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Love is the best antidepressant—but many of our ideas about it are wrong. The less love you have, the more depressed you are likely to feel.  By Ellen McGrath , Love is as critical for your mind and body as oxygen. It's not negotiable. The more connected you are, the healthier you will be both physically and emotionally. The less connected you are, the more you are at risk. It is also true that the less love you have, the more depression you are likely to experience in your life. Love is probably the best antidepressant there is because one of the most common sources of depression is feeling unloved. Most depressed people don't love themselves and they do not feel loved by others. They also are very self-focused, making them less attractive to others and depriving them of opportunities to learn the skills of love. There is a mythology in our culture that love just happens. As a result, the depressed often sit aroun...

Iranian president confirms exchange of letters between the two leaders and says Tehran will never develop nuclear arm

Wednesday, September 18, 2013 Iran's Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation, I-K-R-F has recently donated sewing machines to women in the Somali capital Mogadishu as part of its humanitarian relief and support to the Horn of Africa country. As many as 50 women and girls, living in Mogadishu, have taken training courses to learn how to work with these machines. Iran has several vocational training centers in the city that take up the responsibility of teaching work skills to Somali women. These women have received certificates after passing the sewing courses and now they can open up their own business. Iranian officials here say they’re prepared to assist a friendly Muslim country that’s on the path to self-sufficiency. Throughout the famine period, Iran delivered thousands of tons of food stuff and medical supplies to Somalia. Although that period is drawing to its end, the Islamic Republic of Iran remains at the forefront of helping the people of Somalia. Now, the Foun...

Wednesday, September 18, 2013   The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday Ethiopia would reinforce its peaceful relations with neighboring countries.    In his press briefing on current issues, Spokesperson of the Ministry Ambassador Dina Mufti said the successful role Ethiopia played in mediating the Somali government and the Juba Land Administration is a practical indication of its foreign policy. He said the mediation witnessed that Ethiopia is committed to a peaceful co-existence with its neighbouring countries. The annual meeting of ambassadors and consul generals held recently has reviewed its activities identified areas of focus, he said. Dina said detailed consultation was held during the annual meeting on attracting investment and development finance, building diplomatic development agents, market and trade diplomacy, tourism promotion, fostering participation of the diaspora, image building, among others....

by Mohamed Behi Yonis Monday, September 16, 2013  Despite facing many pressing problems, both in Europe and elsewhere, it is encouraging to see that EU leaders are going to focus on my region today, in a Conference – the New Deal for Somalia, that will sanction a clear and improved framework for international donors’ engagement with the Somali people. The Horn of Africa has for a long time been seen as one of the world’s most troubled regions. It has been defined on the front pages of Europe’s newspapers by conflict, repression, famine, terrorism and piracy. Thanks to international support, Somalia has made important progress since 2012 but it remains very fragile and in need of further assistance to achieve stability, security and good governance.   To that end, Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, and Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, will gather in Brussels with a number ...

By Guy Walters There could be no mistaking the voice as it crackled over the airwaves. ‘The time is now,’ it said, exhorting its followers to stand firm. ‘Arm your women and your children against the infidel!’ The CIA officer looked at his Arab adviser, Jalal, who was the world’s foremost authority on the voice, having studied it for seven years. Jalal knew what the CIA man was about to ask, and simply nodded. The two men looked up from the captured short-range Al Qaeda radio and stared at the massive mountain range in front of them. Somewhere up there, in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan, was the world’s most wanted man — Osama Bin Laden.  Wanted: But Osama Bin Laden proved difficult to track down in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan Since the devastating Al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington just three months before, the United States had been tracking him down, and now, in mid-December 2001, they were no more t...

What to Make of Change on an Overheating Planet  By Bill McKibben The history we grow up with shapes our sense of reality -- it’s hard to shake. If you were young during the fight against Nazism, war seems a different, more virtuous animal than if you came of age during Vietnam.  I was born in 1960, and so the first great political character of my life was Martin Luther King, Jr. I had a shadowy, child’s sense of him when he was still alive, and then a mythic one as his legend grew; after all, he had a national holiday. As a result, I think, I imagined that he set the template for how great movements worked. They had a leader, capital L. As time went on, I learned enough about the civil rights movement to know it was much more than Dr. King.  There were other great figures, from Ella Baker and Medgar Evers to Bob Moses, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Malcolm X, and there were tens of thousands more whom history doesn’t remember but who deserve great credit. ...