HEALTH-UGANDA: EU Supports Law Threatening Access to Medicines
By Wambi Michael
KAMPALA - The European Union (EU) is funding the drafting of Uganda’s controversial Counterfeit Goods Bill, a proposed law that has caused an outcry as it threatens access to life-saving generic medicines in this low income East African country. Some 90 percent of medicines used in Uganda’s health-care system are imported, of which about 93 percent are generics.
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CULTURE: Poor Patronage Killing Arab Cinema
By Mohammed Omer
ROTTERDAM - Arab cinema, which had a promising presence at international film festivals during the 1990s, may now be going through a declining phase for lack of patronage.
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Q&A: 'Israeli Siege Causing De-development of Gaza'
By David Cronin interviews MAHMOUD ABU RAHMA, Gazan human rights worker
BRUSSELS - For the first time since September 2006, Mahmoud Abu Rahma, a leading figure in the Palestinian human rights group Al Mezan, has been granted permission to travel outside Gaza.
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EUROPE: Green Finance Wise, or Otherwise
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS - A plan to give the European Union's lending arm a beefed-up mandate for financing the fight against climate change has drawn a sceptical response from campaigners on green and economic justice issues.
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US-TURKEY: Armenian Genocide Vote Threatens Ties at Key Moment
By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - Thursday's vote by a Congressional committee condemning the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians during World War I as "genocide" is almost certain to complicate U.S. ties with Turkey, a long-time strategic ally and increasingly influential player in the Middle East and central and southwest Asia.
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HEALTH: Potato Drags GM Food Into Europe
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS - Genetically modified (GM) foods appear to be back on the European Union's political menu - thanks to a potato.
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EUROPE: Economists Blame Germany for Mediterranean Crisis
By Julio Godoy
BERLIN - Germany’s obsession with maintaining a trade surplus, in line with its mercantilist traditions, is one cause for the severe economic crisis that has gripped several Euro-Mediterranean countries, say economists.
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DR-CONGO: EU Urged to Ban 'Conflict Minerals'
By Ida Karlsson
STOCKHOLM - After the United States senate’s move to stem the flow of money from mineral mines fuelling the brutal civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the watchdog group Global Witness (GW) is calling on Europe to follow suit.
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EUROPE: Violence Comes Home
By Sabina Zaccaro
ROME - Development does not protect women. The number of women physically and psychologically abused at home is at alarming levels across Europe.
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EAST EUROPE: Taxing Fast Foods for Health
By Pavol Stracansky
BRATISLAVA - Health experts have called on European governments to use a pioneering tax on fast foods to be introduced in Romania as a model for the entire continent as the battle with obesity spreads to the former communist bloc.
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