Conflict/War

Dozens of members of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) plant to ceremoniously hand back their war medals on Sunday in Chicago on the first day of the 2012 NATO Summit.

The protesters are calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan and seeking to "begin a process of justice and reconciliation with the people of Afghanistan, other affected nations, fellow service members, veterans, and the American people." The soldiers will gather at 10 a.m. Sunday and being the protest with speeches and music. At 3 p.m., a group of around 30-50 servicemen and women are scheduled to hand back their decorations to NATO.

"We, Afghanistan and Iraq veterans, from around the country have united with CANG8 Coalition against NATO/G8 war and poverty agenda to converge in Chicago on May 20th for a unity march to the NATO summit and ceremoniously return our service medals to NATO generals," a statement on the IVAW website read. more >>

The United Nations launched an urgent appeal on Tuesday calling for emergency assistance for the millions of Southern Sudanese who are facing staggering levels of food insecurity.

The World Food Program estimates that around 4.7 million people in South Sudan are in need of food assistance with an estimated 1 million people set to suffer from food insecurity in 2012, and another 3.7 million people likely to face significant vulnerabilities to food insecurity.

"There are food shortages, there is conflict related displacements, there is agricultural disruption, the economy is deteriorating and the borders have been closed. You add up all that and that is why we have the kind of situation that we are in," UN Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan, Lisa Grande, told reporters on Tuesday regarding the situation in South Sudan. more >>

Former Serbian General Ratko Mladic's war crimes trial began on Wednesday at the U.N. court in the Hague, Netherlands, where a tribunal is accusing him of crimes against humanity.

Mladic is the last suspect from the 1992-1995 Bosnia war that left 100,000 people dead, including 8,000 Muslim men who were targeted specifically because of their ethnicity. For his leadership role during the genocide, Mladic, believed to be an Orthodox Christian like most Serbs, became known as "the Butcher of Bosnia."

When the former general entered court on Wednesday, however, he gave a thumbs-up and clapped to supporters, The Associate Press reported. As Mladic heard the long list of accusations read against him, he reportedly showed no emotion. more >>

The government of Sudan, a mostly-Muslim East African nation, has begun airlifting an estimated 15,000 people to the mostly-Christian South Sudan, after all ethnic Southerners were dismissed from Sudan's civil service following the country's secession last year.

The first group of deportees consisting of 160 South Sudanese was transported Monday, and some of those included in the full number have only ever known Sudan as their home.

Seeking safety and work, several million people reportedly moved north over the 22 years of civil war between North and South Sudan, which claimed two million lives. But following the South's secession, completed in July 2011, a pact between the two countries requires that Southerners living in the North have to either become naturalized or leave the country following the April 8, 2012 deadline. more >>

A bill that would add a display of the prayer that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued for the D-Day invasion of World War II was introduced in the Senate Thursday.

The proposal, introduced by Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, would direct the Interior Secretary to install a plaque or inscription of the prayer at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. The House of Representatives version of the bill, sponsored by Ohio Congressman Bill Johnson, passed with a vote of 386 to 26.

Chris Long, president of the Ohio Christian Alliance, told The Christian Post that his organization has been supporting this measure for historic and spiritual reasons. more >>

The Pentagon has revealed that it suspended late last month a controversial military course that portrayed Islam as the enemy and suggested "total war" as the only way of dealing with the Muslim religion.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey explained that the course, which also proposed "Hiroshima-style" tactics to be used on Islamists, went against American values and had caused an uproar. The course reportedly made no distinction between everyday followers of the faith and terrorists.

"It was just totally objectionable, against our values, and it wasn't academically sound. This wasn't about, you know, we're pushing back on liberal thought. This was just objectionable, academically irresponsible," Gen. Dempsey explained. more >>