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Chavez's cancer claims and counting doctors from Malawi

Is Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez right that the number of Latin American leaders with cancer defies probability? And are there really more Malawian doctors in Manchester than Malawi?

LATIN AMERICAN CANCER PLOT?
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez thinks the US may have developed a secret technology to give him and other Latin American leaders cancer.

He said the fact that several presidents have had cancer is "difficult to explain using the law of probabilities".

Is he right? Tim Harford speaks to Dr Eduardo Cazap, president of the Union of International Cancer Control.

MALAWIAN DOCTORS
It is often said that there are more Malawian doctors in the British city of Manchester than there are in Malawi.

Can this be true? And if professionals emigrate, is it always bad news for the country they leave?

The programme hears from John Lwanda, a Malawian doctor based in the UK; and Robert Guest, author of Borderless Economics.

Producer: Ruth Alexander

(Picture shows Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speaking before the Parliament in Caracas on 13 January 2012. Credit: AFP)

Available now

9 minutes

Last on

Sat 14 Jan 2012 18:50GMT

Broadcasts

  • Fri 13 Jan 2012 23:50GMT
  • Sat 14 Jan 2012 11:50GMT
  • Sat 14 Jan 2012 18:50GMT

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