UN News Center: "Warning that an additional 12,000 Nepalese children could die annually without access to vaccines, Vitamin A and de-worming drugs held up in a transport shutdown, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has called on all parties in the conflict in the Himalayan kingdom to help facilitate supplies."
Empower Women, Save Lives: Women & AIDS U.S. Tour
March 5, 2005
GUEST BLOGGERS
Laura Rogers: Director of Advocacy & Communications/Global Health, UNF
Jessica Bernstein: Communications Associate, UNF
"No one is a random person in the fight against AIDS," Michaelle Soliman told the junior and senior classes of Stratford High School in Nashville, Tenn. yesterday. "Everyone matters and everyone has power." Michaelle confided to the sometimes rowdy 160 high schoolers that she had lost both of her parents to AIDS when she was a child in Haiti. That's why at age 24 she works in the capitol of Haiti to educate young people about the disease and to try to keep them HIV negative. She is one of the four amazing women participating in the seven-day, five city public education tour sponsored by the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS. We stood off to the side, truly impressed that for the 20 minutes these young women were ready to share, every young person in the audience was ready to listen. Their stories made it clear that AIDS is not only an issue in Indonesia and Haiti, but also at Stratford High School in Nashville, TN. Kids asked questions about how to keep themselves safe, how it feels to live with a killer disease, and how AIDS changes lives.
The Washington Post reports: "The Bush administration abandoned an antiabortion initiative on Friday in the face of overwhelming opposition at a U.N. conference on women's rights.
The move came at a critical stage in the two-week meeting of 130 countries and 6,000 representatives of women's rights groups, who gathered to assess women's progress in the decade after a 1995 summit on women in Beijing. It paved the way for the unanimous adoption of a declaration reaffirming support for a 150-page platform of action for achieving women's equality that was adopted in Beijing. "
Good news in today's NYT: "The world should be able to meet a goal of reducing by half the number of measles deaths by the end of the year, two United Nations agencies said today.
The number of deaths from the highly contagious viral disease has dropped by 39 percent, to about 530,000 in 2003 from 873,000 in 1999, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund said in a joint report."
Empower Women, Save Lives: Women & AIDS U.S. Tour
March 3, 2005
GUEST BLOGGERS
Laura Rogers: Director of Advocacy & Communications/Global Health, UNF
Jessica Bernstein: Communications Associate, UNF
We're mid-air on our way to Nashville, Tenn., on the second day of the women & AIDS Tour after a grand kick-off in NYC. We had been looking forward to meeting the women on the tour for months and they are every bit as inspiring, intelligent and compelling as we thought they would be. Princess, Michaelle, Violeta, and Frika are so full of life. It's amazing to see them connecting with and educating Americans. As they share their powerful stories, we know that they are each unique, and yet share many similar ties to those of millions of women throughout the world. From Zambia to Nashville, from Haiti to Washington, DC the message is the same: the face of AIDS is increasingly young and female. There is so much that you can do to become a part of this effort. Start by signing the Global Call-to-Action and then make a contribution. Show that girls count by standing up and being counted. As soon as we land, we're off to another VIP reception. More news tomorrow.
Laura & Jessica
For more information, visit the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS website.
Nico at Think Progress: "Yesterday, Fox posted a 1,500-word "news article" that purportedly "places responsibility squarely in [U.N. chief Kofi Annan's] office for obscuring mismanagement" of the Oil-for-Food program. The piece was co-authored by Claudia Rosett, who is identified at the end of the article only as "a journalist-in-residence with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies." Sounds harmless enough, right?" Read the rest...
Audio link.
TRANSCRIPT:
State of the United Nations
ANCHORS: NEAL CONAN
NEAL CONAN, host:
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington.
The crises that face the United Nations today include charges of corruption and mismanagement, rape and murder by UN peacekeepers, and the deep rift between the world body and its most important member, the United States. The UN has also found itself a target in some places in the world. A huge bomb destroyed the UN headquarters in Baghdad a year and a half ago. Just last week, nine UN peacekeepers from Bangladesh were killed in the Congo. As part of an effort to reform and revitalize the institution, Secretary-General Kofi Annan replaced his longtime chief of staff. The new number-three at the UN is Mark Malloch Brown, previously vice president for communications at the World Bank who's earned praise as the head of the UNDP, the UN Development Program. Since taking the job as chief of staff, he's mounted what some call a charm offensive here in Washington, DC, and he's also played a roll in tsunami relief.
FOX News writes: "The United Nations has sent a letter to FOX News in response to the special Breaking Point investigation, "United Nations Blood Money," that appeared Feb. 13 on FOX News Channel and on FOXNews.com.
"U.N. officials charged that FOX News erred in declaring that "high U.N. officials [were] getting oil handouts from Saddam [Hussein]" as part of the Oil-for-Food program.
From UN News Center: "United Nations bodies have begun a series of projects to improve agricultural production in Iraq, including irrigation, fertilizers and the building of skills, the world organization's mission in the country announced today.
The UN Development Group Trust Fund (UNDG TF) is carrying out a $35 million program to strengthen basic irrigation and drainage engineering as well as farming skills in Iraq. The program also seeks to encourage professionals and technicians from different disciplines to work together to benefit farmers."