More Media Watch: Drinking Water, Bread Crisis in Egytpt, Arianna on Clinton

How Do We Ensure Clean Drinking Water for All? By Khalil AbdullahBellamy, President and CEO of World Learning, has been an investment banker, UNICEF"s executive director and a Peace Corps volunteer in the early 1960s. It was in that latter capacity where the stupefying statistic of 1.8 million children dying each year from diarrheal disease related to unclean water washed over her soul. "The first time I encountered death was that little child who died from dehydration," Bellamy recalled, "that child who died in my arms." Bellamy stressed that access to water has to be accompanied by sanitation and hygiene, and starkly described how the lack of sanitation that now affects 2.6 billion people, many of them children, severely curtails education for young girls in developing counties.

Egypt army to tackle bread crisis

President Mubarak said all bread queues must be eliminated

Egypt's president has ordered the army to increase the production and distribution of bread, in an attempt to cope with serious shortages.

Rising prices and alleged corruption have sparked recent clashes at bakeries in poorer neighbourhoods, leading to several deaths.

Hosni Mubarak said eradicating bread queues was "imperative".

The army and interior ministry control numerous bakeries normally used to supply bread for troops and police.



Arianna Huffington On Clinton"s Tax Return

It's hard out there for a surrogate. Especially for a Clinton surrogate being asked why Hillary Clinton has not released the last eight years of her tax returns. As Congresswoman and Clinton surrogate Nita Lowey made clear on Meet The Press yesterday, the reason it's so hard to give a good answer to "Why hasn't Clinton released her returns?" is because there is no good answer.

Lowry gave it a shot, but it wasn't pretty -- or particularly intelligible. When Tim Russert asked about the returns, she opened with the main talking point the Clinton campaign has been using for weeks: "It's my understanding that there are 20 years of tax returns in the public view from both Bill and Hillary Clinton."

And she's exactly right. There are 20 years worth of returns that have been released. What's missing are the last 8 years -- years in which Bill Clinton has been making money hand over fist, and involving himself in all kinds of interesting financial deals (see Ron Burkle, Yucaipa, and the ruler of Dubai).

Is Lehman Next?

Lehman Brothers (LEH) may be in for a long day. Shares of the brokerage firm slid 15% in early trading after the firm said it's got enough cash to keep doing business. The firm made the statement after a big Asian bank asked traders not to do new transactions with Lehman, The Wall Street Journal reports. That decision raises the possibility that Lehman will face a run like the one that brought down Bear Stearns (BSC) this weekend. Bear sold itself to JPMorgan Chase (JPM) for $2 a share, narrowly averting a bankruptcy filing.



Sean O'Brien's Workshop

A central figure in the world of contemporary poetry, Sean O'Brien is famous for balancing the demands of tradition and poetic structure with a flair for contemporary themes and local colour. He has won most of the major poetry prizes for his five collections, including the Somerset Maugham Award, the EM Forster Award and the Cholmondeley Award. He is also active as a literary critic and is Professor of Creative Writing at Sheffield University.

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Sean's suggestions for adding drama to poetry

A fundamental skill is the ability to dramatize a poem, to give it the sense of three-dimensional life, rather than simply let it comment on its subject. Few of us are sufficiently remarkable to have interesting general opinions about life, but if we renew proverbial truths in fresh contexts we may be on to something.

Taslima Nasrin to leave India

'Denied urgent medical attention' ... Taslima Nasrin. Photograph: Martin Bureau/AFP

The exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin has announced that she will leave India, claiming the conditions she has been living under in Delhi amount to "virtual house arrest" and that she has been denied urgent medical attention.

Nasrin fled Bangladesh in 1994 when a court ruled she had "deliberately and maliciously" hurt the feelings of religious Muslims. Her books remain banned in the country.