All Blog Posts from World Watch

As millions of Muslims begin arriving in Mecca for this year's pilgrimage, Saudi officials face a unique challenge: how to prevent this sacred rite from becoming an inadvertent incubator and global transmitter of swine flu.

The conditions that will arise during the pilgrimage, or hajj, which officially begins in the last week of November, are the exact opposite of what health officials like to see.

An estimated 2.5 million people from up to 160 countries — including perhaps 15,000 from North America — will walk, pray and eat in close proximity to each other for several days. They will touch the same religious objects and sleep in crowded tent cities.

Some, inevitably, will arrive carrying the new virus strain, H1N1.

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The fourth typhoon to lash the Philippines in a month brought pounding rain and winds to the eastern coast early Saturday as it barreled toward Manila along the same path as an earlier storm that has left the capital still partially submerged.

Thousands were evacuated from their homes in the eastern province of Quezon, where Typhoon Mirinae made landfall after midnight, as rains threatened to unleash mudslides.

Reporting from Manila, CBS News' Barnaby Lo says the Philippine government isn't taking chances this time.

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Nearly one out of six American service members in Iraq, about 20,000 in all, are involved in a massive logistical operation with one overriding goal: Getting our stuff and leaving.

Johan Spanner writes in The New York Times today about the challenges facing the military as it sets about dismantling about 300 bases and removing 1.5 million pieces of American equipment — everything from weapons and vehicles to coffeemakers — from Iraq.

Six years after the U.S.-led invasion, the "largest movement of soldiers and matériel in more than four decades" (according to Spanner) is further complicated by continued attacks for Iraqi insurgents; consideration of what will be left behind for Iraqis; and U.S. military needs in Afghanistan.

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Susan Boyle, move over. The Internet has a new star, and she plays with sand.

Actually, "play" is too dismissive a term to describe what Kseniya Simonova (left) does. A "sand artist," she recently demonstrated her gift on the TV competition "Ukraine's Got Talent," winning the top prize.

A video of her performance has since received more than two million hits on YouTube.

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Written by CBS News' Sarah Carter in Johannesburg

I drive past her everyday as I drop my children at school. She stands there cold with her very young baby held on her back with a blanket.

I usually give her whatever coins I have in my change dispenser. But generally we are late, in a hurry, and rush right past her, stopping just long enough to pass her the coins.

Today was different. In the spirit of the first-ever Mandela Day, I stopped.

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A top adviser to U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell said on Thursday the Obama administration is seeking to play a "balanced" role in its drive for peace in the Middle East.

Fred Hoff made his remarks, in a bid to test Syria's support for Washington's efforts, after lengthy talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Damascus.

"Mr. Hoff underlined the United States' quest to work for achieving comprehensive peace in the region and its determination to play its effective and balanced role for resuming peace negotiations on all tracks," said an official statement.

Meanwhile, the Israelis said they were ready to resume direct talks with Damascus if it distances itself from Iran and armed Islamist groups in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories that are arrayed against the Jewish state.

Syria dismissed the Israeli demand, insisting that any new negotiations should include assurances that it will recover the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 war.

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Protesters against the recent Iranian election are calling for marches tomorrow, the 10th anniversary of a bloody confrontation in which thousands of students, protesting the regime's shutdown of a popular reformist newspaper, were attacked, beaten and arrested.

The clashes began on 18 Tir (July 9) in 1999 when government security stormed a university dormitory. Several students were reportedly killed; scores more were beaten and hospitalized.

In the days following as many as 10,000 students marched in protest of the crackdown (left), with skirmishes between protestors and conservative factions erupting in Tehran and other cities. At least 1,000 students were reportedly arrested in what was up to then the largest demonstration of unrest since the 1979 Revolution.

To mark the 10th anniversary, the Web site yekiran.com lists rallies scheduled to be held on Thursday in 30 Iranian cities.

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Numerous former detainees at the U.S. military facility at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, held without charge during the period of 2002-2008, claim that they were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs and firearms, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported Wednesday.

In its investigation, broadcast and also published on the BBC News Web site, 27 former inmates of Bagram were interviewed over a period of two months. The men had been accused of belonging to or helping either al Qaeda or the Taliban, but were never charged or tried, and all were eventually released — many with an apology.

"They did things that you would not do against animals, let alone to humans," said one former inmate known as Dr. Khandan.

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Child trafficking, including the abduction and sale of children, is a growing crisis in Iraq, with officials and aid agencies claiming scores of young people, including babies, are sold both internally and outside of the country.

The Guardian, in an article written by Afif Sarhan, reports Monday that criminal gangs are taking advantage of poor families while profiting from the cheap cost of buying infants (prices of children range from $300 to $5,900). The paper also says a broken and corrupt bureaucracy, weak law enforcement and lack of border security make it easier for such trafficking to operate.

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As the international community feared, North Korea has launched a long-range missile over Japan. As a result, Japan immediately called for emergency U.N. Security Council consultations on Sunday to deal with the launch, to condemn North Korea, and to possibly strengthen sanctions on Pyongyang.

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