June started off with a plane crash of an Airbus flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. President Obama went to Cairo to make a speech about Muslims and the U.S — some people thought it was pretty good while others had more measured reactions. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, widely reported to be sickly with cancer, tapped his youngest son Jong Un as successor, and his sushi chef said he’s just like his dad. Palau decided to accept a few of the Uighur Guantanamo detainees, and a few of them were also taken in by Bermuda. The Bermudans, however, weren’t so happy about how that happened. A little later, Iran had a Presidential election. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won under most likely fraudulent circumstances because more people voted in some towns than existed there. People protested, and Twittered, and protested some more, with violent repercussions. New York Times reporter David Rohde escaped after 7 months of being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan. In a seemingly pro-feminist move (but actually to the chagrin of many feminists), Nicolas Sarkozy supported a ban of the burqa in France. In Honduras, President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a coup, and the U.S. military finally withdrew troops from Iraq to focus more instead on efforts to curb Taliban influence in Afghanistan.

In Urumqi, China, riots broke out between the majority Han Chinese and the minority Uighurs, and ethnic tension has remained heightened since, including recent claims that Uighurs are attacking Han Chinese with HIV infected needles. Two hotels were bombed in Jakarta, Indonesia. Hillary Clinton went to the Congo and brought attention to the use of rape and sexual violence as a tool of war (against men, too). Bill Clinton flew to North Korea and saved journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who had been captured in March and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. It was a good week to be a Clinton.

Former President of the Philippines Corazon Aquino died. RIP, Cory. In Taiwan, there was a really big typhoon. Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial was held over the question of whether or not she violated the terms of her house arrest when a crazy American guy swam through a lake to visit her on a supposedly divine mission. She was found guilty. The American was freed (but remained crazy). Everybody found out that private contractor organization Blackwater (now Xe) was hired by the CIA to assassinate targets. Scotland allowed the one convicted Lockerbie bomber to return to Libya because he is dying of cancer. Everybody was really, really mad, especially because it was probably because of oil. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe came down with the H1N1 virus. The Darfur conflict was reported as coming to an end. Afghanistan held Presidential elections which showed incumbent Hamid Karzai leading, but like Iran, this was probably also fraud. Unlike Iran, they’re actually recounting votes and throwing out bad ones.

Hopefully, that’s refreshed your mind with a whirlwind of memories from the past three months. But here are a couple of things that perhaps you might have missed:

China reversed its one child policy, but only in Shanghai.

Cambodia set out to host a “Miss Landmine” pageant to challenge traditional beauty standards by promoting a pageant for landmine victims. The pageant was quickly banned.

A Ukranian polka band came up with this cover of Katy Perry’s “Hot n Cold.”

Some of the lawsuits over harmful pesticide effects made by Nicaraguan farmers for Dole Food Co. turned out to be fraudulent (involving faked sterility tests, among other indicators), effectively casting doubt on all the other farmers who might have actually been harmed by the pesticides.

China tried to use electroshock therapy to cure teens of Internet addiction. The practice was quickly banned.

Canada granted refugee status to a white man from South Africa who claimed he was being persecuted in his native country on the basis of his race.

An IT company in South Africa ran a test to see what could send data faster: South African Internet service or a carrier pigeon. The pigeon won.

Anything missing? Of course. Drop a comment to add in any other summer global affairs news that slipped through the cracks!

During the conference, held the first week of March 2009, the first ladies of Egypt and Bahrain encouraged a greater role for the private sector in adopting a zero-tolerance approach to trafficking. Shaikha Sabeeka bint Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the first lady of Bahrain, called upon a partnership between private and public sectors to sever the supply-demand chain of human trafficking. Crown Prince Shaikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain stressed the need for the elimination of the sponsorship system in order to protect workers. The sponsorship system means that foreign workers need a sponsor’s permission to enter, work, and leave the host country.

The U.A.E. is a regional leader with its campaign to eliminate human trafficking. More prosecutors were added to the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking, shelters have been opened for victims of trafficking and authorities are strongly encouraged to enforce the 2006 law prohibiting trafficking in the country.

The International Organization for Migration (I.O.M.) facilitated a two-day training workshop with U.A.E. law enforcement officials in at the Dubai Police Academy in late February, 2009, focusing on techniques for interviewing potential trafficking victims. In early March, 2009, Dubai police enforced the anti-trafficking law by arresting a gang accused of luring Eastern European women to Dubai with phony job offers and then forcing them into prostitution.

In spite of these anti-trafficking campaigns, the majority of Middle Eastern countries have not yet ratified the 2000 U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. Many countries in the region, however, have national laws in place to prohibit human trafficking. The most recent Middle Eastern country to adopt a law against trafficking was Jordan in late January, 2009. This new legislation was in response to international complaints that Jordanian companies were sending foreign workers to Iraq against their will.

Nevertheless, even where anti-trafficking laws are in place, many countries in the region such as Qatar, Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon punish trafficking victims for acts, including immigration violations, which are direct results of being trafficked. In addition, Iran and Saudi Arabia do not interview women arrested for prostitution for evidence of trafficking. These women are often punished for violations of morality standards such as adultery (defined as sexual relations outside of marriage) and are subject to corporal punishment.

An initiative to work towards an Arab Convention against human trafficking is planned for the 2009 Arab League meeting in Saudi Arabia.