Doctors group: Zimbabwe ripe for new epidemics
Already fighting a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 3,600 people, Zimbabwe faces new epidemics and an intensifying AIDS battle, the Medecins Sans Frontieres organization warns. The international physicians group blamed the crisis on Zimbabwe’s broken health system and prevalent malnutrition and urged the nation’s government to remove barriers to foreign aid, which “needs to be given to Zimbabwe and it needs to be given now,” MSF President Dr. Christophe Fournier said.
Global view on AIDS drives lab
An American physician and a software entrepreneur have joined forces to build a $100 million institute to develop an AIDS vaccine on the front lines of the battle — in Durban, South Africa, where a third of babies are born with the virus. “We said, ‘Let’s build the best biomedical research facility in the world, and put it right here in the middle of the epidemic,'” AIDS specialist Dr. Bruce D. Walker said.
Tamil Tiger UN charges rejected
An aid group widely believed to be a front for Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers rebels has criticized the UN for releasing a report saying rebels are preventing civilians from leaving the war zone and in some cases are shooting and killing civilians. In addition, UNICEF accused the rebels of conscripting children to serve as soldiers.
Salma Hayek, Breast-Feeding and One Very Public Service
Mexican actress Selma Hayek spontaneously offered breast milk to a hungry baby in Sierra Leone out of compassion and the hope her act would help promote breastfeeding in Africa, where nursing carries a huge social stigma. Hayek’s action also sparked debate in North America on donated milk and cross-nursing, and the stigma associated with the practices
Little understood and often hidden from view, the enslavement and exploitation of people as underaged soldiers, sweatshop laborers and domestic servants must be more adequately addressed by governments around the world, according to a UN Office on Drugs and Crime report on the phenomenon. While “tremendous progress” has been realized against people-trafficking in recent years, “it is sick that we should even need to write a report about slavery in the 21st Century,” said a UN spokesman. BBC (2/12)
W Africa starts anti-polio drive
Hundreds of thousands of volunteers in eight West African countries will spend the next three days administering polio vaccines in a massive joint effort to further the eradication of polio
Crisis means more child soldiers in Colombia -UN
Rebel forces in Colombia are taking advantage of the global economic crisis to recruit more children to spy and fight for their cause. “They’re going to keep offering a million pesos to children who live and struggle more each day from the crisis and each day are more likely to accept those offers,” said Paul Martin of the United Nations Children’s Fund. An estimated 8,000 children, some as young as 10, are active in the country’s paramilitary and guerrilla gangs.
Nigeria: This is The Only Country With Three Types of Polio – FG
Nigeria is now the only country in the world battling all three types of polio, Nigeria’s government says, with cases surfacing in areas of the country previously declared polio-free.
Can Globalization Help Women out of Traditional Roles?
Across the world, women are stepping into new roles as politicians, business leaders and advocates as a result of globalization. Progress is uneven and fraught with potential pitfalls, and great inequality between men and women still exists.
