Briefs
FrontLines - December-January 2009-10
Family Planning
Funding Announced
for Uganda
KAMPALA, Uganda—A $12
million family planning drive
launched at a conference
here Nov. 18, U.N. officials
said, will improve access to
contraceptives in Uganda,
Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal,
Tanzania, Kenya, Indonesia,
and Pakistan, AFP reported.
The project, expected to
last three years, hopes to
reach 200 million women by
encouraging governments
and donor and multilateral
agencies to invest in family
planning initiatives.
Sri Lanka Says Half
of Displaced Tamils
Returned Home
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—
Sri Lanka’s government said
Nov. 19 that more than half of
the 280,000 Tamils held in
camps since the defeat of the
26-year-long Tamil Tiger
insurgency in May have returned
home and the rest were free to
return home or to remain in the
camps if they had no other place
to live.
Sri Lanka asked for U.N. help
resettling the remaining Tamil
civilians. The country needs help
clearing mines from conflict
zones and building infrastructure
in the north, the Bloomberg
news agency reported.
World Bank Says
Africa Needs $93B in
Infrastructure Yearly
JOHANNESBURG—
Infrastructure development in
sub-Saharan Africa needs to
double to $93 billion annually
over the next decade, with half
to address the continent’s power
supply crisis, a World Bank report
said Nov. 12, according to AFP.
“Modern infrastructure is the
backbone of an economy and the
lack of it inhibits economic
growth, says Obiageli Ezekwesili,
World Bank vice president
for the Africa region.
New Malaria
Strain Resistant to
Artemisinin
On the Thai-Cambodian border,
a rogue strain of malaria has
started to resist artemisinin, the
only remaining effective drug
against malaria’s most deadly
strain, Plasmodium falciparum,
Time magazine reported Nov. 14.
A USAID malaria specialist
said the Agency is monitoring
the outbreaks of the resistant
form of the disease on Thailand’s
borders with Burma and
Cambodia.
Artemisinin, derived from
sweet wormwood, was used to
fight malaria in China for 2,000
years. In Vietnam, the drug
reduced the malaria death toll 97
percent from 1992 to 1997.
U.S. Talks to
Myanmar but Keeps
Sanctions
BANGKOK—The United
States, although embarking on
a new policy of engagement,
will not lift its sanctions on
Myanmar unless its ruling
generals make concrete
progress toward democratic
reform, a senior U.S. diplomat
said Nov. 5, AP reported.
U.S. Ambassador for
ASEAN (Association of
Southeast Asian Nations)
Affairs Scot Marciel spoke
after he and another State
Department official completed
the highest-ranking U.S. visit
to Myanmar in 14 years.
“We are going to maintain
our existing sanctions, pending
progress. They are still a useful
tool. We would certainly be
looking at lifting sanctions if
there is significant progress,”
Marciel told a forum at Bangkok’s
Chulalongkorn University.
He and Assistant Secretary
of State Kurt Campbell held
talks with the ruling generals
and had a rare meeting with
opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize
laureate.
From news reports and
other sources. ★
Clarification
An article entitled “HIV
Antibodies Discovered” that
appeared in the October 2009
FrontLines on page 1 referred
to the medical trial for an
AIDS vaccine. The trial was
funded by the National Institute
for Allergy and Infectious
Diseases and the U.S. Department
of Defense for $105
million. The trial was coordinated
by the U.S. Military
HIV Research Program and
conducted by the Thai Ministry
of Public Health in collaboration
with trial vaccine
manufacturers Sanofi-Pasteur
and Global Solutions for
Infectious Diseases. Infections
were reduced by 31 percent
among vaccine recipients,
and the trial included
16,402 Thai volunteers.
Correction
An article in the November
2009 FrontLines on page 1
entitled “Lucy Liu, USAID
Highlight Human Trafficking,”
quoted Marilyn Carlson Nelson.
She is the chairman of
Carlson Companies, of which
Carlson Wagonlit Travel is a
subsidiary.★
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