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From the L.A. Times
NATO says Al Qaeda's No. 2 in Afghanistan killed in air strike
May 29, 2012
ISLAMABAD -- U.S.-led coalition troops battling Afghan Taliban insurgents have killed Al Qaeda's second-in-command in Afghanistan in an air strike in the country's eastern province of Kunar, the coalition said Tuesday.
Sakhr al-Taifi, a Saudi national, commanded foreign insurgent fighters and frequently moved between Afghanistan and Pakistan, often overseeing the transport of militants into Afghanistan, NATO said in a prepared statement. The air strike occurred Sunday in the Watahpur district of Kunar, a volatile Afghan province along the Pakistani border.
Al-Taifi and one other unnamed Al Qaeda militant were killed in the air strike, NATO said.
Over the last two years, the U.S. has steadily eroded Al Qaeda's leadership ranks. U.S. drone missile strikes during that time period have killed at least 18 senior Al Qaeda leaders and commanders, as well as several top Taliban commanders. The death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a secret U.S. commando raid in the military city of Abbottabad in May 2011, was followed by a drone strike the next month that killed a top Al Qaeda planner, Ilyas Kashmiri, in Pakistan's militant-infested tribal region along the Afghan border.
In August, U.S. officials reported the killing of Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Atiyah Abdul Rahman, in Pakistan's Waziristan tribal region. Then, in September, a U.S. drone strike in Yemen killed Anwar Awlaki, the American-born Muslim cleric who served as a key propaganda figure for Al Qaeda who used sermons on the Internet to inspire disaffected Muslims to attack the U.S.
Last summer, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he believed Al Qaeda's defeat was “within reach,” though experts have cautioned against thinking that the terror network no longer poses a threat against the U.S. or its allies.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/05/nato-says-al-qaedas-second-in-command-in-afghanistan-killed.html
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From the Whitehouse
Peace Corps: Helping Feed the Future
For more than 50 years, Peace Corps volunteers around the world have taken an active role in addressing critical food security issues, working with one farmer, one family, and one community at a time.
President Obama and other G8 Leaders met last week to address food security and nutrition in Africa. The President also announced a new alliance with the G-8, African leaders and private sector partners to drive investment in sustainable African agricultural development and lift 50 million people out of poverty. This landmark meeting underscored the importance of the President's Feed the Future initiative, and last summer, the Peace Corps and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) pledged to provide enhanced food security training to more than 1,000 Peace Corps volunteers.
On May 23, at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C., Peace Corps reaffirmed our commitment to food security and discussed our joint efforts to make sustainable change. I was joined by USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, USAID Assistant to the Administrator of the Bureau of Food Security Paul Weisenfeld, and Peace Corps volunteers and staff to discuss our work to train volunteers and the people they work with on this important topic.
Through this partnership, Peace Corps volunteers are already making sustainable changes to the ways in which local people cultivate their food, address water shortages and feed their families.
One such example is Danielle Stoermer, a Peace Corps agriculture volunteer working with women and children in Senegal to improve food security. Since she arrived in the West African country in 2009, Danielle has been teaching children how to grow vegetables in school gardens, helping female farmers to increase their crop yields and quality, and educating new volunteers on successful food security practices.
And in other parts of Africa, Peace Corps volunteers use community gardening to share information about nutritional food groups; the seasonal calendar; improved seeds and seed saving techniques; and natural fertilizers. The goal is for villagers to be able grow enough food for their families and to sell their produce in the nearby markets.
As somebody who began my career as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and then worked in international development for more than 30 years, I know what we can accomplish when we dedicate our time and ‘American Spirit' to an initiative such as Feed the Future.
Just as the President said last week, “We can do this. We're already doing it. We just need to bring it all together. We can unleash the change that reduces hunger and malnutrition. We can spark the kind of economic growth that lifts people and nations out of poverty.”
In a world where a child dies from hunger every six seconds, and a growing population requires more agriculture production than ever before, I am confident that the Peace Corps' Feed the Future volunteers will be extraordinary ambassadors, working shoulder-to-shoulder with local people to ensure that children are fed for many years to come.
Aaron S. Williams is the director of the Peace Corps.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/05/25/peace-corps-helping-feed-future
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From the FBI
(Pictures of missing children on site)
?Looking for Our Children
‘National Missing Children's Day 2012'
05/25/12
Podcast: Crimes Against Children Unit
These are just a very few of the children who are far from home today.
Please take a minute to look at all the faces on our Kidnapping and Missing Persons webpage and see if you can identify Asha, Daniel, Sierra, or any of the other children listed there with their stories .
Also take a look at the faces of the children who have been kidnapped by a parent — Melissa Hinako Braden and the many other kids.
And we hope you'll visit our Crimes Against Children page to learn all you can about what a dangerous world it can be for our kids…and our Resources for Parents page to learn how to protect them in today's world.
To further help keep kids safe, we are also launching today a new version of our Child ID App for Android mobile phones. See our blog post for more information.
Note: The children pictured or identified here may have been located since the above information was posted on this website. Please check our Wanted by the FBI website for up-to-date information.
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/may/missingkids_052512/missingkids_052512
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FBI
The Child ID App for Androids
Today, to help observe National Missing Children's Day, we're launching a new version of our Child ID App built specifically for Android mobile phones. The application can be downloaded for free from the Android Apps section of Google Play.
The Child ID App, first released in August 2011 for iPhones, provides parents with an easy way to electronically store pictures and vital information about their children in case they go missing—whether it's a toddler wandering away at the mall or a teen who has been snatched by a stranger.
Using the app, you can show pictures of your kids and provide physical identifiers such as height and weight to security or police officers on the spot. You can also quickly and easily e-mail the information to authorities with a few clicks. The app also includes tips on keeping children safe as well as specific guidance on what to do in those first few crucial hours after a child goes missing.
To date, the iPhone version of the app has been downloaded more than 121,000 times.
- Download the Android app on Google Play
- Download the iPhone app on iTunes
- More on the Child ID App
http://www.fbi.gov/news/news_blog/the-child-id-app-on-android
