From the attacks in Australia, France, Denmark and Belgium to the brutal killings by militants of the Islamic State and the racist remarks and hateful demands by far-right groups across the Western world, communities across the globe have seen calls for discord and strife in recent months.

But people around the world have answered those calls for division with remarkable expressions of harmony and solidarity. Protesters and activists from Europe to the Middle East stood up defiantly and launched powerful campaigns urging respect and understanding of one another.

Take a look at six campaigns that moved us.

'HUMANITY IS ONE'

Days after a gunman opened fire near a synagogue in Denmark, more than a thousand Muslims in neighboring Norway formed a human shield around a synagogue in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, in a cry of support for the country's Jewish community. "Humanity is one and we are here to demonstrate that," Zeeshan Abdullah, one of the organizers, told the crowd Saturday, according to Reuters.

Responding to the powerful stance by the Muslim community, a different group of Norwegians announced it will undertake a similar protest, this time linking hands to protect a Norwegian mosque. "We want to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Muslim fellow citizens to show disgust towards increasing Muslim hate and xenophobia in society," the organizers explained, according to a translation of the event's Facebook page.

Tonight Norwegian muslims formed a human shield in front of the Oslo synagogue. Historic. #ringOfPeaceOslo #Norway pic.twitter.com/iCQxJrQSrt
— Oda Leraan Skjetne (@oSkjetne) February 21, 2015

1300 Muslims link hands in a Ring of Peace around Jewish synagogue in Oslo. Best news from Europe all year. pic.twitter.com/CnsrbC3o1c
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) February 21, 2015

BITING SATIRE

As the Islamic State group sought to inspire terror with horrific killings and propaganda videos, satirists and cartoonists across the Arab world have shared their own powerful message. Skewering the extremists with "Daily Show"-style news programs and slapstick cartoons, these comedians are taking a stand by changing the narrative around the group.

"This is one way to reject extremism and make it so the people are not afraid," Nabil Assaf, producer of Lebanon's satirical "Ktir Salbe Show," told the Associated Press.

The Iraqi government is also taking part in the mockery of Islamic State extremists, reports NPR, producing a musical comedy show whose title translates into "State of Myths." The show seeks to highlight the hypocrisy at the heart of the group, and features bizarre gags including the leader of the militant group hatching from a tiny egg.


In this image made from an undated cartoon broadcast on state-run al-Iraqiya TV in Iraq, a cartoon character portrayed as a member or a supporter of the Islamic State group sings a song. (AP Photo/al-Iraqiya)

#NOTINMYNAME

British Muslims launched the #NotInMyName campaign in September 2014 to hit back at the Islamic State group's claim to represent Muslims around the world. The campaign, started by London-based group Active Change Foundation, was praised by U.S. President Barack Obama at his speech at the United Nations General Assembly later that month.

The campaign had its critics, many who argued that it implies Muslims must dissociate themselves from the terror group and took offense at that suggestion. But it took social media by storm, and sparked similar campaigns in France.

Another disgusting threat from the un-Islamic State #NotInMyName. We all call for Alan Henning's prompt release. pic.twitter.com/3H2Rq1ntwE
— Sayed Umaar (@UmaarKazmi) September 18, 2014

British Muslims send a clear message to #IS #ISIS sectarian murderers -- #notinmyname pic.twitter.com/i84K9jDQ1h
— Murtaza Ali Shah (@MurtazaGeoNews) September 17, 2014

JE SUIS CHARLIE… AHMED... AND MUATH

After two gunmen killed 12 people at the Paris office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on Jan. 7, 2015, millions of people around the world expressed their support for the victims on social media with the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie (I Am Charlie). When the newspaper's website came back online later that day, it displayed only a black banner emblazoned with the Je Suis Charlie logo, and linked to translations of the message in languages including Arabic and German. The hashtag became one of the most popular in Twitter's history.

As information emerged about victims of the attack, another hashtag was born. #JeSuisAhmed honored Ahmed Merabet, a 42-year-old Muslim police officer shot dead by the gunmen outside Charlie Hebdo's office. "Ahmed Merabet knew better than anyone that radical Islam has nothing to do with Islam and that fanaticism kills Muslims," French President Francois Hollande remarked at Merabet's funeral.

The messages echo the Arabic hashtag كلنا_معاذ# (We Are All Muath) that emerged in solidarity with Muath al-Kaseasbeh, the Jordanian pilot who was held and killed by Islamic State militants. The hashtag started circulating after the pilot was captured in Syria in December 2014. When the group released a video on Feb. 4 that appeared to show al-Kaseasbeh being burned alive, Twitter users around the world expressed outrage with hashtags in Arabic and English, including #IamMuath and #ISIS_are_NOT_Muslims.

HISTORIC MARCH

In the wake of the killings in Paris, a nation reeling from the attacks came together in an enormous display of solidarity. An estimated 1.5 million people marched through the French capital on Jan. 11, holding signs and singing songs in support of freedom of expression and unity.

World leaders also joined in the demonstrations, linking arms and expressing their condolences for those killed. Millions more joined those in Paris in cities across the country, in what was to be France's largest demonstrations in recent history. At the day's end, a staggering total of 3.7 million people were estimated to have taken part in the marches.


Demonstrators wave flags on the monument at the center of Republique Square before the demonstration in Paris, France, on Jan. 11, 2015. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

PROTESTS AROUND THE WORLD

People of all walks of life have participated in other protests across the globe to denounce the brutality of Islamic State extremists. The size of the marches has varied from just a few hundred demonstrators to a sea of thousands, but always carried a message of defiance and denunciation.

In Jordan, a crowd of thousands was joined by Queen Rania in a march in early January after the murder of Muath al-Kaseasbeh. More than 20,000 Kurds in Germany demonstrated against the Islamic State group in October of last year, waving flags in a peaceful protest against the extremists. Hundreds

Jordan's Queen Rania holds a picture of slain Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh during a march after Friday prayers in Amman, Jordan, on Feb. 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

The United States has a long history with malaria -- a completely preventable and treatable disease carried by the bite of an infected mosquito. A quick history lesson reminds us that this disease -- which disproportionately affects developing communities in Africa and Asia -- was only eliminated from its shores in 1949, thanks to the vigilant work of what would go on to become the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

That's just less than 70 years ago.

Luckily, U.S. commitment to a world free of malaria didn't stop at its borders. The U.S. has been a loyal and effective partner to malaria endemic countries around the world for over a decade, and a principal player in the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership -- the global coordinating mechanism for the response to malaria -- since 1998.

In 2005, when momentum was building around the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to rid the world of disease and poverty, the U.S. took stock of the impact malaria was having on already struggling communities -- particularly in Africa. Under the leadership of then president George W. Bush, the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) was created to curb the tide on the nearly 200 million cases of malaria then estimated to affect the African continent each year. Ten years later, I'm proud to say it's done just that.

The U.S. government's devotion to PMI has remained steadfast, and the program has been expanded under President Obama. Today, it serves as one of the best examples of truly bi-partisan commitment to global health and foreign aid.

As budgets have increased and new tools have flooded the market, PMI -- in concert with national governments and local partners -- has scaled-up life-saving interventions in communities across some of the world's highest burden countries. It has also expanded its work from 15 to 19 African countries and added a regional program in Southeast Asia. In total, PMI has helped distribute more than 80 million insecticide-treated nets, more than 65 million rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) and more than 185 million antimalarial treatments to prevent, diagnose and treat malaria, respectively.

As a trained medical doctor from Mali, in West Africa, who has worked in a variety of settings across the continent, I have witnessed first-hand the lasting impact these programs have had.

Since 2000, malaria mortality rates have decreased globally by 47 percent and by 54 percent in Africa alone. And since 2001, more than four million malaria-related deaths have been averted globally -- roughly 95 percent of which are children under five in Africa. The large majority of this progress has been made in the past decade.

For the first time, some African nations are on the way to eliminating malaria, and fewer people on the continent are being infected than ever before. This means healthier children, more vibrant economies and stronger, less burdened health systems.

But our success hangs in the balance.

Despite best efforts, malaria continues to cause 198 million cases and 584,000 related deaths around the world each year. The large majority of this burden is felt in sub-Saharan Africa, costing the continent an estimated minimum of U.S. $12 billion in lost productivity each year.

With just months until the MDGs expire and we transition to an increasingly ambitious set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one thing is certain: We must protect the fragile gains we've made against malaria so we can continue advancing progress across the broader development agenda and unlocking potential in communities around the world.

This will require continued political and financial commitment to ensure we are harnessing innovations and developing new tools to stay ahead of an evolving parasite that is already showing signs of resistance to top-line antimalarials and insecticides in certain parts of the world.

Malaria has consistently proven to be a highly cost-effective public health intervention, with small investments yielding high returns across the board. PMI's work -- under the leadership of Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer -- is evidence of that.

This week, PMI's new 2015-2020 will be launched at the White House in Washington, D.C. In the face of an evolving parasite and a shifting development landscape, I am confident that this sort of refined focus and re-commitment of resources will help us achieve our next set of goals and carry even more countries along the pathway toward elimination.

The road ahead will not be easy, but with continued leadership and wise global health investments, we can increase our chances of delivering on the ambitious promises we've made to the people of the world. And hopefully we can look back in another 70 years and proudly list off the many African countries that have also made malaria a thing of the past.

Police in Washington state fired 17 shots at an unarmed Mexican migrant on Feb. 10, hitting him as many as six times, authorities said Wednesday.

Wednesday's statement from the Tri-Cities Special Investigations Unit, a squad of officers from four police departments assigned to investigate the killing of Antonio Zambrano-Montes, is the first time authorities have confirmed how many shots police fired during the confrontation over rock-throwing. The statement said five or six shots struck Zambrano-Montes.

A bystander used a cell phone to record the shooting of Zambrano-Montes, 35, in Pasco, Washington, setting off local protests and attracting national media attention as the video circulated online.

Police fired at Zambrano-Montes to stop him from throwing rocks at passing cars, according to Wednesday's statement. When officers confronted him, he threw rocks at the officers, even after they tried to use tasers to stop him, according to the release.

Consejo Latino, a Pasco-based civic group, has questioned whether the killing was justified. Rick Rios, one of the group's co-founders, said the number of errant police shots indicated a problem with police training.

"They were just spraying bullets everywhere," Rios told The Huffington Post. "That shows no concern for the public. ... These are highly trained officers, as we've been told over and over again. They were probably no more than 15 feet away from him."

In the weeks before the killing, Consejo Latino had pressed the police to address what Rios described as a "communication gap" between the largely Hispanic public in the agricultural town of 68,000 and the majority-white police department.

The press release says the final analysis from the medical examiner is expected to be completed within a month. Transcriptions of witness statements and a toxicology report also will not be available for weeks.

"At this time we know Antonio Zambrano-Montes was not shot in the back," the statement says.

The Special Investigations Unit called on demonstrators to act respectfully and noted that so far, "demonstrations have proven peaceful."

The killing touched off protests in the town, which is home to a large number of migrant workers. The New York Times and other observers have compared the killing of Zambrano-Montes with that of Michael Brown, the unarmed black man killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, touching off nationwide protests and sustained news attention.

In the video, officers appear to shoot at Zambrano-Montes, then chase him across a busy street as he fled with his hands up. When he stopped and turned toward the police, they fired again, killing him.

The attorney representing Brown's family in Missouri, Benjamin Crump, also will represent Zambrano-Montes' family.

Zambrano-Montes' death was the fourth police killing in Pasco in less than a year, according to The Associated Press.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's prime minister was briefing his party's lawmakers Wednesday on pledges made to European creditors to win a four-month extension of the country's bailout, amid simmering discontent with what some see as a capitulation.

Greece cleared a major hurdle on Tuesday after the finance ministers of the other eurozone countries approved a list of Greek policy goals, including pledges to fight corruption, and granted the four-month extension. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was elected last month on campaign pledges to repeal some of the budget cuts and tax hikes made in return for 240 billion euros (currently $272 billion) in rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

Without the extension, Greece faced the possibility of bankruptcy, limits on bank transactions and even a potential exit from euro, the joint currency used by 19 European nations.

While the government has sought to present the negotiated deal as a victory, it has faced criticism from party hardliners as well as opposition parties.

Energy and Environment Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, a party hardliner, has insisted he will stick to election promises not to go ahead with privatizations.

Wednesday's edition of the daily Ethnos newspaper quoted him as saying that the privatization of the power grid nor that of the country's power utility would be halted, as final binding bids had not yet been submitted.

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, speaking on RealFM radio Wednesday, said the list he sent to Brussels included "constructive ambiguity" on the issue of privatizations. The text of Varoufakis' letter to Brussels says completed privatizations will not be rolled back and those where tenders have been launched "the government will respect the process, according to the law."

"The law gives the government possibilities to both change the terms of the procedure and at some point to check the legality of this procedure," Varoufakis said. "Our position is very simple. The sell-off of family silver at rock-bottom prices and in a way that doesn't lead to development for the economy must stop."

The most direct, and symbolically damaging, criticism came over the weekend from Syriza's European parliament member Manolis Glezos, famed in Greece for removing the Nazi flag from atop the Acropolis during the German occupation in World War II.

Glezos wrote an open letter over the weekend publicly apologizing to the Greek people for backing what he said was the "illusion" that the hated bailout austerity measures would be immediately repealed.

Greece's list of policy goals is being used as a starting point for the creation of new reform measures the Greek parliament will have to vote into law and includes pledges to fight tax evasion and corruption. It also says the government will not roll back privatizations as it had promised before being elected on Jan. 25 and not take any unilateral action without consulting with Greece's creditors.

The International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, both bailout contributors, have expressed reservations about the Greek pledges, saying they were enough to approve the extension but were vague and needed to be translated into concrete action.

The Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars from seven foreign governments during Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, including one donation that violated its ethics agreement with the Obama administration, foundation officials disclosed Wednesday.

TORONTO (AP) — Anyone interested in buying a piece of Rob Ford history now has the chance to do so.

The notorious former Toronto mayor and now city councilor is auctioning off some of the memorabilia he has collected over the years. Ford's term was plagued by scandals involving drinking, crack cocaine use and erratic behavior.

Ten percent of the proceeds will go toward research and care facilities for liposarcoma, the form of cancer Ford was diagnosed with last year.

The first item — a map of Toronto's port lands dated 1990 — went up on eBay, with bids starting at US$50-dollars.

Ford's assistant has said Ford would be selling some items, but didn't say how many — or where the rest of the funds raised will end up.

KABUL, Feb 26 (Reuters) - An explosion rattled windows in the diplomatic quarter of the heavily fortified Afghan capital on Thursday morning, sending the city's embassies onto high alert.
"This is a security announcement: there has been an explosion inside the city," the British embassy broadcast to staff on its compound.
Further details on the location of blast were not immediately available. (Reporting by Jessica Donati; Editing by Douglas Busvine)

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Two senior U.S. Senate Democrats invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to a closed-door meeting with Democratic senators during his upcoming visit to Washington, amid tensions over his plans to address the U.S. Congress on Iran's nuclear program.
Senators Richard Durbin and Dianne Feinstein extended the invitation "to maintain Israel's dialog with both political parties in Congress," according to a letter to the Israeli leader obtained by Reuters.
Netanyahu has faced criticism at home and in the United States for his plans to address Congress on March 3, just two weeks before Israeli elections. He was invited by Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress who consulted neither Democrats in Congress nor Democratic President Barack Obama's administration.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Eric Walsh)

If the Greeks leave the Eurozone, it would be awful. Both Greece and the remainder of the euro area would experience damaging volatility and uncertainty. But "Grexit" does not have to be all bad. In fact, if the Eurozone countries use the crisis to push through long-needed reforms, they could wind up in a much stronger position in the long run.

The Eurozone faces two related challenges. The first, fundamental challenge is that the single currency arrangement lacks the tools to maintain economic synchrony across diverse economies. The political cost of sacrificing fiscal independence has always stymied efforts to build features like burden-sharing arrangements between countries.

The Global Financial Crisis revealed the consequence of this shortcoming. It ripped through the periphery economies, but left core countries in much better shape. With only one Eurozone-wide interest rate to respond, the ECB was unable to avoid the eruption of what we now know as the Eurocrisis.

A second challenge has now come to the fore, as Greece plays high-stakes poker with the European Commission. Agreement to exceptional treatment for Greece risks establishing a precedent that Eurozone rules can be broken. Failure to reach an agreement could mean Grexit.

The first structural challenge clearly set up the second Greek bailout challenge. But now capitulation to Greek demands would feed back to exacerbate the structural challenge. Not only would Eurozone institutions be inadequate, but they would have weak authority. This is not a tenable outcome for the Eurozone.

Grexit would be better. Clearly it would create a chaotic situation in Greece that would make things worse before they got better. However, reasonable economists can debate whether staying in the Eurozone with a too-strong exchange rate and high debt would be better for Greece. In any case, the ball is in Greece's court to make this decision, so presumably they will choose the option that they feel works best for Greece. God speed.

For the Eurozone, the biggest risk from Grexit is that membership appears optional. Despite all laws and institutions designed for permanence, any member - even Germany - could be viewed as having one eye on their own exit should some economic disjuncture become unbearable. Moreover, domestic euroskeptic parties would surely try to capitalize on the momentum provided by Grexit. The Eurozone would face a true risk of break up.

Yet, much as they may like to entertain the idea of greater national autonomy, the average European does not at all want to see a total break up of the Eurozone. This is a key fact. Faced with the bald reality of that scenario, it is reasonable to imagine that panic will set in and support will shift massively to the side of Eurozone solidarity.

The Eurozone has been in need of just such an existential crisis to provide the proverbial kick in the pants to its members to commit to greater fiscal burden sharing. If European leaders play their cards right, they can leverage this shift in sentiment to overcome previous political hurdles to greater fiscal integration.

Stronger fiscal arrangements would make the Eurozone much more durable. In that sense, it could serve as an effective adhesive applied to the perceived cracks Grexit would create. It may remain true that exit is an option for remaining members, but stronger fiscal arrangements reduce the economic disjuncture that makes exit attractive. The door may be open, but everyone takes a big step back away from it.

The question then becomes what form the fiscal burden sharing arrangement takes. The new fiscal compact, currently being tested by France's request for forbearance, is insufficient. While Greece's problems (absent the accounting fraud) might have been limited by a fiscal compact, neither Ireland nor Spain would have been saved.

A minimum requirement is greater financial safety nets. Eurozone members balked at creating area-wide deposit insurance two years ago. Instead, ECB-led supervision with a bailout fund is a step forward, but not quite there yet. The European Commission envisions a process of deepening of fiscal integration culminating in an autonomous Eurozone budget with automatic cross-border fiscal stabilizers.

The best outcome would be for Greece and the European Commission to find a bargain that preserves the integrity of Eurozone discipline and meets Greek demands for less austerity. The scenario in which Grexit results in a stronger fiscal union among remaining members is very risky. It assumes leaders are able to perform political judo in managing the popular reaction to Grexit.

But given the choices the European Commission faces, this strategy may not look so bad. If played right, Greece leaving the Eurozone could ironically result in a more robust, more viable currency union than they have today.