VoteKansas.org

American students as young as age 5 are helping Afghanistan recover from war as they raise funds to build schools and playgrounds to benefit their peers on the other side of the globe. America.gov talks with Roots of Peace founder Heidi Kuhn about the Roots of Peace Penny Campaign that is aiding school and football field construction.

Bill Gates, co-founder and chairman of Microsoft Inc., will give up day-to-day leadership of the company in July and turn his attention to piloting the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to address the problems of the world's poor.

Representative Tom Lantos, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a champion of human rights, died February 11. The California congressman’s commitment to human rights was forged when, as a young man in Hungary, he lost nearly his entire family to the Nazis. He is the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in the U.S. Congress.

The United States, shouldering its "special responsibility" toward Iraqi refugees, is preparing to deliver millions of dollars in aid to refugees marooned in neighboring countries and resettle 12,000 refugees by September 30, according to the State Department's coordinator for Iraqi refugees, James Foley.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation has selected Malawi and Mauritania as the latest African countries eligible to receive funding from its innovative program to reduce poverty through economic growth, the Millennium Challenge Account. Currently, nine African countries have received five-year grants, or compacts, under the program.

Despite early predictions that the parties’ presidential nominees would be clear after February 5, no candidate has enough delegates to ensure majorities at the national conventions. While Arizona Senator John McCain takes a strong lead in the Republican race, Super Tuesday leaves the Democratic contest between New York Senator Hillary Clinton and Illinois Senator Barack Obama extremely close.

President Bush’s upcoming trip to five African nations is going to be "very historic and significant" because it will "solidify one of the strongest components" of his legacy: Africa, says former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa Rosa Whitaker. Bush will visit Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia February 15-21.

John Fleming, head of black history study group, tells America.gov Black History Month should focus on positive and negative aspects of the black experience.  “We were not slaves prior to being captured in Africa, and while slavery was part of our experience, …  we have a 100-and-some years in freedom that we also need to deal with."

A U.S. priority in Afghanistan in 2008 will be to help its leaders deliver needed services, security and economic opportunity to citizens, says a State Department official. From 2001 to 2007, the United States has contributed more than $23 billion as part of a long-term pledge to help Afghanistan emerge from decades of war and oppression.

Burma’s Rohingya Muslim population remains oppressed by the military junta and depends on international donors for survival. The United States is funding a U.N. program to issue identification cards that will facilitate registration of births and marriages, school enrollment, and access to basic health care and nutritional assistance. 

The Kenyan people must work out a way forward from the current period of post-election violence, U.S. officials say. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that everyone in Kenya, which is an important friend of the United States, should remain calm while a political resolution to the crisis is found.

Chances for congressional approval of high-stakes U.S. bilateral trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama will improve once lawmakers focus on the strong strategic and commercial merits of the pacts, according Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Deep in the mind and spirit of human beings lies the conviction that every person has rights, including a right to freedom from oppression, freedom to make reasonable choices and freedom from cruelty. A four-part series examines the nature of human rights.

“Our foreign policy is based on a clear premise:  We trust that people, when given the chance, will choose a future of freedom and peace,” President Bush says in his final State of the Union address. Bush also is seeking a boost in U.S. foreign aid funding to help developing countries realize democracy’s benefits.

Countries and regions that promote economic freedom are more likely to enjoy prosperity than those that restrict such freedom, a new report states. Economic freedom strongly correlates with good economic performance of a country or a territory and economic opportunities for its people, according to the 2008 Index of Economic Freedom.

America’s interests are inseparable from its ideals, making its support for the spread of political and economic freedoms more vital than ever, says Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “American Realism,” a belief in the power of democracy, free trade, human rights and the rule of law, is at the core of U.S. foreign policy, she adds.

President Bush and congressional leaders agree that a short-term, temporary set of economic measures is needed to stimulate the U.S. economy at a time of slowing growth. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says the U.S. economy is resilient and job creation "continues ... at a modest pace." Bush and the congressional leaders share a sense of urgency to get money into the economy quickly, Paulson says.

In response to growing challenges in reaching their audiences around the world, the five most influential international broadcasters have joined together for the first time to condemn what they describe as the “grave and rising threats to the right to gather information and communicate it across national borders.”

U.S. scientists and engineers are working with the Iraq Ministry of Water Resources to install the latest technology and implement modern methods for managing water resources. The effort is important because Iraq’s water resources must be monitored and managed to optimize distribution of water for agriculture and electrical generation.

With his stirring oratory sparking “Obamamania,” Illinois Democratic Senator Barack Obama connects to people of all different racial and ethnic backgrounds, according to one political analyst. Obama’s candidacy for U.S. president is galvanizing the American people, several students of the U.S. political scene tell America.gov.