A Syrian girl, whose family fled their home in Idlib, looks out of a tent tent, at a camp for displaced Syrians, in the village of Atmeh, Syria, Dec. 10, 2012.
Aid for Syria — The U.N. has said that a million Syrians are going hungry and helpless because of the country’s 22-month civil war, notes the BBC. Even though the World Food Program (WFP) is reportedly helping 1.5 million Syrians, many people have not received aid because of the ongoing violence and inability to use the country’s second-largest port of Tartus to deliver food. Roughly four million Syrians are in need of humanitarian aid, according to U.N. estimates.
French Feminism — The Christian Science Monitor reports that although French women have a better work-life balance than their American counterparts, they still struggle for gender equality. France ranked 57th among 135 nations surveyed in the 2012 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index, trailing far behind Germany (13th), the U.K. (18th) and the U.S. (22nd). According to CSM, “sexism and even sexual harassment have been overlooked or disregarded as the necessary evil of an otherwise lovely cultural relationship between men and women” in France.
Bluefin Tuna — The Pew Environment Group said stocks of Pacific bluefin tuna have dropped by 96.4% from unfished levels, reports Bloomberg. Inadequate regulation of fishing in the bluefin’s western Pacific spawning area has led to the dramatic drop of bluefin numbers, said the group’s latest stock assessment. Most of the bluefin that are caught are juveniles that have not yet reproduced, making it difficult for the population to recover. Still, demand for the fish remains incredibly high. Last week, a 489-pound (222 kg) bluefin fetched a record price of 155.4 million yen ($1.8 million) at an auction in Tokyo.