25th May: Africa Day

25th May is Africa Day, commemorating the date when the Organization of African Unity was set up in 1963. In July 2002, this organization was replaced by the African Union. 44 years on, what is the significance of Africa Day? Is it just another day, just another cause for the rich and powerful who use Africa to feather their own nests to make another pretty buck or has something actually been achieved? read more

Venezuela giving Danny Glover $18m to direct film on Toussaint Louverture led slave revolt

Chavez hopes venture will aid anti-imperialist fight

Actor wants to educate US on Toussaint Louverture read more

HIV, HEP-C Contaminated
UK Blood Inquiry Begins
The Guardian Unlimited – UK
Staff and Agencies
4-20-7
An independent public inquiry opened today into how the NHS gave thousands of haemophiliacs blood contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C.
 
The inquiry, led by the Labour peer Lord Archer of Sandwell, will hear evidence from patients who are now terminally ill as a result of what has been described as “the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS”.
 
More than 4,800 haemophiliacs in Britain were infected with hepatitis C, and 1,200 of those also contracted HIV after being given contaminated blood products in the 1980s and early 1990s, and many more are terminally ill.
 
More than 1,700 patients have since died, although around 380 haemophiliacs and 20 other patients given contaminated transfusions during surgery are still alive.
 
The inquiry’s remit is to investigate the circumstances surrounding the supply of contaminated blood products, examine its impact on haemophilia patients, and to recommend steps to help those affected and relatives of those who have already died.
 
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One of the “most shocking” documents was a letter from the head of Britain’s public health surveillance centre warning the Department of Health that some Factor 8 supplies could be contaminated with HIV. Despite this, Factor 8 imports continued to be used.
 
Some haemophiliacs also told the programme that they were convinced they were used as medical guinea pigs without their knowledge or consent.
 
In some cases, even when those tests showed they were HIV positive, the patients themselves were not told for several years.
 
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Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
Univ of West Indies
 
Read more @  http://rense.com/general76/uk.htm read more

President Says No Nigerian Lives Below $1 Per Day
From Josephine Lohor in Abuja, 04.20.2007

President Olusegun Obasanjo has rejected the often repeated claim that many Nigerians were surviving on less than one United States ’ dollar per day, saying that although a lot of Nigerians do not earn the equivalent of $1 a day, they however eat three square meals per day from what thy are able to produce on their farms. read more

Drugmaker to test fat-fighting marijuana drug
GW Pharmaceuticals says it has a cannabis-derived treatment to suppress hunger; company plans to start human trials.
January 30 2007: 1:41 PM EST read more