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Egypt's Mubarak 'may stand down'
BBC -- Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is to make an address on national television, amid suggestions that he is preparing to step down. A senior member of Egypt's governing party, Hossan Badrawi, has told the BBC he "hopes" Mr Mubarak will transfer power to Vice-President Omar Suleiman. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) says there is a "strong likelihood" that Mr Mubarak will step down soon. It comes on the 17th day of protests against his 30-year rule. Earlier, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq told BBC Arabic that the scenario of President Mubarak stepping down was being discussed. The BBC's Lyse Doucet, in Cairo, says the fact that President Mubarak's departure is even being talked about is a huge development.

Artists use music to promote maternal health in Tanzinia
UN News -- The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has teamed up with a group of artists from the United States and Tanzania to raise awareness, through music, on the need to have better maternal health services in the East African nation, where deaths related to childbearing remain a serious challenge. The collaboration, made possible with the help of the global network of artists known as MDGFive.com, just concluded a three-day music workshop with the production of a song calling for increased attention to maternal health in the country. Goal number 5 of the eight globally agreed anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) calls for the reduction of maternal mortality deaths by three quarters, and the attainment of universal access to reproductive health services by the target date of 2015...

Gbagbo bans UN radio broadcasts
BBC -- The government of Ivory Coast's incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo has officially banned UN radio broadcasts. Mr Gbagbo has refused to stand down following polls in November, which the UN peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast say was won by Alassane Ouattara. The BBC's John James says the UN's FM frequency has already been jammed since the beginning of the crisis, but it has been using unofficial frequencies. He says it is the most widely listened to radio station in the country. Access to the international media has been severely curtailed since the disputed election results came out. It was announced on state television on Wednesday evening that the frequencies assigned to UN peacekeeping mission had been withdrawn...

Small farms, big ideas for food security
CIPE Blog -- For those who believe access to food is a soft issue, relegated to the compassionate humanitarians inspired by photos of starving children, the events of the past few weeks have shown quite the opposite: access to affordable food is the stuff of massive uprisings. High food prices were a significant catalyst that helped tip the scales in Tunisia, in Egypt, and beyond. Hunger has consequences, and unceasing hunger has long term consequences. “Chronic undernutrition leads to negative impacts on intellectual capacity, educational performance, and productivity,” according to a new campaign, 1,000 days. “Two hundred million children around the world suffer from chronic undernutrition”...