Good news

IssueApril 2007
News by Kat Barton

Seven British doctors recently embarked on a 10-day visit to the Dove and Dolphin International Medical Centre in Gaza to spend time with Palestianian doctors and medical students. The doctors hope to collect information on common medical problems which they will then collate and offer for publication in medical journals.

In March, 138 academics from 17 countries signed an open letter to academic publisher Reed Elsevier, demanding an end to its role in the arms trade. Reed's subsidiary company Reed Exhibitions organises DSEi as well as seven other international arms fairs, and many of the signatories to the letter, who included Noam Chomsky and Rhona Macdonald, Senior Editor of The Lancet, are regular contributors to Reed's publications.

Although good news snippets are not usually found in the right-wing press, this month we make an exception... In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has said that he can envision a scenario in which Bush and Blair could face war crimes charges for their actions in Iraq. He urged Arab countries, many of whom have expressed frustration at the Court's apparent bias towards the west, to sign up to the court so that such allegations can be pursued.

And finally... the really good news (and just to show that we don't believe everything we read in the Torygraph)... Australian Critical Massers have won a complaint against the Sydney Daily Telegraph. The Australian Press Council upheld a complaint about a report in which 1000 cyclists on the Sydney critical mass protest ride were described as “selfish fools”. The journalist in question encouraged motorists to complain to the ride “organiser”, by publishing his mobile phone number in the headline, resulting in said “organiser” receiving 200 calls, 140 of which were abusive or threatening.