In Zimbabwe, the opposition has finally reached a power-sharing agreement with the Mugabe-controlled government, but Mugabe remains in control of crucial elements of the government in collapse, and a military that has remained loyal to him.

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DISPATCH: MUGABE'S ZIMBABWE
'Now the Terror Has Returned'

Sunday, February 1, 2009; Page B02

ANNALS OF PUBLIC POLICY
GETTING THERE FROM HERE
How should Obama reform health care?
by Atul Gawande
JANUARY 26, 2009

Our jerry-rigged health-care system contains many models that reformers can build on.

Media and democracy in fragile states: the promises and problems of policy relevant research
by James Deane

Disaster-affected communities are and should be the architects of their own recovery, not merely passive recipients of international goodwill
by Imogen Wall

International Epidemiologic Association (IEA)

Jaipur, India April 5-17, 2009

Website: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/iea/Welcome.htm

The deadline for applications is: February 1, 2009

Information about the course and the application form are available at: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/iea/SEAsia.htm

Eight months after Cyclone Nargis, this year's monsoon paddy harvest is less than hoped

THAUK KYAR, 7 January 2009 (IRIN) - U Nay Aung, a resident of Thauk Kyar village in Dedaye Township, is one of thousands of farmers across the cyclone-affected area who never gave up, succeeding after the fourth attempt to yield some harvest.

In May, his 4.6 hectares of paddy fields were badly affected by the tidal surge that accompanied Cyclone Nargis. When the donated seeds did not take, he borrowed money to buy his own.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/02/forests-brazil/print

Brazil announces plan to slash rainforest destruction
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 December 2008 12.52 GMT

The Brazilian government yesterday announced a 10-year plan to slash rainforest destruction by 70% days after new figures showed Amazon deforestation was again on the rise.

Officials said the targets, which are part of Brazil's Climate Change Plan, were the first time the Brazilian government had set specific goals for deforestation reduction.

January 28, 2009
Sri Lanka: 250,000 Civilians Trapped in Intense Fighting
MSF Denied Access to Assist Victims in War Zone

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is very concerned for the safety of an estimated 250,000 people trapped in heavy fighting in the Vanni in northern Sri Lanka. Hundreds of civilians are reported to have been wounded and killed during the last days as the LTTE-controlled area has shrunk in the face of the government of Sri Lanka’s military offensive.

By MARC CHAMPION in Davos, Switzerland, and ANDREW BATSON in Beijing

The premiers of Russia and China slammed the U.S. economic system in speeches Wednesday, holding it responsible for the global economic crisis.

Both focused on the role of the U.S. dollar, with China's Premier Wen Jiabao calling for better regulation of major reserve currencies and Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin calling over-reliance on the dollar "dangerous."

Wen Jiabao and Vladimir Putin address the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Zimbabwe's water, sanitation and health systems have collapsed
The death toll from the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe has now passed the 3,000 mark, the UN's World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
The latest figures represent an increase of more than 1,000 deaths in just two weeks.
Meanwhile, the MDC's leader sounded more upbeat about power-sharing, a day after his party denied it had agreed to join a unity government next month.
He said it would go ahead if the rivals resolved their long-running disputes.

The army says it means to "eradicate" the Tamil rebels
Sri Lanka's government has denied Red Cross and UN reports of a major humanitarian crisis in the north, where troops are fighting Tamil Tiger rebels.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told the BBC that he had a policy of "zero" civilian casualties. The Red Cross believes that hundreds of civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands more are trapped. With aid supplies mostly blocked, the UN plans to make a new bid on Thursday to evacuate badly injured civilians.

DAVOS, Switzerland (CNN) -- The worldwide economic recession has exposed a "crisis of global governance" that can only be addressed by the radical reform of the United Nations, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday as the World Economic Forum got under way in Switzerland.

Kofi Annan says the United Nations needs to be reformed.

This report finds that current national health care IT deployment efforts will not be sufficient to achieve the vision of 21st century health care, and calls for greater emphasis by computer science and health/biomedical informatics researchers on providing cognitive support for health care providers, patients, and family caregivers.

Oeindrila Dube, Harvard University and Juan Vargas, Universidad del Rosario
November 12, 2008

How do income shocks affect armed conflict? Theory suggests two opposite effects. If labor is used to appropriate resources violently, higher
wages may lower conflict by reducing labor supplied to appropriation.
This is the opportunity cost effect. Alternatively, a rise in contestable
income may increase violence by raising gains from appropriation. This
is the rapacity effect.
The paper exploits exogenous price shocks in inter-

Committee on the State of the USA Health Indicators, Institute of Medicine, 2008

Available online at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12534

“………..Policymakers, the media, and the public should focus on 20 specific health indicators as "yardsticks" to measure the overall health and well-being of Americans, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM).