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.

China’s Shanghai TV University is rewarded for its project Turning the Digital Divide into Digital Opportunity: The Project for Building the Digital Lifelong Learning System in Shanghai. The project reaches 230 community learning centres in the Shanghai area and addresses the needs for digital literacy of students, lifelong learners, working adults, senior residents and members of the general public from diversified backgrounds. 

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.
More than 700 film industry luminaries from the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States attended the second annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards. The Awards were determined by an International Jury headed by Academy Award nominated Australian Director Bruce Beresford. 

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.

GOMA/GENEVA -- The World Health Organization (WHO) and health partners have launched an intensive operation to prevent and control the increase in the number of cholera cases, which have tripled in some areas to 150 a week, amid the recent escalation of violence in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Insecurity, massive population displacement (at least 250 000 people since early August), weak health services and a lack of safe water and proper sanitation facilities have caused a marked increase in the number of people with cholera in North and South Kivu.

13 November 2008 - GOMA/GENEVA -- The World Health Organization (WHO) and health partners have launched an intensive operation to prevent and control the increase in the number of cholera cases, which have tripled in some areas to 150 a week, amid the recent escalation of violence in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Insecurity, massive population displacement (at least 250 000 people since early August), weak health services and a lack of safe water and proper sanitation facilities have caused a marked increase in the number of people with cholera in North and South Kivu.

31 October, 2008 ¦ GOMA/GENEVA -- The World Health Organization and Italy will be sending 10 tonnes of medical supplies to help the tens of thousands of people affected by the ongoing insecurity in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Intensive efforts are needed to prevent the spread of communicable diseases among the fleeing population and to treat the physical trauma caused by the violence. 
The World Health Organization is coordinating the health response to the emergency, and today convened an urgent meeting of partners including UN agencies, international and national nongovernmental organization and government health providers. The meeting was held to identify the urgent health needs confronting those in the affected areas. 

Conferenza sul tema:
LA CRISI DELLE TEORIE ECONOMICHE E IL POSSIBILE
CONTRIBUTO DELLA FISICA DEI SISTEMI COMPLESSI

Mauro Gallegati* e Luciano Pietronero**
*Dipartimento di Economia, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona
**Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma La Sapienza e Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi, CNR  Roma

Mercoledi 29 alle 15:00 nell'aula Amaldi del Dipartimento di Fisica di Roma la Sapienza (P.le A. Moro)
La conferenza sarà seguita da un dibattito.

La genetica è una scienza importante e molto affascinante, ma la musica non lo è da meno. Se poi le due cose si combinano che ne viene fuori qualcosa che va oltre l’immaginabile, anche se oggi è diventato una realtà.
Infatti il mondo moderno può accostare ciò che appartiene alla ricerca scientifica all’arte dei suoni rendendo le due dottrine più che mai vicine, quasi l’una il completamento dell’altra. La genetica ci ha reso edotti sulla meraviglia del nostro DNA, sulle sue forme, le diversità, le anomalie, le peculiarità, le componenti e le variabili che esso può presentare, con in più una “similarità musicale” davvero sorprendente.
La scoperta è opera del ricercatore giapponese operante in California Susumu Ohno, il quale, partendo dall’osservazione della forma perfettamente armonica della catena del DNA, è riuscito a tradurla in musica attraverso una metodica invero originale ed affascinante.

Sviluppatasi tra il 5.000 e il 3.000 a. C. in quelle terre dove oggi si trovano Romania, Ucraina e Repubblica di Moldava, la grande civiltà di Cucuteni – Trypillya prende il nome dai due villaggi di Cucuteni, in Romania, e Trypillya, in Ucraina, dove, alla fine del XIX secolo, sono stati rinvenute le prime suppellettili ad essa riconducibili.

Il 13 ottobre è stata rilasciata ufficialmente la versione 3 della suite open source per ufficio Openoffice.org che si propone come una sempre più valida alternativa gratuita in ogni ambito, dalla casa all'ufficio, dai professionisti alla pubblica amministrazione, alla più conosciuta Microsoft Office.
Sviluppata da un gruppo di volontari internazionali sotto la supervisione della SUN Microsystem
OpenOffice.org 3.0 è composto di 6 moduli che con le loro funzionalità sono adatti a sostituire le rispettive applicazioni Microsoft Office: