Rain In Chad Could Ease Food Shortages, Famine Threat To Sahel Region Subsiding “Abundant rains in Chad have raised hopes for an end to severe food shortages but the effects will linger and lead to new difficulties across Africa’s Sahel region in 2011, aid workers predict,” Reuters reports. “With signs…

“World powers are moving slowly toward an accord on the strategy to be embraced at a looming United Nations summit aiming to get the lofty Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] back on track,” Agence France-Presse writes in an article examining the ongoing debates over how best to achieve the MDGs before the 2015 deadline.

U.S. Global Fund Commitment A Times of Trenton editorial looks at the work of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which is “estimated to have already saved 5 million lives, enables programs that prevent and treat infections, eliminate the transmission of HIV from pregnant women to their unborn children,…

The Council of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise on Tuesday released a new strategy for HIV vaccine research, which marked “the culmination of an 18-month effort that included the input of 400 scientists worldwide,” VOA News reports (DeCapua, 9/7).

New U.N. Drug Czar Pledges Public Health, Human Rights Focus The new head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Yury Fedotov, took office on Monday and “pledged to focus on public health and human rights,” the Associated Press reports. A former Russian diplomat, Fedotov said in a statement, “Whether we…

“World powers have reached an accord, after weeks of tough talks, on a document to be adopted at a Millennium Development summit this month for which [U.N.] Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is seeking billions of dollars of new funding,” Agence France-Presse reports.

Reuters AlertNet examines reactions by development experts and advocates to the U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which wrapped up Wednesday, after world leaders adopted a declaration that “promised intensified efforts by the 192 U.N. member states to achieve the eight goals by 2015.”

Several blogs, publications examine the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit: The MDGs serve a dual purpose “helping the poor countries to fight poverty and the rich countries to preserve a sense of social solidarity,” writes Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute in a post on the Guardian’s…

Burkina Faso Boosts Sanitation Investment To Meet MDG Burkina Faso will build 55,000 latrines each year to “improve access to proper sanitation for the population from the present 10 percent to 54 percent by 2015,” Inter Press Service reports. The health ministry highlighted that lack of access to toilets “leads to illness,…

Malaysia Considers GM Mosquito Release To Control Dengue Fever Malaysia is still “considering releasing” up to 3,000 mosquitoes that are genetically modified to “combat dengue fever, in a landmark field trial that has come in for criticism from environmentalists,” Agence France-Presse reports. The insects are modified “so that their offspring quickly die,” which…