Aids quackery in Africa, and nearer home
The News Review:
- Aids quackery in Africa, and nearer home
- Wreaths can show what you grow
- Banned wrestler vows to change his ways as sumo struggles to repair…
- Grand Shopping Festival Aims at Promoting Traditional Products
- Marvel Mitanni upstages Natural Destiny
- Farm aid or trade route for Yankees
Aids quackery in Africa, and nearer home
Guardian Unlimited - Dec 1, 2007
South Africa is traditionally where we would start such a voyage, headed as it is by President Thabo Mbeki, a man who remains an HIV denialist and recently told a biographer that he regrets withdrawing from publicly discussing his beliefs. He has compared Aids scientists to Nazi concentration camp doctors and portrayed black people who accepted orthodox Aids science as “self-repressed” victims of a slave mentality. Mbeki pursued his own investigations on Aids therapies, resulting in government endorsement of Virodene, a home grown South African drug. Medical treatment for Aids cost $1,200 a month, but Virodene cost $6, “medicine developed in Africa for Africa”. Virodene was in fact based on the industrial solvent dimethylformamide, which is toxic, potentially lethal, and with - bizarrely - no proof of efficacy against HIV. The Democratic Alliance is putting questions in parliament to the presidency about the ANC’s possible financial involvement in the drug, following fresh recent allegations that tens of millions of rand in cash were ferried from the party to the Virodene company. Meanwhile The Namibia Economist reports that a product using the same industrial solvent is about to be shipped to several health facilities in the Congo.
Wreaths can show what you grow
St. Petersburg Times - Dec 1, 2007
A seasoned floral arranger who retired here with her husband 10 years ago, she is an expert at creating natural holiday decorations. She created the wreath pictured here from home-grown plants and a dropped palm frond found in her neighborhood. The inspiration for the wreath came from a bleeding-heart vine in her yard, Stoffels said. "When I saw this wonderful vine, I thought I'd make a wreath out of it," she said. "I twisted it around and around, and if it had a little quirk here and there, I'd use it because that's part of nature. The thing I like about it is that it is not perfection like the grapevine wreath you would buy in the store.
Banned wrestler vows to change his ways as sumo struggles to repair…
Guardian Unlimited - Dec 1, 2007
His capacity for alcohol is legendary and he is reportedly experiencing marital problems. In sumo terms his biggest fault may be his nationality. Traditionalists yearn for the emergence of a home-grown champion to rise to the top and end the dominance of Asashoryu and sumo’s only other yokozuna, fellow Mongolian Hakuho. They could be in for a long wait: the latest rankings, released this week, list a record 21 foreign professional wrestlers. Looking slightly heavier than usual, Asashoryu calmly fielded questions about the ill-fated football match, in which he appeared wearing a figure-hugging Wayne Rooney shirt. He said he had only agreed to take part following pressure from the Mongolian government and Japanese embassy. “I played in the match despite my injuries, and I regret that,” he said.
Grand Shopping Festival Aims at Promoting Traditional Products
Arab News - Dec 1, 2007
100 billion hospitality industry for the success of the shopping carnival. The inflow of domestic tourists increased by 40 percent last year while 25 percent more holidaymakers arrived from abroad compared to the previous year, despite bad roads and poor infrastructure.