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July 2007

Food aid causing hunger?

DAKAR, 27 July 2007 (IRIN) - Food imports are keeping Sierra Leone from realising agricultural self-sufficiency and meeting the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating hunger by 2015, experts say. In a country where 80 percent of food is imported, mostly from the USA and Europe, the local agricultural industry is feeble and local farmers struggle to compete.

The report http://www.i

Great moments in church unity

It's three weeks since Uncle Joe Ratzinger issued a fatwa announcing that there was only one church (the one he runs).

This week, however, brings the news of the reconciliation of two extra-Benedict(XVI)ine denominations, with the declaration of unity issued in Cairo by the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The announcement by World Council of Churches General Secretary Samuel Kobia can be found here.

The greenest cities

Grist, that marvellous online environmental news magazine, has released its list of the world's fifteen greenest cities.

Reykjavik at number one is interesting, as is Curitiba at three even if only because I hadn't previously heard of it (likewise Bahía de Caráquez at nine). But Sydney at 10? The reasons they give are unconvincing, though to be fair Sydney is not that bad in the post-Olympic era.

A thousand wells for Darfur

It may be a tad simplistic to describe the conflict in Darfur as "the world's first climate-change war", but the following press release from Boston University on July 11 gives hope of a science-driven resolution to probably the world's worst humanitarian crisis of the present day:

'1,000 Wells for Darfur' initiative launched

In Zimbabwe, daughters fetch high prices as brides

ZIMBABWE: Daughters fetch high prices as brides

HARARE, 17 July 2007 (IRIN) - Daughters have become a high-priced commodity in Zimbabwe, where a dowry has become a means of escaping poverty in a rapidly declining economy. "When people are mired in such hunger as we have been seeing in this country for over seven years, they will do anything to survive," Innocent Makwiramiti, a Harare-based economist, told IRIN.

A hundred years of Barbara Stanwyck

Monday (July 16) is the centenary of the birth of Ruby Stevens - Barbara Stanwyck to you. This is a list of my top ten Barbara Stanwyck films of all time, in chronological order:

  1. The Miracle Woman (1931): An early Frank Capra film with Stanwyck as a fiery female evangelist.
  2. The Mad Miss Manton (1938): Not a major film, but a favourite screwball comedy co-starring Henry Fonda.

What famous cricketers are up to in their retirement #228

Craig McDermott was a tireless pace bowler for Queensland and Australia who took 291 Test wickets between 1984 and 1996. Now a member of that noble profession the Property Developer, he borrowed $18 million from property investment group Bridgecorp.

Bridgecorp tanked last week, taking the retirement savings of many small investors with it. McDermott still owes Bridgecorp $18 million.

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