CURRENT EVENTS MAY 9

If you happened to watch the Boko Haram video claiming responsibility for the abduction of Nigeria's more than 200 schoolgirls, you too have become witness to what could ultimately be seen as an act of self-defeat.

You would also be one of millions who have now watched the extremist Islamist group's shocking update on the girls' fate.

Note the words in the video. There is no doubt the speaker, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, is very aware that this is his moment of fame, and that his group's infinitely cruel act on April 14 has riveted many around the world, perhaps just as it had hoped.

"Just because I took some little girls in Western education, everybody is making noise," he says mockingly, with a slight giggle, flanked on each side by a masked gunman

WILL THE WORLD ACT TO HELP NIGERIA'S MISSING SCHOOLGIRLS?

CURRENT EVENTS MAY 9The initial act of abducting

nearly 300 school girls (some escaped) and callously loading them onto trucks and carting them off prompted a slow rumble of outrage from millions around the world.

It has now taken three full weeks for the world's politicians to acknowledge the depth of the fury of ordinary people — the growing demand in Nigeria and far beyond that someone do something to bring these girls home.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/will-the-world-act-to-help-nigeria-s-missing-schoolgirls-1.2632983

Muslim women in Lagos, Nigeria, take part in a protest demanding the release of abducted secondary schoolgirls from the remote village of Chibok

CURRENT EVENTS MAY 9The reaction to this could spell the long-

awaited end of an organization that has, without the rest of the world taking much notice, long haunted Nigeria with bombings and attacks on schools in the name of fighting Western influence and education, and building an Islamic state.

"Let me tell you, I took the girls. Girls go and get married. We are against Western education.

"I repeat I took the girls, and I will sell them off. There is a market for selling girls."

It is the same with child marriage. It all goes on with near impunity in Nigeria and in many other places, too, save for those few dedicated organizations that just as routinely fight valiantly to end such practices, to no avail

CURRENT EVENTS MAY 9

The war on drugs must end and the battle to change international drug policies must begin, says a new report from the London School of Economics.

Five Nobel Prize-winning economists signed off on the 84-page report entitled Ending the Drug Wars: Report of the LSE Expert Group on the Economics of Drug Policy authored by leading drug policy experts and supported by political figures from around the world calling for drug law reform.

The report also says the drug war epidemic has produced “negative outcomes and collateral damage.” Prohibition helps push illicit drug prices up exorbitantly compared to what they would cost in a legally controlled market. 

WAR ON DRUGS A GLOBAL FAILURE, LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS SAYS

CURRENT EVENTS MAY 9Current policies have helped push the black market

drug trade to as much as $300 billion, and the 40 per cent of the world’s nine million prison inmates are jailed for drug-related offences — a figure that jumps to 59 per cent in the U.S. 

Moreover, between 70 and 85 per cent of American inmates are in need of substance abuse treatment. 

The report says decriminalization would cut incarceration and health-care costs for taxpayers everywhere. Countries with the harshest drug laws tend to have higher incarceration rates and higher HIV infection rates. Of the one million HIV-positive people in America, almost a quarter of them are in jail every year — which costs U.S. prisons $25 million a year for medical treatment, the report notes.

CURRENT EVENTS MAY 9

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will announce Friday that 63 army regiments, including special forces and the navy's fleet diving unit, and four squadrons of the air force will be bestowed an Afghanistan Theatre Honour and 15 warships will receive the Arabian Sea honour.

Battle honours are a public recognition that carry historical weight for soldiers, aircrew and sailors and help forge the identity of the units in which they serve.

Theatre honours are give out for participation in overall campaigns and are different from the recognition given individual units for specific battles, such as D-Day in the Second World War and Vimy Ridge during the First World War.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/ID/2455234425/

DAY OF HONOUR WILL INCLUDE NEW BATTLE HONOURS FOR MILITARY UNITS

CURRENT EVENTS MAY 9On Thursday, Veterans Affairs

Minister Julian Fantino announced plans to etch the dates of the 12-year guerrilla war into the National War Memorial.

As well, a cenotaph that once stood behind the Canadian headquarters in Kandahar will be reassembled and given a permanent home in Ottawa.

A portion of that memorial is on display in Parliament and will tour the country, arriving back in Ottawa in time for Remembrance Day.

A Canadian Forces CH-147 Chinook helicopter prepares to land on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday in preparation for Canada's National Day of Honour on Friday.