Jolie Returns, Moved, From Afghanistan Trip

UN info on displaced peoples now available through Earth mapping feature

(NEWSER) - A new feature allows Google Earth users to take a tour of the world’s refugee hotspots, with images of camps supplemented by information from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the AP reports. The search titan has greatly improved the available resolution in its satellite photos of refugee areas—for example, individual tents are visible in a Chadian camp for Darfur’s displaced. More»

UN goodwill ambassador visited survivors yesterday

(NEWSER) - Angelina Jolie's latest humanitarian mission: Haiti's earthquake victims. The actress and UN goodwill ambassador visited with survivors hospitalized in the neighboring Dominican Republic yesterday, and a UN rep says she is traveling to Haiti today, the AP reports. During yesterday's hospital visit Jolie, accompanied by a UN rep, "spoke with several children and a Haitian woman who recognized her and requested help," a hospital spokesperson says. More»

Stars visit with displaced people in Syria

(NEWSER) - Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are in Syria, using their powers for good. The celebrity übercouple visited Iraqi refugees in Damascus today in an attempt to keep the lowest-profile victims of the war from falling off the radar, People reports. Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the UN's refugee agency, released a statement that reads in part: "Most Iraqi refugees cannot return to Iraq in view of the severe trauma they experienced there, the uncertainty linked to the coming Iraqi elections, the security issues and the lack of basic services." More»

(NEWSER) - Hillary Clinton is hoping text messages can save Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The Secretary of State is asking Americans to text “swat” to 20222 to make a $5 donation to help refugees from the fighting there, Foreign Policy reports. The money would go to a UN agency, which provides food, medicine, and tents for the 1.17 million who’ve been forced to flee their homes in the region. More»

'Even stones confess here,' one guard said; Kabul promises reform

(NEWSER) - A UN investigation has uncovered “a compelling pattern … of systemic torture and ill-treatment” in Afghan prisons, with prisoners reporting being beaten and shocked with electrical cables, hung by their hands, and having their genitals twisted until they passed out, the New York Times reports. Nearly half of all detainees of the National Directorate of Intelligence reported such abuse, as did a somewhat smaller portion of those held by the national police. More»