Mind Soup

You may have seen the pictures of starving people in the Horn of Africa on your TV screens. We are all asking: how can this be happening again? Parts of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia are facing one of the worst droughts for 60 years, and around 10 million people are desperately in need of food, clean water and basic sanitation. Join me in calling on world leaders to save millions of lives - today and tomorrow: http://act.one.org/sign/horn_of_africa/?source=horncrisistafem Despite the urgency of the situation, most world leaders are responding too slowly. Immediate aid is essential. Yet at the same time we must not let them drop the ball on long term solutions as has too often happened in the past. Take action right now at: http://act.one.org/sign/horn_of_africa/?source=horncrisistafem We can help stop starvation now - and stop the causes of starvation. Firstly, we need to make sure funding is provided to pay for urgent help that will prevent people from dying. Secondly, the...

Ethiopian women, relatives of passengers of the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed in the sea, react upon their arrival at Beirut airport, Lebanon. Lebanese Red Cross workers move a body retrieved from the Mediterranean Sea. Pieces of the plane and debris were washing ashore in the hours after the crash, including passenger seats, a fire extinguisher and bottles of medicine. Lebanese soldiers gather debris from the crash on the shore near Beirut airport. Families of the passengers, some of them weeping uncontrollably rushed to the Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut to await news of their loved ones. The Boeing 737-800 disappeared off the radar some five minutes after taking off from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport. Chopper carrying corpses from the crash site to UNIFIL ships. Prime Minister Hariri consoling victims' families and friends after news of the plane crash.

Translation: Lebanon in national mourning after plane crash carrying 90 passengers, of which 54 are Lebanese. (see article below for English) بيروت - ا ف ب - سقطت فجر الاثنين طائرة تابعة للخطوط الجوية الاثيوبية بعد دقائق من اقلاعها من مطار رفيق الحريري الدولي في بيروت وعلى متنها 90 راكبا وبدات على الفور اعمال البحث عن ناجين وسط احوال جوية سيئة للغاية كما اعلن وزير الاشغال اللبناني غازي العريضي. واوضح العريضي للصحافيين اثر اجتماع عقده مع المسؤولين في المطار ان "العمل بدأ للبحث عن ناجين وذلك بمساعدة  بحرية وطوافات الجيش اللبناني وقوات الطوارىء الدولية (اليونفيل) البحرية واجهزة الصليب الاحمر الدولي". وقال "حتى الان ليس ثمة نتائج ملموسة" موضحا ان الطائرة هوت "غربي بلدة الناعمة (12 كلم جنوب المطار) على بعد 3.5 كلم من الشاطىء". وقال "الطائرة تقل 90 شخصا: 83 راكبا وطاقمها المؤلف من سبعة اشخاص" ومن بين الركاب 54 لبنانيا. وفند العريضي جنسيات الركاب وقال انهم "54 لبنانيا, 22 اثيوبيا, عراقي واحد, سوري واحد, كندي واحد من اصل لبناني, روسية واحد...

The grim task of searching the turbulent seas off the coast of Lebanon goes on following the crash of the Ethopian airline. As the hours have ticked around 20 bodies have so far been recovered. Relatives watch on. With their pain there is anger that the jet was allowed to take off during a thunder storm. The airline’s chief executive has confirmed there is no word of any survivors. 83 passengers and seven crew were on board the Boeing 737-800. Among them was the wife of the French ambassador to the Lebanon. The Lebanaes President has said an act of sabotage is unlikely. One eye witness described the inferno as the plane burst into flames. “At about 2.30 there was big ball of fire it was as big as a tent. I watched it fall into the sea between these two buildings, it landed in the sea perhaps about one kilometre from here,” he said. Throughout the morning people have been gathering at the hospital clinging to hope and desperate for any news. Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad H...