Governments around the world are leaving hundreds of millions of cancer patients to suffer needlessly because of their failure to ensure adequate access to pain-relieving drugs, a new international survey reveals. The new data, released during the recent European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2012 in Vienna, paints a shocking picture of unnecessary pain on a global scale, said Prof Nathan Cherny, lead author of the report from Shaare Zedek Medical Centre in Israel, and chair of the ESMO Palliative Care Working Group.

Africa is a major target for tobacco industry sales and marketing, warned the American Cancer Society (ACS) and World Lung Foundation at the launch of French version of latest Tobacco Atlas. in Dakar Senegal recently. Tobacco industry activity is booming across the African continent, according to ACS. Between 1990 and 2009, cigarette consumption in the Middle East and Africa increased by 57 per cent. According to the The Tobacco Atlas – Fourth Edition, four African countries – Mozambique, Zambia, Mali and Ghana – are among the top five countries with the greatest increase in tobacco production in the last decade.

World food prices rose in September and are seen remaining close to levels reached during the 2008 food crisis, the United Nations' food agency said, while cutting its forecast for global cereal output. The worst drought in more than 50 years in the United States sent corn and soybean prices to record highs over the summer, and, coupled with drought in Russia and other Black Sea exporting countries, raised fears of a renewed crisis.

Tanzania is by next year set to reach the goal of allocating 10 per cent of its annual budget for agricultural sector in line with the AU Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security on the continent. Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Eng Christopher Chiza announced the government commitment when addressing journalists during the ongoing African Green Revolution Forum 2012.

Residents of Zimbabwe’s cities say that outdated, overflowing sewer systems dirty the streets, contaminate the water supply and threaten their health. City council officials say the government is aware of the problem but can’t afford to overhaul the infrastructure, reports Global Press Institute.

The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance between October 2012 and March 2013 in Malawi has jumped from 1.63 million to 1.76 million, but response plans remain inadequate and maybe exhausted be by November to December 2012. The new figure is contained in a report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet), which provides an update on the food security conditions in Malawi from August 2012 through March 2013.

The euphoria that greeted the government’s imposition of minimum wage increases has quickly soured, with prices of food and other essential commodities escalating as higher wage costs are passed onto consumers. In July 2012, President Michael Sata’s government upped the minimum monthly salary in line with the 2011 election promise of “more money in the pocket” for poorly paid workers. Wages for domestic workers increased from US$30 to about $105, while general workers such as office orderlies, shop assistants, sweepers and farmworkers saw their monthly earnings more than quadruple from $50 to $220. In the past month, the cost of 25kg bag of the staple ground maize meal has increased by $1 to $8.50, while other farm produce prices have also risen.

Family planning advocates in Uganda have scored some major financial and policy wins this year, but experts remain concerned that inadequate political commitment and poor health services will continue to impede women’s and girls’ access to contraceptives. At a global family planning summit in July, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni announced that his government would increase its annual expenditure on family planning supplies from US$3.3million to $5million for the next five years. He also pledged to mobilize an additional $5 million from the country's donors.

An outbreak of Ebola fever in the Democratic Republic of Congo may have killed up to 36 people, out of 81 suspected cases, according to a new death toll released by the health ministry. The ministry said that 20 confirmed cases have been recorded, as well as 32 likely and 29 suspected as of 29 September.

One year after independence, many in South Sudan still do not have access to adequate healthcare. Among those desperate for treatment are victims of serious accidents or diseases. In South Sudan many are kept waiting for complicated and expensive procedures. There are few skilled surgeons in South Sudan and people with little money have scant hope of treatment.

Friends of the Earth International warns against damaging industrial farming promoted by the Gates Foundation at the Agricultural Green Revolution Forum 2012, Arusha, Tanzania on 26-28 September.

Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria and Friends of the Earth International has warned against damaging industrial farming promoted by the Gates Foundation at the Agricultural Green Revolution Forum 2012, Arusha, Tanzania on 26-28 September. 'Donors controlling the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) are representing the interests of biotechnology corporations rather than African small farmers,' warns Friends of the Earth International on the eve of the annual AGRA Forum in Tanzania.

African leaders should take note of the lessons learned from the Arab Spring and realise that ensuring good governance and food security will avoid crises on the continent, says Kofi Annan, chairman of the Africa Green Revolution Alliance. The former United Nations Secretary General said that food shortage was one of the triggers of the protests in North African and Middle-Eastern countries that lead to the ousting of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011 and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak in February that same year.

Morocco has blazed a reputation as a can-do country when it comes to improving its maternal health statistics. But a birth attendant in the remote Atlas Mountains shows the steeper climb that lies ahead for the country as it tries to reach rural women who live far from any health clinic, reports

An international AIDS vaccine conference held in Boston, in America, discussed the importance of community participation in the search for a preventative AIDS vaccine. Jim Maynard of the HIV Trials Network says the development of a vaccine will succeed or fail depending on the buy-in of community members in every society. 'I don’t think the vaccine work can progress at all without the community. It’s asking a huge sacrifice from any community, saying: "We’d like to work with your people and try something that we hope will save millions of lives, but we don’t know because it is experimental’". And, if you’re going to ask something that big of them, the community can then say: "How will this help our community? If you do succeed in this vaccine, will we get access to this vaccine?"'

This drought-prone country of 16 million is so short on food that it is ranked dead last by international aid organization Save the Children in the percentage of children receiving a 'minimum acceptable diet'. The consequences are dire. A total of 51 per cent of children in Niger are stunted, according to a report published in July by Save the Children. The average height of a 2 1/2-year-old girl born here is around 3 inches (8 centimeters) shorter than what it should be for a child that age.

It is a long-standing tradition in many African countries to frown upon the selling of land. When land is snapped up by large agribusiness interests in these countries, it is experienced as a brutal violation of this tradition, one that compromises the lives and livelihoods of entire generations to come. This phenomenon of large-scale land appropriation really took off with the food crisis of 2008. As the many cases of land grabbing identified in West and Central Africa have demonstrated, profit seems to be the only motive pursued. The whole model is inimical to - really a frontal attack on - the goals of food sovereignty, which is fundamentally about human survival, especially in African countries that are still largely rural. Read the rest of this GRAIN article by clicking on the link provided.

The French government has ordered an investigation into genetically-modified corn after a study found it was linked to cancer. France's government asked a health watchdog to carry out a probe, possibly leading to EU suspension of a genetically-modified corn, after a study in rats linked the grain to cancer.

Striking doctors have accused the government of failing to seek an end to their salary demands, saying it had not responded to their proposal on a return-to-work deal. The chairman of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacist and Dentists Union Dr Victor Ng’ani said their mediator, the Kenya Medical Association had sent the recommendations on Friday, but the government did not respond. In the document, the striking doctor’s recommended the forming of a sub-committee to convert a task force report on improvement of health infrastructure, into a policy paper and the absorption of self-sponsored registrars into government.

A suspected cholera outbreak has killed about a dozen people in the southern Somali village of Hoosingo, in the district of Badade in Lower Juba, say government and health officials. 'One of the biggest problems we have is that we do not what this disease is,' Adan Ibrahim Dhaqane, the Hoosingo Village commissioner, told IRIN by telephone. Dhaqane said that at least 19 people had died since the outbreak started on 5 September, with 12 others sick.