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China ? China's notorious one-child policy may be coming to an end. Why? The male-female ratio in China is said to be 119 males to 100 females. The other problem is the aging population will lack caregivers. With one married couple left to take care of four aging parents, the pressure is great. Jonathan Brooks, President of Bibles for China--a ministry of Voice of China and Asia, says this is old news. "The people of China seem kind of surprised that we would be asking about it because to them it was old news. What we see as a new policy in China, that you can have more than one child. People generally -- especially in Christian circles -- don't realize that this is really old news, that the policy has changed." While some news reports suggest the one-child policy has only been changed in certain provinces, Brooks is seeing change in China. He says the church is just one example. "We're seeing a great awakening in China, and what we're hearing is there i...

In early September, we reported that flooding in southern Mexico had affected several Compassion International child development centers. According to Compassion, things have not gotten much better. In our previous reports, the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz had been affected. Currently these two states are still dealing with the effects of heavy rains and flooding, and two new neighboring states have been added to the list. The states of Chiapas and Tabasco are still too far under water for damages to be properly assessed. It looks as though this process may take a while since, Compassion reports, the water has not yet begun to drain. Food, water and other necessities have been requested in these states. In the meantime, health risks are quickly mounting. Large amounts of water not only threaten with mosquitoes, parasites, and disease, but now with predators as well. Crocodiles and snakes have been seen in the water, posing an immediate threat to the safety of anyone not y...

President Barack Obama's top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, plans to leave the White House at the end of the year, a move that comes as the administration struggles to show an anxious public it's making progress on the economy. While administration officials Tuesday quickly sought to paint the announcement as an expected development, Summers' departure shakes up an economic team that has been under fire for its handling of the recovery. It's also a team already in transition following the recent departures of other high-profile Obama advisers. In a statement, the president said he is grateful for Summers' service during a time of "great peril for our country." "While we have much work ahead to repair the damage done by the recession, we are on a better path thanks in no small measure to Larry's wise counsel," Obama said. Summers will return to Harvard University, a move a senior administration official said was always part o...

Army Spc. Adam Winfield complained in Facebook messages to his father that he was being hounded by his platoon leader, Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs. Gibbs was angry when Winfield failed to lock the hatch of his armored vehicle, so the sergeant gave him extra duty. Fed up, Winfield tapped out a message to his father, Chris, on a January day, complaining that his mistakes were minor compared to what Gibbs had done. Chris Winfield says his son called Gibbs the "golden child of the platoon." "He said the golden child can do no wrong. He can commit murder ... and get away with it and everybody seems fine with it." The Army has now charged Gibbs with three murders. The charging documents allege the first murder occurred shortly before Winfield sent that message to his father. The Army says Gibbs tossed a grenade at an Afghan civilian and then ordered his soldiers to open fire, killing the man. Gibbs' lawyer, Phillip Stackhouse, says his client did nothing wrong,...

Air traffic control systems are part of the national infrastructure that may someday come under attack, experts say. Here, flights bound for Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport are highlighted on a monitor. Soldiers monitor computer screens inside the U.S. Central Command's mobile headquarters, in this U.S. military photo from 2002. A major concern regarding cyber warfare is the difficulty in distinguishing military targets from civilian targets. Soldiers monitor computer screens inside the U.S. Central Command's mobile headquarters, in this U.S. military photo from 2002. A major concern regarding cyber warfare is the difficulty in distinguishing military targets from civilian targets. It may come as a surprise to some war victims, but there actually is a body of international law that establishes when and how nations can legally engage in armed conflict. Various tre...

Beijing, China (CNN) -- In the midst of tense U.S. Congressional hearings on China's currency last week, four U.S. state governors -- including California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty -- were in China hoping to cement business relations. More U.S. governors are looking to China for an international solution to local economic problems and unemployment, despite heightened trade and currency tensions between Beijing and Washington. "[China] represents massive economic opportunity and massive economic benefit...in a way that's going to translate in job growth for our citizens," Minnesota Governor Pawlenty said in Beijing last week. "It is absolutely amplified by the downturn in the recession and this heightened thirst to do anything and everything we can to create jobs." Even California, considered the 8th largest economy in the world, is looking across the Pacific for a long-term economic boost. "California jobs, busi...

New Delhi, India -- A freight train collided head-on Monday with a passenger train waiting at a station in central India, officials said. Twelve people were killed and wounded 30 others in the crash in the state of Madhya Pradesh, said railway spokesman Anil Saxena. Among those wounded, 10 were seriously hurt, Saxena said. Authorities could not immediately say what caused the crash. India's massive rail network used by hundreds of thousands of passengers daily has a poor safety record. Official figures show 100 train accidents occurred in the country in the 2009-10 fiscal year and 115 in 2008-09.

An Israeli soldier points a gun at a Palestinian boy. Gideon Levy is an award-winning Israeli journalist and editor for Haaretz, a liberal Israeli newspaper. Levy's weekly column in Haaretz, "The Twilight Zone," deals with the politically and emotionally charged subject of the hardships of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, and their conflicts with the Israeli military and Jewish settlers. Prior to working for Haaretz, Levy was an aid to Shimon Peres�at that time leader of the Israeli Labour party, now Israel's president�and served in the Israeli army for four years. He has an MA in political science from Tel Aviv University. The?son of two Holocaust survivors, he was born in Tel Aviv, where he?resides. Am Johal : Since the end of the last peace process back in 2000, politics in Israel has shifted dramatically to the right. When Ariel Sharon was prime minister, Binyamin Natanyahu drove a right-wing wedge related to the Gaza withdrawal. What is the explanat...

Demonstrators clash near Ground Zero. Mona Eltahawy I have developed an overwhelming urge to tell everyone I meet I'm a Muslim. As a Muslim woman who doesn't wear a headscarf, I'm often mistaken for a Latina and other ethnicities that my features match. But as anti-Muslim sentiment has risen across the United States, so has my urge to say, "Hey America, I'm a Muslim. Let's talk." That urge took me to the sidewalk in front of Park51, the proposed community center and mosque near Ground Zero, over Labor Day weekend. I spent four days with a small but dedicated group of sidewalk activists who for more than three weeks have stood in front of Park51 with signs reading "Peace Tolerance Love" to support its right to build.  The volunteer sidewalk activists are a mix of non-Muslims and Muslims, newly minted activists in their 20s, and veteran activists of their parents' generation. We were not there to defend or speak for any of the spiritual or fina...