Ned Hamson

Alaskan public health officials recently announced they are seeing an increase in suspected and confirmed cases of tuberculosis among those living in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region in the western portion of the state. - Ned Hamson

Approximately 150 University of South Florida students, faculty, staff and community members are to be tested for tuberculosis after a possible case of the infection was identified. - Ned Hamson

Catholic archbishop asked the Department of Health in the Philippines to refrain from handing out condoms to couples on Valentine's Day like it did last year. "The Church is against the distribution of condoms ... because we know how the use of contraceptives affects the morality of our people and our society in general," Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said Friday. "Head in sand?" - Ned Hamson

A French court has found US biotech giant Monsanto guilty of the chemical poisoning of a French farmer, in a case that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides. The farmer, Paul Francois, said he suffered neurological problems including memory loss, headaches and stammering after inhaling Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller in 2004. He said the company was at fault for not providing adequate warnings on the product label. The court in Lyon ordered an expert opinion of Francois’ losses to establish the amount of damages to be awarded. - Ned Hamson

Fair Labor Association begins independent inspections of tech giant's suppliers after criticism over alleged abuses of workers Charles Arthur, technology editorApple has reacted togrowing criticism over alleged abuses of workers at its suppliers by asking an independent group, the Fair Labor Association (FLA), to conduct audits of several of its factories in China. The inspections will include Foxconn, which employs about 1m people, with plants in Shenzhen and Chengdu in China, and where there has been focus on the number of employee suicides and claims of overwork. The first inspections began on Monday morning at "Foxconn City", the Shenzhen facility, with a visit by a team of experts led by the FLA president, Auret van Heerden. The FLA will speak to thousands of staff about working and living conditions, payments, health and safety and management style. The inspections will cover manufacturing areas, dormitories and other facilities. - Ned Hamson

Day labourer Leela Devi, 43, is a member of Manoj’s Bihari Thakur Kisan Club. “Yeh khad nuksaan nai karta hai (This manure does not harm),“ she said with a smile on her face. “It’ll produce nearly six quintals of organic manure and fetch R 3000.“ It funds her children’s education. Leela’s son is now a graduate. Her daughter is about to complete B.A. Kumar’s initiative has clearly begun to energise the local economy. As one winds one’s way through his village, hundreds of green makeshift vessels assembled out of synthetic sheets come into view. There is one almost outside every house. Each of those containers, filled to the brim with cow-dung, rotting banana trunks and earthworms, is sealed tight at the mouth. Three months later, they yield six quintals of organic manure worth R 3,000. More than 150 women and 300 men of the village are producing this in their bid for self-reliance, and so that their children have a chance at education. Before 2006, the 3,000-strong village had only fiv - Ned Hamson