Australia's childhood obesity epidemic has been exaggerated and is only increasing in lower-income families. New research has called into question whether the millions of dollars being allocated for prevention programs should be better targeted, a News Ltd newspaper reports. The research questions whether money should be targeted at the highest-risk groups, rather than focused on the general population. The findings are based on measurements taken from thousands of Australian children in 2000 and 2006 in two nationally representative samples.

China's ministry of health has issued a high alert over a deadly virus causing hand-foot-mouth disease among children. By the second week of May, the outbreak had claimed 26 lives and infected

at the fag end of the monsoon session of Parliament last year, 28 parliamentarians and politicians, including veterans like Motilal Vohra and Natwar Singh, sent a letter urging human resources

Regulation on lobbying a dream According to Jayoti Lahiri, secretary general, Public Relations Consultants Association of India, "There is very little literature on the functioning of public

Lobbyists crawl around legislators An Action Aid report on lobbying, released on January 25, 2006, highlights privileges enjoyed by corporate lobbyists in framing global trade rules under the