Tuesday, August 30, 2011

BBC News - US 'wasted $30bn on Afghanistan and Iraq' over decade

BBC News - US 'wasted $30bn on Afghanistan and Iraq' over decade: "The US government has wasted $30bn (£18bn) in contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last decade, according to a bi-partisan spending commission.

The commission on wartime contracting blamed an over-reliance on contractors, poor planning and fraud for the waste."

'via Blog this'

BBC News - Guatemalans 'died' in 1940s US syphilis study

BBC News - Guatemalans 'died' in 1940s US syphilis study:

'via Blog this'

At least 83 Guatemalans are thought to have died not long after being deliberately infected with syphilis and gonorrhoea in the 1940s, a presidential commission in Washington has heard.

US government scientists infected hundreds of Guatemalan prisoners, psychiatric patients and sex workers to study the effects of penicillin.

None of those infected consented.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

The promotion of global wellbeing can drive the development agenda | Allister McGregor | Global development | guardian.co.uk

The promotion of global wellbeing can drive the development agenda | Allister McGregor | Global development | guardian.co.uk: With pictures of starving children again on our TV screens nightly, the focus of current international development efforts is very much on the short-term imperative of saving lives. Talk of living "well" may seem over-optimistic just now, inappropriate even.

However, a focus on human wellbeing provides a new and powerful perspective on the challenges facing humanity today – and one with a greater potential to confront the roots of crises such as that experienced in east Africa today than is provided by the standard development agenda.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

BBC News - Iran 'jails US hikers for eight years for spying'

BBC News - Iran 'jails US hikers for eight years for spying': Two US hikers accused of spying and illegally entering Iran have been jailed for eight years by a court in Tehran, reports say.

Iranian state TV's website said Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal each received three years for illegally entering Iran and five years for spying.

The two men deny the charges, saying they unknowingly crossed into the country while hiking in July 2009.

Fellow hiker Sarah Shourd was freed on $500,000 (£314,386) bail last year.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

BBC News - Stanford prison experiment continues to shock

BBC News - Stanford prison experiment continues to shock: Forty years ago a group of students hoping to make a bit of holiday money turned up at a basement in Stanford University, California, for what was to become one of the most notorious experiments in the study of human psychology.

The idea was simple - take a group of volunteers, tell half of them they are prisoners, the other half prison wardens, place them in a makeshift jail and watch what happens.

The Stanford prison experiment was supposed to last two weeks but was ended abruptly just six days later, after a string of mental breakdowns, an outbreak of sadism and a hunger strike.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com:

"OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors."

Saturday, August 13, 2011

David Arquette Fights To Make Malaria No More On Trip To Senegal

David Arquette Fights To Make Malaria No More On Trip To Senegal: "Having learned of the relief organization Malaria No More while working with Idol Gives Back to support Feeding America, Arquette said that he was moved to take action when he found out that nearly 2000 Africans a day die of the disease, with a child passing away every 45 seconds.

The statistics, said, were 'mind boggling,' to the point that he was willing to do a lot more than just lend his name and perhaps a commercial shoot or two to the cause."

Friday, August 12, 2011

BBC News - Pfizer: Nigeria drug trial victims get compensation

BBC News - Pfizer: Nigeria drug trial victims get compensation: "In 1996, 11 children died and dozens were left disabled after Pfizer gave them the experimental anti-meningitis drug, Trovan.

The payouts were made to the parents of four of the children who died.

Their parents told the BBC they welcomed the payment, but it would not replace the loss of their loved ones.

The children were part of a group of 200 given the drug during a meningitis epidemic in the northern city of Kano as part of a medical trial comparing Trovan's effectiveness with the established treatment.

For years Pfizer maintained that meningitis - not the drug - caused the deaths and disabilities."

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Penny Red: Panic on the streets of London.

Penny Red: Panic on the streets of London.:
"In one NBC report, a young man in Tottenham was asked if rioting really achieved anything:

'Yes,' said the young man. 'You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?'

'Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you.'

Eavesdropping from among the onlookers, I looked around. A dozen TV crews and newspaper reporters interviewing the young men everywhere ‘’’

There are communities all over the country that nobody paid attention to unless there had recently been a riot or a murdered child. Well, they’re paying attention now."

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

BBC News - Black Hawk survivor 'would return to help Somalis'

BBC News - Black Hawk survivor 'would return to help Somalis': "The sole survivor of one of the US Army Black Hawk helicopters shot down by Somali militiamen in Mogadishu in 1993 says the deaths of 18 of his comrades should not have prompted the end of the military mission to restore order.


Michael Durant (pictured recovering in hospital) was almost beaten to death after the helicopter crash
Pilot Michael Durant told Radio 4's Broadcasting House that today's famine can be traced back to that decision to withdraw."

Monday, August 8, 2011

BBC News - Newsnight - Ethiopia 'using aid as weapon of oppression'

BBC News - Newsnight - Ethiopia 'using aid as weapon of oppression': "A joint undercover investigation by BBC Newsnight and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has uncovered evidence that the Ethiopian government is using billions of dollars of development aid as a tool for political oppression."

BBC News - Kenya drought: Starvation claims 14 lives in Turkana

BBC News - Kenya drought: Starvation claims 14 lives in Turkana: "At least 14 people have died in Kenya's north-eastern Turkana region - the first hunger-related Kenyan deaths in the current regional drought.

The MP for Turkana, John Munyes, said the deaths were in three remote villages after the government failed to transport food to drought victims.

The UN says more than four million Kenyans are threatened by starvation in the region's worst drought in 60 years.

Other countries affected are Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti."

BBC News - Somalia's al-Shabab rebels leave Mogadishu

BBC News - Somalia's al-Shabab rebels leave Mogadishu

Somalia's al-Shabab Islamist rebels have pulled out of all positions in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, government and rebel spokesmen say.

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed declared the rebels defeated after they left overnight on trucks.

However, al-Shabab described the move as a "change of military tactics".

 
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