Sri Lanka and the Central African Republic, where thousands of people have fled fighting between government forces and rebels, were never mentioned on the US network broadcasts.

While US headlines in 2007 were dominated by celebrity gossip, 2008 US presidential election and Iraq, humanitarian stories went largely unreported, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres.
The aid organization, also known as Doctors Without Borders, identified violence, forced displacement and disease in the Central African Republic, Somalia and Sri Lanka among the top 10 underreported stories of 2007, reported AFP.
The list, also highlighted what it described as the forgotten crises in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Myanmar, Zimbabwe and Chechnya.
“Certainly, many members of the press go to great lengths to report on what is taking place in conflict zones around the world,“ said Nicolas de Torrente, the aid organization’s executive director in the United States.
“But millions of people trapped in war, forced from their homes and lacking the most basic medical care do not receive attention commensurate with their plight,“ he said in the report.
The group began producing its top 10 list in 1998 in response to the poor US media coverage of a devastating famine in southern Sudan.
In its 10th list, it said the ongoing toll of tuberculosis and childhood malnutrition continued to be largely ignored by the media.
The organization said eight of the countries and issues highlighted on its list accounted for just 18 minutes of coverage on the top three US television networks’ nightly newscasts from January until November.
The figure did not include coverage of Myanmar or tuberculosis, both of which generated significant media attention, but very little of which focused on the medical humanitarian aspects, the group said.
It said Chechnya, Sri Lanka and the Central African Republic, where thousands of people have fled fighting between government forces and rebels, were never mentioned on the US network broadcasts.
The group suggested that media coverage had changed little over the years, with civil conflict and internal displacement in both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia appearing on nine of the last 10 lists.
The humanitarian costs of war in Chechnya had appeared eight times, while Somalia was listed seven times, most recently due to fighting that killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

An Australian government plan to filter the Internet drew criticism from privacy advocates who said it represented the start of state censorship.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, a member of the Labor team which ousted conservative prime minister John Howard in a November election, wants filters in place to shield children from online porn and violence.
Under the plan, Internet service providers would provide feeds filtered free of pornography and other inappropriate material to houses and schools, AFP reported.
Conroy has rejected criticism that the move will debase the freedom of the world wide web and represents a step towards the kind of Internet censorship in place in China where sites are regularly blocked and cyber dissidents arrested.
“Labor makes no apologies to those that argue that any regulation of the Internet is like going down the Chinese road,“ he told national radio.
“If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd Labor government is going to disagree.“
But chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation Roger Clarke said the plan would not only be ineffective but could have substantial side-effects.
“Many pages will end up getting blocked that shouldn’t be blocked,“ he said. “We don’t need that, we need an open Internet.“
Clarke said it was the role of parents and guardians, not the government, to protect children from inappropriate material.
“It’s not the government’s business to control information flows,“ he said.
Peter Coroneos, spokesman for the Internet Industry Association, said providers were already providing free filters and the industry was unsure whether the plan would work.
“At the moment we don’t know what the extent of it will be, what it will cost, and whether it will set a precedent for other changes.
“We just don’t know if it is feasible,“ he told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.
Conroy said Internet users would be able to access uncensored material by opting out of the service and that the government would work with industry to ensure the filters did not slow down the service.

China Marrow Donor Program (CMDP) has hit a record 700,000, meaning that more than 60 percent of those suffering blood disease can successfully find data that matches their own disease in the initial stages.
CMDP director Hong Junling attributed the rise to Chinese people’s deeper understanding of marrow donation and increasing support from the government in recent years, said Xinhua.
In 2006, the number of marrow donors was 580,000, up from 336,500 in 2005. The program was launched in 2001.
“The CMDP plans to increase the data bank number to about one million by 2010, which means over 80 percent of Chinese patients with blood diseases may have the chance to find a matching bone marrow to save their lives,“ Hong said.
The program, also known as the Data Bank of Chinese Hematopoietic Stem Cell Donors, aimed to help millions of Chinese with blood diseases.
Up to now, more than 800 donors had volunteered to give hematopoietic stem cells to the CMDP for transplant after matching human leucocyte antigens (HLA).
The CMDP was also helping overseas patients, Hong said. The data bank had helped 34 patients abroad to find compatible hematopoietic stem cells. The patients came from countries or regions that included the United States, Britain, Switzerland, Singapore, Afghanistan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

A snow-covered tree in Tehran.

Jordan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs has urged citizens to pray for rain in the desert kingdom, which has been basking in warm weather over the past few weeks.
The ministry also urged Jordanians to “fast three days for Allah“ for rain, the papers said.
Meteorologists expect temperatures to drop slightly in the next few days but there were no immediate indications of rain, said AFP.
Jordan, which mainly depends on rain to meet its water needs, has been plagued by dry spells over the past few years and has embarked on major projects to optimize the use of water.
As one of the 10 most water-impoverished countries in the world, Jordan’s water deficit exceeds 500 million cubic meters (17.5 billion cubic feet) a year, according to the water ministry.

European Commission recently announced plans to promote “media literacy“, the ability of citizens to critically analyze what they find in the media and to make more informed choices.
“In a digital era, media literacy is crucial for achieving full and active citizenship,“ said Viviane Reding, European Union (EU) commissioner for information society and media, Xinhua reported.
“The ability to read and write--or traditional literacy--is no longer sufficient in this day and age. People need a greater awareness of how to express themselves effectively, and how to interpret what others are saying, especially on blogs, via search engines or in advertising,“ she said.
The commission’s plans focus on three areas: media literacy for commercial communication, covering issues related to advertising; media literacy for audiovisual works, which is in part about raising awareness of European film and enhancing creativity skills; media literacy for online contents.
Ordinary people are increasingly accessing and posting on-line content. Yet today, not everybody always fully understands the context within which such material is written, seen or read, or the possible consequences of publishing something themselves, said the commission, the executive body of the EU.
Therefore, everybody needs to develop new skills, as active communicators and creators of content, argued the commission.
The commission also tries to promote the development and exchange of good practice on media literacy in the digital environment.
The plans were put forward following an EU-wide survey on media literacy.

Turkey’s Parliament passed a bill banning smoking in restaurants as part of a series of stringent restrictions on nicotine addicts in a country where 60 percent of males smoke.
The law, which will take effect four months after it is approved by the president, allows for an 18-month transition period for restaurants and cafes to prepare themselves for the ban, said AFP.
Smoking is already banned in Turkey on buses, airplanes and larger public institutions, but enforcement has been uneven. The new law bans smoking in all government buildings, work places and private institutions such as restaurants, cafes, including even village coffee-houses, as well as shopping malls, schools, taxis, stadiums and hospitals.
Citizens who light up despite the ban, would face a fine of 50 Turkish lira.

A recent study said divorces in Brazil increased faster than marriages in 2006.
Divorces grew by 7.7 percent in 2006 over the previous year, while marriages increased 6.5 percent in the same period, said the study, which was released by the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute (IBGE).
In 2006, 889,828 marriages took place in the country against 162,244 divorces. Additionally, the number of legal separations, which may be converted into divorces, reached 101,820 in 2006, up 1.4 percent from the previous year, reported Xinhua.
IBGE said the number of divorces who got married again also increased last year, accounting for 8.7 percent of the marriages in 2006, up from 5.1 percent in 2005.
The average age of men who got married for the first time in 2006 was 28.3 years old, while women’s was 25.4 years old. The average age for divorce was 43.1 years old for men, and 39.8 years old for women.
Babies who were born from teenage mothers represented 20.5 percent of the births in Brazil last year, which remained constant compared with 2005 (20.7 percent). According to IBGE, altogether 2.8 million Brazilian children were born in 2006, down 2.6 percent from 2005.
Brazil’s infant mortality rate, which considers deaths of children aged one year old or younger, fell to 21.8 percent. In 1990, the rate reached 48.7 percent. However, infant mortality still reached 30.3 percent in the northeast of the country in 2006.
Violence was another issue approached by the study. Men aged 15 to 29 were the main victims of violent deaths (41 percent), caused mainly by traffic accidents and manslaughter.