Erstellt am: 23. 2. 2012 - 14:24 Uhr

Painfully Poor and Alarmingly Violent

Reality Check: London conference on helping Somalia; Mubarak trial wraps up; journalists killed in Syria; Harvesting solar power in space.

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Somali Internally Displaced Persons: children wait in line at a food distribution center in Mogadishu. Photo: EPA/ Dai Kurokawa

The trouble with Somalia

Somalia is one of the poorest states in the world. One in four Somalis is either a refugee or internally displaced. In the first 9 months of last year, over 4.2 million people needed humanitarian assistance. Last year the UN declared famine in parts of the country. Somalia is also one of the most violent states in the world. It hasn’t had an effective government for more than 10 years. The militant Islamist group, al Shabaab, still occupies much of the country, although it has recently been pushed back in some places. The chaos has allowed piracy off Somalia’s shores to blossom into an international criminal enterprise that is estimated to cost the the world economy up to 7 billion dollars a year. So what can a conference in London do to help? Paul Rogers, professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford tries to answer that question:

Journalists killed in Syria

Media pay tribute and governments express outrage after the deaths of eminent war correspondent Marie Colvin and award winning photographer Remi Ochlik, who were reporting on the siege of the Syrian city of Homs. John Cummins talks to Professor George Joffe from King’s College at the University of London:

Mubarak trial

The judge in the trial of Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak has set June 2nd as the date for a verdict and sentencing. Will the man the man who spent nearly 30 years as one of the Arab world's key strongmen be put on death row? Karim El Gawhary reports from Cairo:

Homelessness and the EU

Despite several calls from MEPs for a Euroopean Union strategy to combat homelessness, the European Commission has yet to respond. Elizabeth Aclock talks to Freek Spinnewijn, the director of FEANTSA - the European Federation of National Organisations Working the Homeless:

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Photo: DPA/Julian Stratenschulte

Solar Farms in Space

It could only be a matter of years before satellites orbiting the earth collect energy from the sun and beam it down to earth. Stephen Sweeney is involved in research at the University of Surrey in England: