Uganda's Child Sacrifices

Ritual circumcision is a different area but its practice in South Africa, for example, has important ramifications for the promotion of circumcision as an HIV/AIDS prophylactic.

This story was in the news this week:

Eight boys have died and three are in hospital after botched circumcisions in the South African province of Mpumalanga, officials say. The teenagers were at an initiation school in the town of Kwamhlanga. One of the initiates died in hospital and the seven others were found by health officials dead at the school.

Inside Beltwayistan, a number of Bushevik oil patch zombies still roam the recession-blasted landscape mindlessly chanting their Caspian mantra, “Happiness is multiple pipelines” - with the caveat that they flow westwards and bypass both Russia and Iran. They’ve now added a new word to their vocabulary, “Nabucco,” and worse, have bitten a number of Obama administration officials and visiting European politicians, who have joined their shuffling ranks.

China’s completion of an historic natural gas pipeline with Kazakhstan bypassing Russia this week tightens the Asian behemoth’s grip on energy resources needed to fuel a burgeoning economy, a desire also forcing it on a quest for oil and gas wealth in other corners of the globe.

China is not alone in this scramble for energy security. Hungry for oil and gas, world powers like Russia and the United States are also relying on different strategies to grab resource treasures but their efforts have raised questions about conflicts down the road.

A little under 25 years ago, before midnight on December 2nd 1984, a major venting of lethal methyl isocyanate occurred at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. Thousands were killed, and toxic waste continues to contaminate the local water supply to this day. To mark the anniversary and to "dispel fears" about the plant, state authorities have decided to throw the site open to tourists for a week; a move that has provoked outrage among local survivors. As publicity stunts go, it is in epicly poor taste.