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Washingtonpost.com:

JAKARTA, Feb. 18 -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that economic sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western governments had failed to pressure the repressive Burmese government, signaling a potentially major shift in U.S. policy.

Read the whole story: Washingtonpost.com

Global Health Council Members, Development Community Weigh In
On Foreign Assistance Reform
http://www.globalhealth.org/view_top.php3?id=638

David Carey, Bradley Herring and Patrick Lenain
ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT WORKING PAPER No. 665
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD - February 2009

Available online [44p.] at: http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2009doc.nsf/ENGDATCORPLOOK/NT00000B6A/$FILE/JT03259332.PDF

Whilst some of the Victorian wildfires continue to run, some devestated communities have already started the rebuilding process. An interesting article was posted yesterday about the difficulties associated with distribution of aid funds to start the healing and rebuilding process.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,,25066007-1243,00.html

The article highlights a set of needs that could, perhaps, be better addressed through the community empowerment that the resilience networks approach brings.

http://www.westsideconnect.com/content/view/1960/166/

Written by JULIE ROSE
Monday, February 16, 2009

Re-evaluation of National Security Ordered

Chris Usher/European Pressphoto Agency
Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, shown at her confirmation hearing on Jan. 15, was unhappy about the national security exercise in 2007. Its expense was one complaint.

By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: February 16, 2009
WASHINGTON — The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, is re-evaluating the largest federal program for testing the country’s ability to respond to terrorist attacks, one of several Bush administration initiatives she has ordered to come under review.

By Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles
Published: February 16 2009 23:50 | Last updated: February 16 2009 23:50
Bill Clinton has waded into the debate about the allocation of funds from the troubled asset relief programme, saying banks should be directed to loan money to businesses embarking on environmentally sustainable projects.

Speaking at the opening of a Burbank, California, aircraft hangar designed to meet strict sustainable building standards, the former US president said such a move would create more jobs and speed the transition to a green economy.

For more information:

By Mure Dickie in Tokyo
Published: February 16 2009 01:17 | Last updated: February 16 2009 18:42
Japan’s government faced pressure for another stimulus package on Monday after plunging exports pushed the country, the world’s second largest economy, into its worst slump in 35 years.

Economists see little prospect for a quick rebound after a quarter-on-quarter fall of 3.3 per cent in gross domestic product in the last three months of 2008.

Strengthening Disaster Prevention and Resilience: Developing Media and NGO Capacity to Increase Awareness among Communities in the Indian States of West Bengal and Orissa – India

Politics is nothing but medicine at a larger scale:
reflections on public health’s biggest idea

Prof. Johan P. Mackenbach, Department of Public Health
Erasmus MC - University Medical Center Rotterdam - The Netherlands
J Epidemiol Community Health 2009;63:181–184. doi:10.1136/jech.2008.077032

Abstract Website: http://jech.bmj.com/current.dtl

".......This essay retraces the historical origins and contemporary resonances of Rudolf Virchow's famous statement
"Medicine is a social science, and politics nothing but medicine at a larger scale".

By MARK LANDLER
Published: February 13, 2009
Signaling a new, more vigorous approach to China, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared Friday that the United States had nothing to fear from an economically ascendant Beijing and that it would press Chinese leaders on delicate issues like human rights and climate change.

Australian Senate passes A$42bn stimulus plan
By Kevin Brown in Hong Kong
Published: February 12 2009 07:41 | Last updated: February 13 2009 02:43
Australia’s Senate on Friday passed a A$42bn ($27.4bn) economic stimulus package it had blocked the day before after frantic overnight negotiations won a vital extra vote allowing the government to over-ride opposition from conservative parties.

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Published: February 13 2009 01:08 | Last updated: February 13 2009 01:08
The top US intelligence official on Thursday warned that the global economic crisis posed the greatest near-term threat to US national security as the risk of “regime-threatening instability” grows around the world.

Retired Admiral Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, said the risk of greater instability globally would grow as the economic and financial crisis continued.

For more information:

RAND Health, a division of the RAND Corporation, is conducting COMPARE

Website: http://www.randcompare.org/

COMPARE is an evidence-based approach to providing information and tools to help policymakers, the media, and other interested parties
understand, design, and evaluate health policies.

COMPARE has four objectives:

National Accounts of Well-being:
bringing real wealth onto the balance sheet

nef - The New Economics Foundation, 2009

Available online PDF [72p.] at: http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/uploads/iglzyk45xj2jksb01c14fvq424012009010050.pdf