• The Disaster at "Christ is Love"
    Feb 9, 2012
    On Jan. 28 in Lima, Peru, 27 people were killed and at least five others critically injured by a fire that swept through Christ is Love, a privately run drug rehabilitation facility. Witnesses said patients started the fire in an effort to escape, after a caretaker refused to release them.Firemen on the scene reported terrible overcrowding -- up to 70 people, 18 to a room, in a facility equipped for 12. Who would blame them for trying to escape?
  • Hope for BC at BC?
    Feb 8, 2012

    When I went to college, I chose a highly regarded university with a strong tradition as a Jesuit institution. I was pleased with my undergraduate education at Boston College, but I still lament that my alma mater denies students access to contraceptive services through its health system.  

  • Interview with Ali Dayan Hasan
    Feb 3, 2012

    2011 was a particularly bad year even by Pakistan's standards and saw a spike in abuses and expanding impunity for abusers. 

  • The Forbidden Citizen
    Feb 2, 2012
    It's only been a month, and 2012 is already looking bleak for the notion that peaceful criticism can exist within China.
  • Kevin Rudd must up the ante on Sri Lanka
    Feb 2, 2012

    As nations such as Canada and Britain weigh in on accountability for war crimes in Sri Lanka, it's time for Australia to add its voice.

  • A Chance for South Africa to do the Right Thing for Syria
    Feb 2, 2012

    Will history repeat itself at the United Nations Security Council? The last time South Africa was called to vote on a resolution on Syria, on October 4 last year, it chose to abstain, along with India and Brazil.

  • Give child offenders chance at rehabilitation
    Feb 2, 2012
    Virginia should not move in the direction of treating child sex offenders the same as adult offenders. Instead, the state should stand by its commitment to offer young offenders a chance at rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
  • We Told the Children Not to Enter
    Jan 31, 2012

    The Philippine government is engaged in a long-running armed conflict with the insurgent New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. While the NPA maintains a presence in the mountains of northern Luzon, there has only been limited military action in the Cordillera region since the 1990s. Despite the low levels of conflict, the military continues to place troops and guns in local communities. And in some cases these troops and their guns establish a home on school grounds.

  • The Dark Side of Côte d’Ivoire’s Recovery
    Jan 31, 2012
    When I returned to Abidjan in mid-January, bright lights were strung across the bridge into downtown, proclaiming 2012 a year of reconciliation. I asked the taxi driver how things were progressing, and he said, “The Ouattara government does more work in 10 weeks than the Gbagbo government did in 10 years.” Formerly potholed roads are being repaired throughout the country, trash once stacked on the street is being collected, and treatment at state-run hospitals is largely free, even if patients must often pay for the medicine and tools doctors need.
  • Hold Yemen Officials Who Sanctioned Civilian Attacks Accountable
    Jan 28, 2012

    During an artillery barrage last Nov. 11, Yemeni security forces killed 13 civilians in the city of Taizz. One of them was a patient at al-Rawdha Hospital, which mortar rounds and tank fire struck seven times as the wounded poured in for emergency care.