Jimmy Carter

BANGKOK — Former US president Jimmy Carter launched a campaign Monday in which thousands of volunteers will build homes for the poor in five nations along the Mekong River, a humanitarian group said.

JERUSALEM — A group of prominent former statesmen and business leaders kicked off a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Tuesday in a bid to encourage Middle East peace efforts.

Three hundred families living in five Southeast Asian countries will benefit directly arid have new homes after the week-long event. The 2009 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project will also begin a five-year Habitat for Humanity initiative to assist tens of thousands of families across Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and south-western China by engaging corporations, individuals and partners in the fight to end the blight of substandard housing.