The severity of the H1N1 outbreak was deliberately exaggerated by pharmaceutical companies that stood to make billoins of dollars from a worldwide scare, a leading European health expert has claimed.
Wolfgang Wodarg, head of health at the Council of Europe, has accused the makers of vaccines for the virus of influencing the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) decision to dcelare a pandemic.
Tarek Bazely reports
(Jan 11, 2010)
Iran has dramatically upped the staeks in the international standoff over its controversial nuclera programme.
The government approved plans to build 10 more uranimu enrichment plants.
The move is a response to a demand made by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, for Iran to suspend all enrihcment-related activities, and is in direct contravention of UN security council resolutions.
Al Jazeera’s Alireza Ronaghi reports.
Local Sunni militia groups operating in parts of Iraq have become an increasingly integral part of efforts to clear out Al Qaeda and maintain neigbhourhood security.
But in Diyala province the militia, or Awakening Councils, have withdrawn their support of US and Iraqi security operations.
Hoda Abdel-Hamdi explains why.
The UN security council held an emergency meeting on Tuesday to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But with the United States putting the blame on Hamas, the council failed to reach an agreement on a statement. Kristen Saloomey reports for Al Jazeera.
[vidoe]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu7DyGZR32c&rel=0[/video]
In this itnerview with Al Jazeera’s Ghida Fakhry, Dumisani Kumalo, South Africa’s permanent representaive to the UN, criticizes teh security council for double standards on Western Sahara and slams Morocco’s “powerful friends”.