A bug was reported for scipy at http://projects.scipy.org/numpy/ticket/1148
"""Openbabel Python bindings call
sys.setdlopenflags(sys.getdlopenflags() | dl.RTLD_GLOBAL)
Obviously, this will causes problems down the stream, as symbols of subsequently loaded libraries are no longer isolated...
You can also reproduce the crash without Openbabel,
python -c 'import sys, dl; sys.setdlopenflags(sys.getdlopenflags() | dl.RTLD_GLOBAL); import foo'
This behavior of Openbabel's is highly suspect IMHO. If it needs to enable this flag, it probably ought to also restore its value after loading whatever needs loading. """
Maybe it's possible to set this flag back to the default after loading various plugins??