In this breezily written, historical, sociological, scatological, irreverent walk through the world of what the author calls 'desis' or Indian settlers in the United States (and to a lesser extent of the other parts of the West), Vijay Prashad engages our attention, provokes us to rethink attitudes and concepts and constantly challenges views of the way Indians in the US perceive the land of their adoption (or birth), the cultures it has spawned and their place in those many political and social cultures, says Sanjoy Hazarika

Statistics about attacks on journalists can be taken as an index of prevalent barbarity and callousness. Even if the findings of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) were to be taken at face value only, the world is becoming a barbarous place. The number of individuals killed last year because of their work as journalists was 34. They either died in the line of duty on assignment or were deliberately targeted for assassination because of their reporting or their affiliation with a news organisation. The previous year the toll had been 24. This year's figures do not include 18 others, the motives for whose murders were unclear, but "there is reason to suspect that it was related to the journalist's profession, writes Subir Ghosh

Minority groups in the United States are increasing both in population as well as political influence. Given this backdrop, it is becoming as increasingly important to realise the role they are playing in defining and shaping up American politics. The last three decades of the twentieth century particularly have seen dramatic strides in the impact that minorities have played in US politics. The compilation of Jeffrey Schultz, Kerry Haynie, Anne McCulloch and Andrew Aoki now becomes the only one-stop resource available that focuses exclusively on the expanding role of minorities in US politics. This is the third and final work to be brought out in the American Political Landscape series, says Gene Evans

Health systems deserve to be accorded topmost priority in efforts to improve health or ensure that resources are wisely used. Since health systems provide the critical interface between life-saving, life-enhancing interventions and the people who need them; if health systems in a particular country are inherently weak, the power of these interventions is proportionately weakened, at times even lost. The annual report of the World Health Organization (WHO) this time features the first ever analysis of the increasingly important influence of health systems in the daily lives of people worldwide, points out Subir Ghosh

Central to today's debates on human rights is the question: are invasion and bombardment by foreign forces justifiable in the name of human rights? Amnesty International, for its part, has long refused to take a position on whether or not foreign armed forces should be deployed in human rights crises. AI neither supports nor opposes such actions. It argues that human rights crises can, and should, be prevented, since they are never inevitable. AI does not oppose the use of force in order to gain justice, but does question whether justice is the driving factor in the international community's decision-making, says Subir Ghosh