Front cover: Photography by Kevin Nicholson. Out There BMA working abroad seminars will take place as follows: Manchester: 19 May; contact BMA Manchester Office, Bartree House, 460 Palatine Road, Northenden, Manchester or telephone 0161 945 8989. Edinburgh: 23 September; contact BMA Edinburgh Office, 3 Hill Place, Edinburgh EH8 9EQ or telephone 0131 662 4820. London: 4 November; contact BMA North Thames Office, BMA House Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JP or telephone 0171 388 8296. World debt national conference: Organised by MedSIN(UK) at St George's Hospital medical school, London, on Saturday 8 May, starting at 9.30 am. Aims to inform delegates of the history, impact, and possible resolution of world debt. Guest speakers include: Sir Sandy Macara, Bill Cash MP, and Martin Drewey from Christian Aid. Tickets cost £5, and include lunch and evening social event. For more information contact Shyla on email: medsin@sghms.ac.uk Join the Chain: London 13 June, and Cologne 19 June. 70,000 people will be forming a human chain to protest against the injustice of Third World debt. Hundreds of medics will be joining them. Will you come too? For more details contact Mike Rowson at Medact, on +44(0) 171 272 2020, or email: medact@gn.apc.org 10th European Students' Conference: 20-24 October, at Charite medical school, Berlin. Scientific conference for medical students. Deadline for abstracts: 15 May. If your abstract is accepted, then you will be invited to present your work at the conference. More details at http://medizin.imnetz.de/esc or email Steffen Lueder at steffen.leuder@charite.de Two week course on traumatology in Croatia: 18 July to 2 August. Lectures and 'hands on' demonstrations on emergency medicine from regional specialists. Also other activities including diving, climbing, white water rafting and mountain biking and bungee jumping in Slovenia. Closing date for applications is 1 June. Cost is 1100DM (£400), which includes food, accommodation and all activities. For information contact Tom Martin, on 0181 981 1178, or email T.A.Martin@mds.qmw.ac.uk If you'd like to advertise in Out There please write to: Catherine Harding-Wiltshire at studentBMJ, or email her at charding@bmj.com Please specify the issue you want to advertise in, and don't forget to tell us any closing dates.

Student BMJ May 1999 volume 7 Editorials 132 Debt relief for the world's poor 133 The World Bank 134 The physical consequences of depressive illness 135 The role of the routine neonatal examination News and student politics 136 Winners in race for extra UK medical school places to be announced Junior doctors advised not to sign contract for millennium Anthropologists recommend reclassification of "human" London medical schools set to start graduate courses "Virtual classroom" created Spain tackles eating disorders Kosovo refugees spared epidemics so far Germany: doctors' training to change New curriculum at the Charite/Virchow medical school in Berlin Department of Health changes advice on third generation pills US couple files malpractice lawsuit for embryo mix up When will UK doctors strike? An egg a day is not harmful In brief Education 142 Emergency! 144 Controlling the pressure 146 Is clinical governance going to be a nightmare? 147 Picture Quiz 148 The World Bank and world health: Changing sides 152 Today I kissed my friend goodbye... 153 ABC of sexual health: Female sexual problems I: Loss of desire - what about the fun? 156 Career focus: Attitudes to flexible training Papers 158 Children born after intracytoplasmic sperm injection: population control study 160 Science commentary: what is involved in intracytoplasmic sperm injection? Life 161 Planning your elective - Sri Lanka 163 The trouble with Sri Lanka 164 Svalbard 98 - Arctic expedition 164 Win a flight to anywhere in the world 165 The not-so-secret diary of a medical student Letters 166 Exposure to HIV on elective To be sceptical is to be rational Are medical careers worth while? A level grades should not be only entry criterion Soundings 168 The bare bones 168 Bedevilled kidneys Reviews 169 Pocket Clinical Examination 169 Bloodlines. Real Lives in a Great British Hospital 170 Study Skills and Tomorrow's Doctors 170 Narben Medicine and the media 171 Smoking and women: beauty before age? Minerva 172 Editors choice Why should you bother about a bunch of poor countries that can't pay their debts? In his editorial (p 132), Mike Rowson of Medact explains that medical students should care about the burden of debt because it affects health and health systems in developing countries. The World Bank is now the major influence behind health policy in developing countries, but as with any bank, it wants loans to be paid back. Debt relief - will it happen? - p 132 If you're confused about how the World Bank operates, read Stott's editorial (p 133) and Kamran Abassi's article on p 148. The bank, along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is finding it difficult to agree with the views of the pressure group Jubilee 2000 - that the debts should be completely cancelled. However, as we go to press, both the Bank and the IMF are admitting for the first time that their much vaunted "highly indebted poor countries initiative" has failed to reduce debt repayments. Taking the sting out of anaphylaxis - p 142 Is Jubilee 2000's campaign to "cancel all debt" really that unrealistic? If, as Richard Smith mentioned in editor's choice in the BMJ on 10 April, Britain were to cancel all repayments it currently receives from the 52 poorest countries it would cost only £2 (US$3) for each taxpayer. And to cancel all developing world debts would cost creditor nations only £12 per person a year.   Hanging around Sri Lanka - p 162 Last year, over 50,000 people joined hands in Birmingham to demonstrate at the G7 (Group of Seven) summit of leading industrial nations. This year come and help form another human chain to protest against continuing developing world debt (see Out There, p 157). Protesters are meeting in London on 13 June and in Cologne on 19 June at the next G7 summit. Hundreds of medics will be at both. Join them. You really can make a difference.