"As I type this, I am complicit in the funding of rape and war. You probably are too–sitting on your laptop, listening to your mp3 player, texting on your smartphone–even if you don’t know it. But that could all change with the passing of Barack Obama’s sweeping financial reform legislation by Congress in July. While the story made headlines across the United States and pundits and politicians debated its potential ability to clean up Wall Street, largely lost in the 2,300 page document was a landmark piece of U..."

"One woman said children as young as 10 working in the fields developed red rashes on their stomachs and necks as they harvested tobacco for use in cigarettes made by Philip Morris. Another migrant laborer working in the tobacco fields in Kazakhstan said a farmer confiscated her identification papers and withheld pay to force her to continue working despite dismal conditions. Human Rights Watch, the group best known for documenting governmental abuse and war crimes, plans to release a report on Wednesday sho..."

"Like renewing your driver's license at the DMV or getting someone from the cable company out to your place, calling in close air support can be a real process for troops on the ground. A request for an air strike from a commander on the ground goes through various higher-ups, analysts, lawyers, and other commanders, slowing the response time to a crawl. That's why DARPA is launching the Persistent Close Air Support Program (PCAS), under which the scheme is simplified: ground troops ask for a strike, and a robotic w..."

"Eastern Congo’s perpetual burden—proxy wars fought over the region’s rich natural resources—lurks in the forest nearby. I’ve covered this region for the past few years and am reminded of the fragility of this “civilization.” In late 2008 and early 2009, I watched as war raged through the region, displacing hundreds of thousands, and killing and traumatizing thousands more. Just months ago, armed militias massacred civilians here. In the last FDLR massacre, a pregnant woman was butchered—her belly sliced open...."

"The PlayStation War The morning brings sun and market day in Kibua. The village center fills with people and the sounds of commerce. Women meet and gossip; Congolese national army soldiers mingle through the crowd and flirt with the girls. MONUC peacekeepers watch over the bustle and Major Panwar tells me, “Since we’ve been here, over the last six months or so, the local population has increased to approximately 6,000 on the weekends and the local economy has quadrupled. During our first foot patrols, we met a few..."

"In late June, 2009, peacekeepers of MONUC’s India Battalion One (INDBAT One) arrived in Kibua, only to find a remaining local civilian population of approximately 2,000 civilians. “When we started foot patrols in the area, we met villagers along the road who told us they were afraid to go to Kibua’s market,” said company commander Major Dev Panwar, who described Kibua as a virtual ghost town. “They had been attacked, looted, and raped by negative armed forces while making the trip between Ishunga and Kibua”—a dista..."

"A Russian Mi-8 helicopter passes over the hill and settles into a clearing in the forest at Kibua, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Walikale region, roughly 25,000 square kilometers of dense jungle/forest inhabited mainly by remnants of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide perpetrators and witch doctor militias. The former Soviet Union’s aircraft are the primary choice of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), the world’s largest peacekeeping force. Shuddering as much ..."