Two journalists of the Swedish radio documentary "Kaliber" visited Malawi and filed a report about those who experience the alcohol problems first hand, and the industry representative that think there is no alochol problem in the country.

Alcohol use and drunken behaviour is neither acknowledged nor well documented as a contributing factor to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This situation is now gradually changing. An increasing amount of research is being conducted on HIV/AIDS and alcohol, and the connections between the two are coming gradually clearer also from a scientific perspective.

An on-going study by the Development Research And Training in Uganda and the International Chronic Poverty Research Centre is exploring the links between excessive alcohol consumption and poverty. A first result is a Policy Brief aimed for a cross-section of development practitioners and policy makers.

The Health ministers from all over the world will discuss the health burden of alcohol in the forthcoming World Health Assembly to be held in Geneva 14-23 May. This is the follow up of the WHA resolution 58.26 Public health problems caused by harmful use of alcohol, from 2005, the first WHA resolution exclusively on alcohol since 1983. The documents for the alcohol issue are now available on the WHO site.

Based two reports and an extensive consultation process the European Commission on October 24 adopted a Communication setting out a strategy to support Member States in reducing alcohol-related harm.

In September WHO asked NGOs and other stakeholders to contribute their views on two questions related to alcohol and public health: 1) The magnitude of health related problems related to alcohol consumption and 2) Effective interventions to reduce health problems related to alcohol consumption. Read FORUTs contribution here.

Tima Magazine report on how one city's decision to shut down bars before midnight has served as a model for cutting crime and alcoholism in a nation plagued by both.