First lady to fight global obesity issues
U.S. first lady Michelle Obama plans to take her fight against childhood obesity to an international audience over the next year. Obama has led her own “Let’s Move!” initiative in the U.S. to encourage healthier, more active lifestyles for American children.
Kenya introduces pneumococcal vaccine
Kenya is set to become the fifth country to include a vaccination against pneumococcal disease to its standard set of childhood vaccinations, beginning next week. The move to bring the vaccine to developing countries is being spurred by the GAVI Alliance, which helps manufacturers with research, development and production costs by securing markets for distribution. Pneumococcal disease reportedly kills more than a half million children per year, mostly in the developing world.
WHO clears vaccine supplier to resume UN shipments
The World Health Organization has removed objections to the sale of vaccinations produced by Dutch firm Crucell after concerns over sterility at South Korean supplier factories. Crucell provides Quinvaxem and other children’s vaccines to United Nations agencies including UNICEF.
UN works to end state use of child soldiers
A United Nations-backed action plan is working to encourage member states from recruiting children into military and security forces. Uganda successfully demobilized all children within 18 months of signing on to a plan. Afghanistan has just agreed to one and talks are continuing with authorities in Myanmar.
Charles Taylor won’t attend trial
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor and his defense lawyers boycotted the closing arguments of his trial on war crimes in The Hague on Tuesday, spurring a delay in proceedings for a procedure that was supposed to end Friday. Taylor faces 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged involvement with rebel groups in neighboring Sierra Leone. He has pleaded innocent to 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and using child soldiers.
Hunger, malnutrition defy India’s economic rise
India’s economy might be flaunting growth rates of some 9% annually, but the government is struggling to feed it’s 1.1 billion people decades after investments in agricultural technologies in the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Nearly half of the country’s children age 5 or younger are malnourished, a figure that could worsen amid food shortages and drastic price increases.
