Contents:

Abandoned girl to return to China

Many stay 'silent' over poor care

US rights group finds not one case solved

Abandoned girl to return to China
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7028335.stm
Published: 2007/10/04 15:32:05 GMT
© BBC MMVII 

A New Zealand toddler whose mother was killed and whose father abandoned her in Australia has been handed into the custody of her Chinese grandmother.

Custody of three-year-old Qian Xun Xue, dubbed "Pumpkin" after being found alone in a Melbourne train station, was granted to Liu Xiaoping in Auckland.

An arrest warrant has been issued for the girl's father, Nai Yin Xue, 54.

He is suspected of killing his wife, Anan Liu, 27, whose body was found in his car at the family home in Auckland.

Many stay 'silent' over poor care
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7028474.stm
Published: 2007/10/05 00:00:45 GMT
© BBC MMVII 

Many hospital patients do not speak out about poor care as they think it will lead to even worse treatment or not make a difference, a survey suggests.

Consumer group Which? polled 1,000 NHS patients and found 49% unhappy about an aspect of their stay, such as food, cleanliness or organisation of care.

But fewer than half complained, despite a separate survey showing staff would welcome more feedback.

Complaints systems need to be open and accessible to all, regulators said.

Which? said a culture shift was needed in the NHS to encourage patients to give feedback and make sure their views were heard.

Of the patients who had not complained about their care, even though they had been unhappy, more than a third thought raising an issue would not make a difference.

A quarter said they just "expected their stay to be like that".

More than one in 10 thought complaining could compromise the care they received.

Even among those who complained, most felt standards would not improve.

In a survey of 250 members of hospital staff, 99% said they would like to hear about their patients' concerns and most said they thought gathering feedback would drive improvements.

Two-thirds felt patients did not give enough feedback.

US rights group finds not one case solved
By Kate V. Pedroso
Inquirer Research

Posted date: October 05, 2007

MANILA, Philippines -- A year after starting an inquiry into extrajudicial killings and disappearances in the Philippines, the US-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has returned to find that not one of the cases it investigated had been resolved.

“The problem is, of all the cases we investigated when we were here [in September] last year --17 extrajudicial killings and two disappearances -- there has not been a single conviction,” HRW member Bede Sheppard told Philippine Daily Inquirer editors Thursday.

Sheppard is the author of the recently released HRW report, “Scared Silent: Impunity for Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines.”

The 84-page report details how members of left-wing political parties and nongovernment organizations, political journalists, outspoken clergy, anti-mining activists and agricultural reform advocates had been gunned down or abducted, and how these crimes have gone uninvestigated and unprosecuted.

It also documents the involvement of the Armed Forces in the killings.

A summary of the report said the government’s failure to carry out credible investigations and prosecutions had contributed to “rampant impunity,” and that witnesses and the victims’ families were being “scared silent” for fear of becoming targets of reprisal.  -End-

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