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Zambia offers examples of the problems faced by most countries in Africa. The country was comparatively wealthy in the 1960s but the collapse of copper prices and drought have reduced it to being one of the world's poorest nations. Zambians faced starvation in the 1992 drought but an efficient aid programme prevented tragedy. Oxfam has both short and long-term aid programmes in many parts of the world. Health and social services are limited in Zambia and the country faces a huge Aids problem; an estimated 30% of Zambians may die from the disease by year 2000.

Efforts are being made to make the car more environmentally friendly. In many countries laws are being introduced to control pollution from cars. Recycling methods are being developed to deal with scrap cars. Research continues into environmentally-friendly cars running on batteries or other alternative fuels and design students are interested in innovative 'green' designs for vehicles. Drivers are being encouraged to drive economically. It is important to develop alternative transport to cars because many people have no access to cars and traffic lowers the quality of the environment for many.

The Earth Summit is under way in Rio. The conference is viewed mainly as a talking shop, with some vital environmental issues such as Third World debt and trade, population increase and survival indigenous peoples missing from the agenda. There are hopes that the Climate Change and Biodiversity Conventions will lead to action. The Earth Summit is also a reminder of conservation issues in Britain.

The environmental policies of George W Bush are examined in detail, with forecasts for new policies.

A new role model, the portfolio parent, is starting to emerge as dual-career couples reject office-based jobs with long working hours in favour of more flexible, often part-time, employment. Gillian Moore and Bruce Nockles are part of this small, largely middle-class minority. Moore is mainly home-based, working two days a week for two different employers, while Nockles' flexible hours as a professional trumpet player allow him to be a hands-on father. BT middle-manager Colin White has chosen to work three days a week to have time to spend with his three young children.

Leading water scientist Dr Peter Gleick warns that water shortages will almost certainly get worse before they get better. He points out that more than 1 billion people worldwide already lack drinkable water and that the availability of supplies is declining while demand is growing. Gleick nevertheless remains optimistic, pointing to the way in which many water suppliers and planning agencies are shifting towards efficiency improvements, conservation and demand management. He sees small-scale, locally managed water supply systems as the way forward.

Labour Member of Parliament Clare Short has many enemies within the Labour Party as well as within the Conservatives, with some believing she will never be included in a potential Labour Government because of her disliked outspokenness. She has been criticised for claiming she would not object to paying higher taxes, even though her personal views were portrayed in the media as official Labour Party policy. She is annoyed that her serious political contributions are being overlooked.

The Labour Party believes Civil Servants could be trying to discredit Sir Richard Scott's report into the Government's tacit approval for the sale of arms to Iraq. Leading Conservative politicians feel they will be quickly able to dismiss any adverse findings in the report, with Scott angered that the report is being undermined prior to its publication by open criticism of his handling of the inquiry. Ministers named in the report received an early draft for their perusal and have apparently leaked the contents despite requests to treat the draft as confidential.

Nigeria has recently been suspended from the Commonwealth following the executions of playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists. There are now calls for a complete arms embargo against Nigeria, and oil exports could gradually be halted. Despite this background, Shell is set to sign a $4 billion deal with Nigeria for a very large new natural gas plant. This company already extracts around half of Nigeria's oil production, and its activities in Nigeria account for around 14% of its worldwide production of crude oil.

Many customers of the newly-privatised water companies are highly critical of the introduction of hosepipe bans due to the water shortages resulting from the excessively hot summer in 1995. Many are particularly angered that water pipe leakages remain unrepaired, with the water companies accused of failing to invest in maintenance in order to use profits to pay shareholder dividends and excessive director salaries. Some water companies have leakage rates as high as 30%. The water companies accuse their customers of failing to adequately economise.

The rate of childhood asthma has increased two-fold over the past two decades, with parents and experts citing poor air quality as a major cause. Asthma is increasingly remaining with child sufferers into adulthood also, where previously 66% would grow out of it. Airborne pollution, incorporating gases such as sulphur dioxode and nitrous oxide, is believed to be a primary cause, although cigarette smoke, dust and animals are also known to be causes. The National Health Service spent 450 million pounds sterling on asthma treatment in 1994.

The costs to the United Kingdom of road use, noise, accidents, pollution and traffic congestion stand at 30 billion pounds sterling or more each year. The public must change its travelling habits as traffic levels are officially expected to double by the year 2025. A transport revolution is required. Ways of achieving this include establishing a public transport agency, improving roads via tax funds, establishing transport exchanges, improving freight traffic, assisting non-drivers and improving rural isolation. Measures to improve traffic are examined.

Western and East European government leaders, environmentalists and the nuclear power industry worldwide agree that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant must be shut down, but no-one is willing to offer the compensation demanded by the Ukraine. Russians still working at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant claim the plant is needed to keep them in employment. Western experts report that a second nuclear accident is virtually imminent at the plant and Western leaders are voicing widespread concern, but the Chernobyl management insist the plant has been made safe.

Privatisation will increase the cost of running Britain's railways and lead to higher fares and line closures. A report by independent consulants Steer Davies Gleave found that costs will rise 15-28% when British Rail is taken over by private operators. This is because savings in operating costs would be outweighed by increases in safety and other administrative costs. There could be fare increases of up to 37% on Network SouthEast and rural railway lines would be closed unless the government was prepared to increase its subsidy to railways.

A large bomb, planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), has exploded in the City of London, England. One person died and 44 were injured by the explosion. The bomb was planted in a lorry left in the heart of London's financial district and severely damaged buildings. St Ethelburga's Church was destroyed and the NatWest Tower and Hongkong Bank buildings suffered serious damage. It is estimated that repair costs could over one billion pounds sterling. Some buildings were still undergoing repairs for damage from an IRA bomb blast in 1992.

Air pollution may be affecting the health of people in Britain. The Department of the Environment says air quality has fallen by 35% since 1987 due to vehicle emissions. In some areas, European Community safety levels are being breached for nitrogen oxide or World Health Organisation guidelines exceeded on ozone levels. Doctors believe air pollution is responsible for rises in asthma and hay fever but there is no British research on the health effects of air pollution. Britain has 20 million vehicles with an increase to 35 million forecast for 2025. Government action is needed to curb car use.

More than 50 rivers in the south of England are drying up due to lack of rainfall and an increasing demand for water. In the past four years the East and South of England have had reduced rainfall but increasing population has led to a rise of 70% in the use of water over the last 30 years. The National Rivers Authority want water metering to reduce demand, action to reduce leakages and control of development in areas of water shortage. The water companies prefer to meet demand by building new reservoirs.

Labour peer Barbara Young, chair of nature conservation watchdog English Nature, laid down seven challenges to the Government, industry, the green lobby and the public in late Jul. 1999. Young called for new legislation to strengthen wildlife protection to be introduced in the Queen's Speech in Nov. 1999. She declared that legislation to protect England's 200 nature reserves and 4,000 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) from a small number of landowning 'bastards' was urgently needed. English Nature operates as the guardian of the SSSIs but has very limited powers.

Founder-director of environmental charity the Women's Environmental Network (WEN) Bernadette Valley acknowledges a slight fall in environmental consciousness but rejects suggestions that women have lost interest in environmental issues. WEN is struggling financially but Valley argues that the charity will always find it difficult to attract long-term funders because it addresses taboo subjects such as toxic shock syndrome and possible links between chemical pollution and breast cancer. WEN needs committed core funders to put it on secure financial footing.

Businesses are joining environmental activists in concern for the environment. Companies are producing environmental audits, which include information on emissions which may harm the environment, and requesting assistance from environmental groups and specialist consultants to improve their products and production methods.

Some leading conservation groups are reducing their involvement with the Government's New Deal programme for the young unemployed because the criteria for the proposed environmental task force are so vague that young people could actually damage the environment. Environmental and voluntary groups are also reluctant to take on trainees because of the considerable cost involved. They fear that managing New Deal work programmes could put them at risk of bankruptcy. The contracts for the task force and voluntary sector programmes should have been awarded by Jan. 5, 1998, but only about half have been agreed.

The rich nations' think-tank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), has admitted that the world's natural resources may be unable to withstand the strain of economic globalisation. The OECD has sent booklets on green taxes, consumption patterns and the ecological effects of globalisation to the trade and industry, finance and environment ministers of its 29 member governments. However the greening of the OECD's thinking under its new Director-General Donald Johnston has not stopped its trade and industry section from pursuing environmentally damaging policies.

Fathers have participated fully in raising their children since the sixteenth century or earlier, although details of men's family lives have not always been historically recorded. Victorian fathers are generally perceived as authoritarian, although elderly men raised in the 1890s reveal details of fathers who also carried out household chores. Fathers are often unfairly represented in the media, even though 85% of women and men in Europe feel fathers should be active in raising their young children.

The impartiality of the United Kingdom civil service is becoming increasingly compromised, with Conservative Members of Parliament often requiring civil servants to breach regulations and act politically. Many officials believe the culture of the civil service has become fundamentally Conservative. Ninety two percent of 1,911 civil servants surveyed claimed morale is low, with many complaining of job insecurity and falling standards of service.

The reputation of the British beef industry may have been irreparably destroyed on a worldwide scale by concerns about the health risks to humans from meat infected with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). Farmers face financial ruin and meat industry workers are increasingly losing their jobs. However, some scientists claim the unusual occurence of Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease in young people could be due to past misdiagnoses of the disease rather than a sudden phenomenon. Scientists are also unable to explain how cats can contract BSE while dogs cannot, and some believe humans may also escape infection.

British Prime Minister John Major is seeking to maintain the support of those Members of Parliament opposed to further European integration while simultaneously portraying himself in Europe as willing to negotiate. Britain is opposed to most of the plans already agreed among the other 14 member states of the European Union attending the Intergovernmental Conference. Some civil servants claim it has become extremely difficult to maintain the dual stance.

Several British Government Ministers sought to prevent the public from knowing about the discovery of a possible link between the human disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) and the consumption of meat infected with bovine spongiform encephalothapy (BSE). The Ministers disputed scientific evidence presented by the BSE advisory committee and Agriculture Minister Douglas Hogg contines to claim beef consumption is safe. Ten people have died from a new strain of CJD which is believed to have developed from BSE-infected beef.

The civil servants who worked as part of Sir Richard Scott's team investigating the practices of Whitehall departments have returned to their former jobs within Whitehall following the publication of the inquiry's findings. The Establishment has generally welcomed the team members back, with some civil servants claiming the work of the inquiry team should be given higher regard. Some civil servants expect the recommendations of the Scott Report to be totally disregarded.

The Conservative Government claimed to be exhonerated of any wrongdoing by Sir Richard Scott's report examining the export of defence goods to Iraq, even though the report provided evidence of Ministers repeatedly misleading Parliament and suggested their actions were undemocratic. The Government insisted some members of the opposition Labour Members of Parliament should now resign for incorrectly claiming the Conservatives were politically corrupt. The Government's response to the report is analysed.

It has recently come to light that international oil concern Shell was negotiating until 1995 to purchase large volumes of weapons for the Nigerian police. This was at a time when Nigeria was attracting extensive international criticism for its suppression of the Ogoni minority people. The Ogoni people of the Niger Delta, where there are extensive oil reserves, fear that Shell is linking with Nigerian security agencies.

The report produced by the three-year inquiry into the arms to Iraq affair, which is to be published shortly, has not been written under any political pressure, according to Sir Richard Scott, the chairman of the inquiry. He rejects claims that the report will be discredited because he has gone beyond his remit by investigating government procedures as a whole. Despite this, it is widely believed that the report will criticise the extreme secretiveness which characterises policy and diplomacy in the UK.