Kenyan environmentalist wins Nobel Prize
Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, says "there can be no peace without equitable development; and there can be no development without sustainable management of the environment in a democratic and peaceful space." The Age

Gaza violence may threaten peace process
As both Israeli and Palestinian leaderships work towards a resumption of the peace process, a bomb attack by Palestinian militants has dealt the first heavy blow to Israel since the death of Yasser Arafat. SMH

Pinochet indicted for human rights crimes in Chile
Former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, has been charged with murder and kidnapping crimes which were committed during his seventeen year rule. Alertnet

Call to end asylum seeker hunger strike
The Opposition has called on Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone to appoint an independent negotiator to help end the hunger strike by asylum seekers at South Australia's Baxter detention centre. The Australian

Sri Lankan Child Soldiers: A Fact Sheet
Why do children end up as soldiers in brutal conflict in Sri Lanka and what is being done to try and end this practice? Human Rights News

Children involved in the tragedy tell their personal stories at: Human Rights News

The Iraq war wounded the UN, but it won't be fatal
" The refusal last year of a majority of the security council to follow the tune that the US wished the council to play can also be seen as the saving of the council's authority and respectability. How would the world look at the council today if it had endorsed an armed action to eradicate weapons of mass destruction - that did not exist and whose evidence was often concocted, even forged?" Hans Blix, former UN Chief weapons inspector. The Guardian (UK)

Nobel Prize website
Information on all the prize categories and recipients including a section on the Peace Prize. www.nobelprizes.com/nobel/nobel.html

You can send a Peace Postcard to someone you care for at: www.dsuper.net/~peace/postcards.html

"Songs that changed the world - Do they know it's Christmas?"
This documentary looks at the creation and impact of the hit single put together almost twenty years ago by artists under the direction of Bob Geldof. The single raised hundreds of millions of dollars for people suffering food shortages in Ethiopia.

Christmas Special
SBS TV Saturday December 25, 7.30pm

Peace Prayer
Where there is hatred,
Let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, Joy. The Franciscans