Madrid, One Stop Drug Shop
Spain's capital city, Madrid, now houses one of Europe's biggest drug supermarkets in a settlement, Cañada Real, with some 30,000 people. About 10,000 drug addicts come every day to the area to get their fix. There are three municipalities in total (including Madrid) which the 10-mile-long Cañada Real runs through, and they all pledged to act against the drug problem - however a lack of political interest has allowed the drug lords and clans to make the area their home. In recent months, bulldozers have been brought in to knock down some of the illegally-inhabited homes – but not those belonging to the drug clans. Elena Utrilla, Head of Housing for the ruling People's Party in Madrid's regional assembly, said the law allowing the authorities to start cleaning up Cañada Real would be passed by early next year, but sufficient funds to re-house the poorest people (living in the settlement) has yet to be found.

UN Chief Achim Steiner Warns Of High Cost Of Climate Delays
The likely delays in sealing a global deal to fight climate change would have a "human cost", and increase the risks of great harm to the planet and the economic costs of dealing with it, the head of the UN environment programme said today. Achim Steiner also said that there was an "extremely high" risk that the UN-hosted talks would drift into deadlock if the summit in Copenhagen next month failed to deliver a meaningful agreement. He added, "Political leaders in Copenhagen will have to explain in a credible way to the 2-3 billion people who are living on the frontline of climate change, why they could not reach a deal." On Sunday US president, Barack Obama, acknowledged that a legally binding deal was impossible in Copenhagen. Obama gave his support to a Danish plan to delay any deal to mid-2010. His comments were widely received as a blow to hopes of a meaningful agreement in Copenhagen, but senior figures said today a deal was still possible.

Palestinians Ask EU To Back Independence
A request was made on Monday by Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, asking the European Union to urge the UN security council to recognise a fully independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in response to the current impasse in peace negotiations with Israel. EU foreign ministers are due to discuss the issue in Brussels today but are unlikely to reach any decision. But Erakat made clear that the Palestinians were seeking a Security Council resolution spelling out the parameters for resolving the conflict – crucially, without waiting for Israel to negotiate and without Israeli consent. This reflects mounting Palestinian frustration that negotiations with Israel have reached a dead end due to the refusal of Binyamin Netanyahu, Likud Prime Minister, to agree to a freeze on settlement activity.

From Slumdogs To Millionares?
The Mumbai slum of Dharavi, one of the most densely populated places on the planet, and where parts of the film Slumdog Millionaire were shot, is undergoing a property boom - an ambitious £1.8bn plan to redevelop the slum and turn it into office blocks and apartments. In the last six months, as many as 7,000 ‘homes’ have been bought. Under the rules of the scheme, those residents who have lived there since before January 2000 will be eligible for free 300 square feet apartments on the edge of the new development. But a recent survey showed that most of the residents happily selling their houses, thinking they will qualify for the scheme, have not been living there since January 2000.

Falluja, Rise In Birth Abnormalities
Iraqi former battle zones are seeing abnormal clusters of infant tumours and deformities. The Guardian asked a paediatrician, Samira Abdul Ghani, to keep precise records over a three-week period. Her records reveal that 37 babies with anomalies, many of them neural tube defects, were born during that period at Falluja General Hospital alone. A group of Iraqi and British officials, including the former Iraqi minister for women's affairs, Dr Nawal Majeed a-Sammarai, and British doctors David Halpin and Chris Burns-Cox, have petitioned the UN general assembly to ask that an independent committee fully investigate the defects, and help clean up toxic materials left over decades of war (including the six years since Saddam Hussein was ousted). Falluja's frontline doctors are reluctant to draw a direct link with the fighting. They instead cite multiple factors that could be contributors, which include air pollution, radiation, chemicals, drug use during pregnancy, malnutrition, or the psychological status of the mother.

Words: Yumna Martin