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October 2009 (16)
Oct 31 2009 3:30PM
Action for Health

Action for Health is a section of the Hesperian Foundation's website. I wrote before about two books on community health published by that foundation. Some years ago the World Health Organisation published Health For All by the Year...

Oct 31 2009 3:27PM
UN official denied entry to Zimbabwe to investigate torture

Manfred Nowak, the United Nations investigator of torture, got as far as Harare airport and was then deported. See David Smith's article in the Guardian.

Oct 31 2009 3:21PM
See this cartoon on the Honduran coup

The Honduran Coup, A Graphic History , by Dan Archer and Nikil Saval, uses cartoons to tell the story of the coup and the arrest of the president. Rory Carroll, writing in the Guardian , praises the work for giving more historical...

Oct 30 2009 10:50PM
Unreported World on Afghan migrants

Channel 4 tonight showed the plight of Afghan migrants who get as far as Turkey and then Greece, on the eastern edge of the European Union. The film is in the series Unreported World and is called: Greece - The Unwanted . You can read...

Oct 30 2009 7:08PM
How safe is Zimbabwe now?

Refugee welfare groups have reacted with anger to suggestions from the Home Office that Zimbabwe may be safe enough for failed asylum seekers to be forcibly returned there. See this report in the Guardian .

Oct 30 2009 12:48PM
President of Honduras under siege

The deposed president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, is under siege in the Brazilian embassy and is being attacked by sound . SOA Watch has been pointing out that the military coup in Honduras, overthrowing the elected government, was led...

Oct 26 2009 9:23PM
Radovan Karadzic is on trial

Radovan Karadzic is on trial . He claims that he needs more time to prepare his defence. Martin Bell comments on the case and points out that the UN shares some of the guilt for failing to prevent atrocities.

Oct 26 2009 9:10PM
Risks for pregnant women in Africa

See the recent blog entry by Efemena on the risks faced by pregnant women in Africa . That post made me think of two books that I read years ago when I was working in community health but not in Africa. Where There Is No Doctor and...

Oct 26 2009 8:54PM
British supplies used in putting down protests

I wrote before about the brutal suppression of protests in Conakry, capital of Guinea and a petition from Avaaz. Now see "More arms to abusers" on today's blog entry from the Amnesty media team.

Oct 26 2009 8:42PM
Channel 4 on science's last taboo

Is there any question that should be taboo and not explored by scientists? A programme on Channel 4 this evening at 9 pm looked at what is described as science's last taboo: race and intelligence . The film hears from scientists on...

Oct 23 2009 8:10PM
This evening's Unreported World, on Guatemala

Guatemala: Riding with the Devil in the series Unreported World was shown on Channel 4 on Friday 23 October 2009. It showed that bus drivers in Guatemala City are being murdered at the rate of one every other day as part of an...

Oct 16 2009 10:50PM
I come out against some kinds of music

Regular readers of my blog (well there may be some) will know that I am keen on music. I was shocked though to read on the Guardian's science blog about the military use of music . Some of the soldiers interviewed for a study said that...

Oct 16 2009 10:21PM
Barack Obama and another Nobel Laureate

Looking at the website of the Nobel prize committee I found an interview about why Barack Obama was awarded this year's Peace prize. Like many others I was surprised that Obama was awarded the prize so early and I would like to wait...

Oct 16 2009 9:58PM
Liberia: still a long way to go

Tonight's Unreported World on Channel 4 showed many girls in Liberia who had suffered terrible ordeals of rape. Visiting Monrovia's central prison the programme could only find one man who had been convicted of rape with an under-age...

Oct 7 2009 12:22PM
Stop the crackdown in Guinea: sign here

See this petition from Avaaz against the crackdown in Guinea. The petition is to leaders of the African and European Unions. Avaaz is pressing for travel sanctions against the ruling elite of the west African country of Guinea; they...

Oct 7 2009 11:57AM
Untouchables

I noticed a debate on the BBC World Service website about Untouchables and the caste system in India. Is this system an abuse of human rights and should the international community press India for reforms? I have also been reading in...