South Africa’s singing peacemaker

During his lifetime South African reggae star Lucky Dube was a man on a mission to make the world a better place.

“Hey you Rasta man. Hey European, Indian man. We’ve got to come together as one,” go the lyrics to his anti-apartheid hit Together as One.

Unity, peace, freedom and respect were Lucky Dube’s mantras.

At the age of 18 he recorded his first album playing traditional mbaqanga music, but it was a genre that he felt constrained his ambition.

Bank of the South to rival Bank of the North (IMF and World Bank)
16.10.2007

Venezuela’s leftist government is leading Brazil, Argentina and other regional economies in creating a new bank with the ambition of casting off unwelcome oversight by the IMF and World Bank.

The idea was first announced by Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez last December as part of his crusade against US influence and international financial institutions that he says are merely “tools of Washington.”

The finance and economy ministers of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela met last week in Rio de Janeiro to outline the main elements of the “Banco del Sur” — or Bank of the South.

Officials say drug caused Nigeria polio

By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical

A polio outbreak in Nigeria was caused by the vaccine designed to stop it, international health officials say, leaving at least 69 children paralyzed.

It is a frightening paradox in a part of the world that already distrusts western vaccines, making it even tougher to stamp out age-old diseases.

The outbreak was caused by the live polio virus that is used in vaccines given orally — the preferred method in developing countries because it is cheaper and doesn’t require medical training to dispense.