Chemical weapons?
The WHO must release report on Iraqi birth defects now
"...Today, increasing numbers of birth defects are surfacing in many Iraqi cities, including Mosul, Najaf, Fallujah, Basra, Hawijah, Nineveh, and Baghdad. In some provinces, the rate of cancers is also increasing. Sterility, repeated miscarriages, stillbirths and severe birth defects - some never described in any medical books - are weighing heavily on Iraqi families.
For more than a decade, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been approached by public health experts, asking it to take this issue seriously. After much delay, a seriously handicapped study was initiated by WHO and the Iraqi Ministry of Health in 2012 to investigate "prevalence and factors associated with congenital birth defects" in Iraq.
Last October, the Independent (UK) said that the WHO report was due to be released in November 2012. However, that report remains undisclosed to this day..."
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/08/20138111224621617.html
NATO vows better cleanup of unexploded munitions as it closes Afghan bases
" KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan has agreed to do a better job of cleaning up deadly unexploded munitions from its bases and firing ranges as it closes them down after the U.N. accused the coalition of leaving dangerous explosives behind, a coalition spokesman wrote Wednesday in an emailed statement.
The International Security Assistance Force also will re-examine bases that already have been demolished to make certain unexploded ordnance hasn't been left behind, the spokesman said.
So-called "explosive remnants of war" have emerged in the past few months as an increasing danger to civilians, in particular children. In the first half of the year, nearly 150 people were killed or injured when such munitions detonated, according to a report issued Wednesday by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA. That's a jump of 53 percent from the same period in 2012. Nearly 80 percent of the victims were children..."
Read more here:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/31/198210/coalition-admits-its-left-unexploded.html#storylink=cpy