Child of War Turned Peace Activist: Phan Ti Kim Phuc

It's one of the most iconic images of the 20th century: A young Vietnamese girl running from her village, naked, her clothes burned away in a napalm attack. Her mouth is wide, her face filled with terror and anguish.

Phan Ti Kim Phuc, is now a 45-year old woman. She is a wife and a mother, and is now a Canadian citizen. Most surprising of all, though, is the fact that she has devoted her life to becoming an ambassador for peace, and has established a nonprofit organization called KIM Foundation International, which is dedicated to helping children who've been traumatized by war to heal, providing both medical and social services to support their recovery. (Gimundo)

Australia readying apology to Aborigines

The Australian government will take the historic step of offering a formal apology to Aborigines "as early as possible" in the new parliament, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said Monday.

Thousands of Aboriginal children, mostly of mixed descent, were taken from their parents over four decades up to the 1970s and adopted or put into foster care or institutions as part of an attempt to force assimilation. (AFP)

Cuba Throws Lifeline to Sea Turtles

Cuba has thrown a lifeline to the Caribbean’s endangered and critically endangered marine turtles with a government resolution ending all harvesting of marine turtles.

Such a resolution, ending Cuba’s long standing harvest of 500 critically endangered hawksbill turtles a year, has been sought by conservationists for more than a decade. It will benefit turtles hatching on beaches throughout the Caribbean and coming regularly to feed in Cuban waters. (Good News Network)

Donor Gives $130 Million to Bangladesh

An unidentified person has donated $130 million to help rebuild hundreds of schools and storm shelters destroyed by a cyclone along Bangladesh's southwest coast, the government said Wednesday.

The anonymous donation was made through the Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank, said senior finance ministry official Aminul Islam Bhuiyan, describing it as the single largest donation ever made by an individual to Bangladesh. (AP)

Glimmer of Hope for Botswana's Decimated Rhino Population

Africa's white rhinos were driven to the brink of extinction in the early 20th century as poachers hunted the animal for its horn. A breeding program launched in Botswana just over 10 years ago has been successful in bringing the white rhino back to Botswana's bush and it gives hope that black rhinos, which are still seriously endangered, may also survive.

Indiana Coach Bares Feet for Charity

A college basketball coach strode the court yesterday in bare feet to raise awareness for poor kids worldwide who have no shoes. At the last minute Converse donated 10,000 pairs of shoes pushing the total number donated to more than 100,000 for a US charity called Samaritan's Shoes.

As Living Kidney Donor, Near-Stranger Saves Man's Life

Two near strangers now have a connection for life. After two failed donor attempts last year, a woman felt a spiritual connection with a man whom she met at a Phoenix walk for PKD disease.

Rain Power: Harvesting Energy from the Sky

Researchers who study energy harvesting see energy all around us – we just need to find a way to capture that energy. One of the latest energy harvesting techniques is converting the mechanical energy from falling raindrops into electricity that can be used to power sensors and other electronics devices. (PhysOrg)

GM to Fill Historic Order for 1,700 Hybrid Buses

Major new orders from transit agencies in Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Minneapolis/St. Paul for up to 1,732 GM hybrid-powered buses will almost triple the current fleet worldwide and save an estimated 2.4 million gallons of fuel annually, enough to fill 300 tanker trucks. The delivery will include the largest single hybrid bus fleet acquisition in history – an order for 952 by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. (Good News Network)

'Black Billy Elliot' pirouettes past South African prejudices

His chosen vocation ridiculed by peers and elders alike, South African teenager Andile Ndlovu remains unwavering in his ambition to become a world-class ballet dancer. (AFP)

Bicing, Barcelona's Bike Sharing System

Renting bikes is definitely one of the most successful PSSs (Product Service Systems - access over ownership) in Europe.

With 1500 bicycles and 100 stations, connecting other public transport stations such as metro, train, buses and major car parks, the red and white bikes are to be seen all over town.
30 000 people subscribed to the service online in the first 2 months. (Treehugger)

4 year-old boy beats deadly disease three times

Four-year-old Bailey Smillie has confounded all expert opinion which says a person should only be able to contract meningococcal septicaemia once. More incredibly still, Bailey has beaten each bout of the illness – any of which could have killed him. (Good News Blog)

Muslim Conscientious Objector Allowed to Stay in Canada

Can a Muslim be a conscientious objector? Erkan (his first name) says yes. And in mid December he learned that his application for permission to stay in Canada, on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, was approved. (MCC)

How High Gas Prices Are Making Us Safer. Seriously.

Gas prices, thanks to the Global War on Terror and Hurricane Katrina, are now the highest in the nation's history. Gas easily tops $3 per gallon in San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, and other cities across the nation, making driving an expensive way to get around. For reference, gas prices have increased roughly 100% since 9/11.

What's the upside? That ridiculously expensive petroleum is prompting people to drive more slowly on highways, drive less often, buy more fuel-efficient cars, and take mass transit more often. (Mother Jones)

Cell Phone Can Read Documents for Blind

Chris Danielsen fidgets with the cell phone, holding it over a $20 bill. ''Detecting orientation, processing U.S. currency image,'' the phone says in a flat monotone before Danielsen snaps a photo. A few seconds later, the phone says, ''Twenty dollars.''

Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind, is holding the next generation of computerized aids for the blind and visually impaired.

The Nokia cell phone is loaded with software that turns text on photographed documents into speech. In addition to telling whether a bill is worth $1, $5, $10 or $20, it also allows users to read anything that is photographed, whether it's a restaurant menu, a phone book or a fax. (AP)

From fighters to friends, Vick's pit bulls learn new life

His back resting comfortably against her chest, Hector nestles his massive canine head into Leslie Nuccio's shoulder. The big dog -- 52 pounds -- is social, people-focused, happy now, it seems, wearing a rhinestone collar in his new home in sunny California. But as Hector sits up, deep scars stand out on his chest, and his eyes are imploring.

Hector ought to be dead, Nuccio knows -- killed in a staged fight, executed for not winning or euthanized by those who see pit bulls seized in busts as "kennel trash," unsuited to any kind of normal life. Instead, Hector is learning how to be a pet. (CNN)

Inspirational Basketball Player Defies Disability

Dax Crum plays division 1 basketball, averaging 18.6 points per game, even though he was born without a right hand. His coach says, "They ought to build a monument of him, all about defying the odds and playing for the right reasons." (FOX Sports)

NHLers to help ice global warming

NHL hockey is going green.

In a first for a major North American professional sports league, the National Hockey League Players Association is teaming up with the David Suzuki Foundation to promote action on climate change. And players are taking the lead by buying carbon credits to offset the environmental impact of their extensive travel during season play. (Toronto Star)

Dolls for World Peace

Elderly women in an assisted living center are recapturing life by making dolls for children in Darfur. Two thousand dolls have been made, each one soft and cuddly to serve the smallest child, and the project has grown. Dolls for World Peace has become "an intergenerational effort as disabled adults, girl scouts and people from the homeless shelter have joined them in making dolls." (Good News Network)

Woman Searching for Father Discovers She's Been Working In His Home

A Vietnamese woman searching for her father worked at his home in Taiwan for seven months without realising who he was. (AP)

Simon Cowell to Leave His Millions to Charity

Music mogul Simon Cowell has vowed to leave the majority of his $200 million fortune to a variety of children's and animals charities upon his death, writing it into his will. (Good News Network)

Mexico City Rolls Out Women-Only Buses

Groping and verbal harassment is an exasperating reality for women using public transportation in this sprawling capital, where 22 million passengers cram onto subways and buses each day. Some men treat women so badly that the subway system has long had ladies-only cars during rush hour, with police segregating the sexes on the platforms.

But that hasn't helped women forced to rely on packed buses, by far the city's most-used form of public transportation — until this week.

Acting on complaints from women's groups, the city rolled out "ladies only" buses, complete with pink signs in the windshields to wave off the men. (AP)

New Jersey scraps plan to buy Amazon rainforest timber

The city council of Ocean City in New Jersey voted 6-0 last Thursday to cancel a $1.1 million purchase of ipê timber originating in the Amazon rainforest. The move came after a campaign by environmental groups, including Ecological Internet, which runs Forests.org, a forest news web site. (Mongabay.com)

Huge kite helps container ship across Atlantic

Inventor expects major drop in fuel costs and warming emissions

Oil at more than $90 a barrel is concentrating minds in the shipping industry. Higher fuel costs and mounting pressure to curb emissions are leading modern merchant fleets to rediscover the ancient power of the sail. (Reuters)

Brazil to crack down on deforestation

Brazil will combat rising deforestation in the Amazon by sending extra federal police and environmental agents to areas where illegal clearing of the rain forest jumped dramatically last year, officials said Thursday. (AP)