Tomei in clay matthews jersey says the convention would mark a major step to preventing abuse once ratified. "The convention if adopted and the ILO organization could help and support the process of avoiding or reducing the incidence of abuses against domestic workers in reggie white jersey also.

We hear a lot of abuses and violation of human rights of domestic workers. These certainly are tragic instances that need to be addressed," said Tomei. Tomei also said, though, there are signs of progress with evidence of "proactive action" to assist domestic workers, as well as incentives for employers. Tomei in ray nitschke jersey said she is optimistic that in June 2011 a final decision on the international norms for agreement appeared "pretty good."

Where Are the World’s Poor

The New Bottom Billion: Where Are the World’s Poor?

Most of the world's poor are not in poor countries. That's the finding of new research from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex. It could lead to a re-thinking of donor aid and ways of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, or dallas cowboys jersey. The new policy briefing by the IDS is called: The New Bottom Billion and the MDGs – A Plan of Action. It's written by Andy Sumner, research fellow in vulnerability and poverty reduction.
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"We wanted to see how poverty had changed over the last 20 years. And what we found was increasingly the world's poor are living in middle income countries, where people can’ t even have cowboys jerseys. What the World Bank calls middle income countries. That's countries of more than a thousand dollars per person (per year). And there are about 960 million poor people out of a total of 1.3 billion or so who live in middle income countries and have no michael irvin jersey. There's a bit difference in the popular notion of the bottom billion living in the world's poorest countries," he says. "Poverty is increasingly not necessarily only about poor countries.

It's actually about poor people living in countries that aren't so poor. At least they can buy tony dorsett jersey. And that sort of raises all sorts of questions," he says. Among the countries are India, China, Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia. "Those countries you named there account for a very significant proportion of the world's poor." As for the remaining number of the world's roger staubach jersey, Sumner says, "I think it's important to emphasize that although three-quarters of the world's poor now live in middle income countries, we shouldn't forget that there's still a quarter of the world's poor in low income countries, largely in Africa.

In those countries, it really is still questions about tony romo jersey. It's about capacities of governments to deliver those kinds of things. So we shouldn't forget that quarter's still important. The Millennium Development Goals, which address such issues as poverty, health and education, have a due date of 2015. Sumner in miles austin jersey says knowing the economic health of the countries where poor people live could affect how the MDGs are reached. "Shouldn't we be tracking and looking and thinking much more about the poorest groups without a jason witten jersey and how the MDGs are doing in those groups?

Otherwise, we might end up with a situation in 2015 where the MDGs have helped the near poor, not the poorest people," he says. And it may be time for a different approach to aid, he says, for middle income countries where the demarcus ware jersey was made. "Thinking about climate change; Thinking about migration and trade policy. Maybe it's not about money anymore in the middle income countries. And that'd be quite revolutionary for aid, I think." he says. A new dez bryant jersey may also be needed for so-called fragile states. Sumner says, "Our research suggests perhaps only one in four or maybe one in five poor people live in fragile states.

Now that doesn't mean those countries aren't important, and they need support. It just questions whether the emphasis on fragile states perhaps has been overdone." The Institute of Development Studies research fellow in patrick crayton jersey says it's important to remember that poor people haven't moved. It's just the countries they live in have gotten better off. "Over the last three to five years, the countries with very large populations, like Nigeria, Pakistan, India, Indonesia – once they move or transition to middle income status, that of course pushes a larger proportion of the world's poor into the middle income country group," he says.

The World Bank has estimated that even if the Millennium Development Goals are met, there'll still be about one billion poor people in the world in 2015. They have no food to eat, no school to enter and even no tashard choice jersey to wear.