Scienceonline

The Third European Media Forum for Young Journalists Working for Electronic Media ‘Dialogue of Cultures’ took place from 11 to 12 November 2008 at the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia.

The UNESCO Office in Apia, together with the Disaster Management Office (DMO) of the Government of Samoa, organized a Samoa Media Disaster Management Capacity Building Workshop in Apia, from 30 to 31 October 2008.

Specialised training for audiovisual media professionals will take place at the Journalism School of Casablanca, Morocco, from 24 to 28 November 2008. It is one in the series of training sessions organized by UNESCO’s Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) for media professionals belonging to the Moroccan Association of Independent Radios and Televisions (ARTI).

The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, has named the laureates of the 2008 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Education. They were selected on the recommendation of an international jury whose meeting this year was held in Bahrain for the first time.

Winners in the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), conducted under the patronage of UNESCO, were announced at a special ceremony held on 11 November on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The UNESCO Award for outstanding contribution to the promotion of cultural diversity went to the Iranian documentary feature film Tinar.

Geneva - Outbreaks of food contamination occur regularly across the world, and illness and death from diseases caused by unsafe food are a constant threat to populations everywhere. However, the full picture of the impact and costs of foodborne diseases - in industrialized as well as developing countries - is to date unknown. Many foodborne disease outbreaks go unrecognized, unreported or uninvestigated and may only be visible if connected to major public health or economic impact.

Padua Working Group on Female Genital Mutilations .University of Padua

Genital Stretching (GS) is an expansive genital modification improperly classified by WHO inside the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) forms (4th type)1. Ritual GS2 is a traditional practice of the Central-Eastern and Southern African populations settled on the migration ways of the ancient Khoisanid populations3, who possessed labia minora elongation as an hereditary trait.

UNESCO and the Education Minister of Iraq yesterday launched the Iraqi Educational TV Channel, IRAQI EDU. The channel is a response to the difficult security conditions in the country that keep many children away from school, and will provide support to students through distance learning.

A symposium on Freedom of Expression: Development, Democracy and Dialogue will be held at UNESCO Headquarters on 29 October as part of celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights whose 19th article enshrines freedom of expression as a fundamental, inalienable human right.

A specialised training course for the Maghreb media on the climate change will take place from 13 to 17 October 2008 in Rabat, Morocco. This session is being organized by UNESCO, ISESCO, the French Embassy in Morocco and the Moroccan Ministry of Energy, Mines, Water and Environment in the framework of the Arab Environment Day celebrated every year on 14 October.