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BANGLADESH: Selling the toilet idea

Abdul Malik, a 35-year-old rickshaw puller from Dhaka, shares a communal toilet
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BANGKOK, 14 October 2011 (IRIN) - By some measures, Bangladesh is modernizing rapidly - one in two residents now owns a cell phone. However, when it comes to basic sanitation, progress is clogged.

While some point to obstacles of funding and a lack of political leadership, others say toilets, despite their long-established health benefits, have an image problem.

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Pakistan May Be Standing in Way of Polio's Eradication

Author: 

Uri Friedman
Pakistan May Be Standing in Way of Polio's Eradication
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Several Pakistani news outlets today are dissecting a troubling finding from the U.N. Children's Fund: the 63 cases of polio diagnosed in the country so far this year are nearly double the 36 detected during the same period last year. The highly contagious viral disease, which attacks the nervous system and can cause paralysis or even death, is most evident in the province of Balochistan and has now spread to other areas that haven't been infected for the past five years.

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Fukushima radiation alarms doctors

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Scientists and doctors are calling for a new national policy in Japan that mandates the testing of food, soil, water, and the air for radioactivity still being emitted from Fukushima's heavily damaged Daiichi nuclear power plant.

 

"How much radioactive materials have been released from the plant?" asked Dr Tatsuhiko Kodama, a professor at the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology and Director of the University of Tokyo's Radioisotope Centre, in a July 27 speech to the Committee of Health, Labour and Welfare at Japan's House of Representatives.

 

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In Nigeria, a Big Oil Toll

Author: 

ALEXIS FLYNN, WILL CONNORS
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A landmark United Nations study into the long-term environmental impact of oil production in Nigeria says that oil spills have led to acute health risks for area residents and widespread environmental damage that may take as many as 30 years and $1 billion to clean up.

The report released Thursday also shines a spotlight on the activities of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, which for years drilled in the area and which funded the report.

"The oil industry has been a key sector of the Nigerian economy for over 50 years, but many Nigerians have paid a high price, as this ...

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