Sudan death sentence woman 'freed'

A Sudanese woman sentenced to death for abandoning her Islamic faith has been freed from jail, her lawyer has told the BBC. Meriam Ibrahim's death penalty was overturned by an appeal court, the official Suna news agency reported. She is married to a Christian man and was sentenced under Sharia law to hang for apostasy in May after refusing to renounce Christianity. Her husband, Daniel Wani, said he was looking forward to seeing her. He wanted his family to leave Sudan as soon possible, Mr Wani, who is a US citizen, told the BBC Focus on Africa radio programme. The death sentence for...

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Children of the Congo who risk their lives to supply our mobile phones

in unsafe mines deep underground in eastern Congo, children are working to extract minerals essential for the electronics industry. The profits from the minerals finance the bloodiest conflict since the second world war; the war has lasted nearly 20 years and has recently flared up again. In that same 20-year period, the concept of corporate social responsibility in the west has evolved from companies giving employees a gym and having some photo opportunities for the chief executive, to addressing human rights throughout the supply chain, yet ICT companies such as Nokia, Samsung,...

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10 Barriers to Education around the world

Children in poor countries face many barriers to accessing an education. Some are obvious – like not having a school to go to – while others are more subtle, like the teacher at the school not having had the training needed to effectively help children to learn. Here we list 10 major barriers to education, and look at how the Global Partnership for Education is working to overcome them. By taking action to encourage the UK Government to make a strong commitment to the Global Partnership, you’ll be helping to break down these barriers. 1. A lack of funding for education While...

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Why Wait in the Queue? How Kenya’s Slum Dwellers are Reclaiming their Toilets

In the face of failing sanitation systems, the residents of Mathare are taking matters into their own hands. Nairobi, Kenya:A group is gathered around a leaking sewage system, armed with long wooden sticks, spades and rakes. Some wear protective gloves and gumboots, but many do not. Inserting long sticks inside the leaking sewer, they dislodge the papers, garbage and debris blocking it, whilst others move to remove the detritus. It is slow and painstaking work. This is a regular routine in Mathare, a large slum in Nairobi, Kenya, where lack of sanitation is one of the major problems...

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Transnistria: A Country That Doesn’t Exist Is Haven for Guns and Vice

Within seconds of directing my camera at the bald granite Lenin head a suited man emerges. “No pictures allowed here. Passport and registration please.” He shows his own identification, a hammer and sickle emblazoned across the page next to his frowning portrait. “Presidential Security,” he informs me, “you must delete these pictures.” We would be ordered to stop photographing five more times in the next three days This was outside the presidential offices of the recently elected Yevgeny Shevchuk in Tiraspol, Transnistria, an unrecognized breakaway Republic sandwiched between Moldova...

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