I was intrigued to see this news article on the BBC website this morning: WHO warns against homeopathy use.

Quickly, throw open the door of your medicine cabinet and eject all those little white homeopathic tabs; the World Health Organization after careful consideration reflecting its singular position of authority has clearly at last come down firmly on the side of homeopath sceptics.

Except that is not really what the article says.

Firstly the article is not talking about homeopathy in general but is instead focused on the problem of homeopathic remedies being promoted as primary medication for developing world sufferers of TB, infant diarrhoea, influenza, malaria and HIV. Not even the Royal Homeopathic Hospital in London agrees with reliance on homeopathic remedies for such conditions, according to a comment by Dr Robert Hagan - a St Andrews University researcher quoted in the BBC article.

I am not particularly convinced that homeopathy works, and so I agree with the assertion that people with HIV, TB and the like should not RELY on homeopathy at the expense of readily available conventional medicine.

Even so, I detect more than the passing hand of the pharmaceutical industry behind this article.

The letter to the WHO by the young doctors concerned reliance on homeopathy at the expense of conventional medicine, but the headline suggests that the WHO has come out completely against the use of homeopathic treatments, full stop. The headline is sensationalist and incorrect in the breadth of its assertion.

Secondly, the article ignores the problem of access to conventional medicine even though it is focused on the developing world where the problem of the prohibitive cost of drugs is well documented. Homeopathy may be little more than a placebo for all I know, but better that in desperate situations where the patient has little hope of being able to get something that actually works.

The primary source for the story is Sense About Science which, a small amount of googling reveals, is a pharmaceutical industry-funded astroturfing unit whose main aim would indeed have been to get a headline suggesting incorrectly that the WHO has come down firmly against treatments competing with pharmaceutical drugs.

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A meeting of participants in the Kimberley Process has begun in Namibia amid doubts that the initiative is stemming trade in conflict diamonds.

To justify their concerns, rights groupsincluding Global Witness point to abuses of the scheme in Zimbabwe, and Venezuela's two-year withdrawal from the process to address compliance problems.

According to AFP, "Under Kimberley, rough diamonds are sealed in tamper-resistant containers and required to have forgery-resistant, conflict-free certificates with unique serial numbers each time they cross an international border."

But in January a mission by Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) found that Venezuela was still exporting diamonds despite the country's suspension from the process, implicating other process member states in the illicit diamond trade.

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It would be the biggest Concentrating Solar Power on earth, built in the North African desert to supply Europe with power.

And did I mention hugely expensive? (at least $400 billion)

Visionary? Euro-imperialism? A costly alternative to rooftop solar panels across Europe? You decide.

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Faced with energy shortages, the climate might be right for budding wind energy entrepreneurs.

Feed-in tariffs and a sense of urgency among energy-intensive businesses and the World Cup organisers could produce the momentum needed to get renewable energy off the ground in South Africa.

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In Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia and South Africa, hard earned victories in anti-corruption efforts are running aground.

In APEsphere we have been following closely the Nigerian's government's half-hearted attempts to track down the recipients of bribes paid by Halliburton subsidiary KBR in aid of winning a contract to build a major liquified natural gas facility.

The lack of commitment, however, is evident elsewhere in other crucial states on the continent. This analysis from the New York Times provides details.

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Fifteen years after the execution of Nigerian human rights campaigners including Ken Saro-Wiwa, the families have settled with Shell Oil for $19.5 million.

The families of those killed maintain that Shell was complicit in the punishment metered out to the campaigners by the government. They brought their legal action under the Alient Tort Claims Act.

In agreeing to the settlement Shell admits no wrongdoing, instead maintaining that the settlement is being made to aid the "process of reconciliation".

According to the Financial Times report. $5 million of the award will go into a trust fund to aid the people of the Ogoniland region of the Niger Delta, an area that has suffered the full brunt of Nigeria's "resource curse".

The plaintiff's lawyers commented that this settlement represented another building block in establishing the liability of multinational corporations for human rights abuses committed abroad.

While a settlement does little to establish a principle, perhaps the ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York last week will at least make one step in the process easier next time: it held that Shell's Nigerian subsidiary - Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria - has sufficient US connections to be tried in a US court.

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The pre-trial court hearing  has been delayed for the case brought in New York against Shell for alleged complicity in Nigerian human rights abuses.

Separately, however, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York permitted the plaintiff's appeal against a lower court decision to dismiss the suit against Shell's Nigerian subsidiary. This permits the plaintiffs to build a case against Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, which will also need to show that New York can have jurisdiction.

The case is being brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act.

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Nigeria's Business Day runs through the repercussions for Halliburton and other multinationals of ongoing legal actions over bribery schemes.

The investigation, which combines separate investigations in the US, France, UK and Nigeria, sets a precedent which, Business Day argues, should disincentivize foreign companies from such high level corruption in the future.

The report analyzes the potential implications of the investigation for former US vice president Dick Cheney, Royal Dutch Shell, and France's Technip.

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Huggies has a new ad campaign that features a toddler girl in an undeniably "provocative" pose with the caption "Work It Baby."  Columnist Lauren Beukes finds it "Disturbingly Sexual."  So do I.  The sexualization of women in advertising knows no bounds, it would appear.  Age, or rather youth, is no barrier, it seems.  (Via Packaging Girlhood)

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The trial of Royal Dutch Shell for its role in the death of Nigerain author and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa is set to begin Wednesday in New York.  The company is also accused of maintaining armed forces to perpetrate human rights abuses in the Niger delta. 

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