Wangari Maathai, 1940-2011
On September 25, 2011, the world received the sad news that Wangari Maathai had passed away, “after a prolonged and bravely borne struggle with cancer”. We join her family, her countrymen, and the millions she inspired in mourning her loss. Her spirit will live on in all of us.
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Journey home for Nelson Mandela
Former president Nelson Mandela, accompanied by his wife Graca Machel, traveled home to Qunu in the Eastern Cape in an unscheduled visit with his extensive medical team. Sources close to the 92-year-old anti-apartheid icon said he had told his family: “I want to go home.” Staff at Mthatha Airport in...
(continue)Don’t give up, Suu Kyi tells HK crowd
Burmese freedom fighter Aung San Suu Kyi has told activists in Hong Kong and the mainland to remember their aims and not to give up. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was speaking via live video conferencing in her “first dialogue with an Asian university” since her release from house arrest...
(continue)Female Nobel laureates launch campaign against rape as a weapon of war
It is a crime that is perpetrated against the most vulnerable members of the world’s most broken societies – one that destroys the lives of its victims and rips apart the fabric of communities. Sexual assault is increasingly being used as a weapon of warfare, especially in clashes that are...
(continue)Muhammed Yunus steps down from Grameen bank
The battle for control of the Grameen Bank, the pioneering Bangladeshi microfinance institution, has reached a new intensity after its government-appointed chairman unilaterally declared that its founder and managing director, the Nobel prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus had stepped down because he was too old. The bank, however, said Yunus remained...
(continue)Chinese veteran politicians call for reform
A group of 23 Communist Party elders in China has written a letter calling for an end to the country’s restrictions on freedom of speech. The letter says freedom of expression is promised in the Chinese constitution but not allowed in practice. They want people to be able to freely...
(continue)China tightens control of Tibetan monasteries, blames “separatists”
China plans to tighten control over Tibetan Buddhist monasteries to reduce the influence of the exiled Dalai Lama and other ‘internal and external separatist forces,’ according to a government notice seen on Monday. The State Administration of Religious Affairs issued the ‘Management measure for Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples’ to...
(continue)Wife Detained After Visiting Nobel Winner
The wife of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, was allowed to meet with her husband on Sunday at the prison in northeastern China where he is serving an 11-year sentence, but she was then escorted back to Beijing and placed under house arrest, a human rights group...
(continue)Chinese press angry over dissident’s Nobel Peace Prize
China’s official news media has aired its anger over the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned writer Liu Xiaobo on 8 October, with editorials describing Liu as a “criminal” and accusing the prize committee of attempting to “humiliate” the country. Some newspapers in Hong Kong were upset at...
(continue)Dalai Lama criticises China over its Nobel opposition
The Dalai Lama has criticised China’s opposition to the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader said the Chinese government did “not appreciate different opinions”. Building an open society was “the only way to save all people of China”, he told Japanese media....
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