WHO Warns Bird Flu Continues To Pose Threat Despite a reduction in the number of cases of avian flu (H5N1) since its peak in 2006, the WHO said in a statement Wednesday that “the newly confirmed human and poultry cases of avian influenza this year are a reminder that the…

Marking World Water Day in a speech Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said tackling the world’s water problems “represents one of the great diplomatic and development opportunities of our time,” Inter Press Service reports. “It’s not every day you find an issue where effective diplomacy and development will allow you to save millions of lives, feed the hungry, empower women, advance our national security interests, protect the environment, and demonstrate to billions of people that the United States cares,” she said.

Opinion Piece Outlines Challanges Facing Global Fund In an Economic Times opinion piece, Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia University outlines what he sees as “two huge challenges facing” the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: “The first is lack of financing. … The second challenge is to…

“Human beings are flushing millions of tonnes of solid waste into rivers and oceans every day, poisoning marine life and spreading diseases that kill” 1.8 million children each year, according to a U.N. report (.pdf) released on Monday Reuters reports.

“Almost a quarter of a billion people moved out of slum conditions in the past decade,” but the number of people living in shantytowns around the world “increased by 55 million to 827.6 million as population growth and migration from the countryside outstripped the effect of upward mobility in cities,” according to a U.N. Habitat report, released Friday, in Rio de Janeiro ahead of the five-day World Urban Forum “on the state of the world’s cities,” Reuters reports (3/19).

Former U.S. presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are visiting Haiti on Monday “to spotlight the dramatic need ahead of a critical March 31 U.N. donors conference in New York, where Haitian officials will ask for $11.5 billion in reconstruction help,” the Associated Press/New York Times reports. “It is the first joint visit to the impoverished Caribbean nation for the two former leaders, who were tasked by President Barack Obama with leading the U.S. fundraising effort” after the January 12 earthquake according to the news service.

In an interview with Reuters, Haitian President Rene Preval on Tuesday said that the U.S. State Department Human Rights report, which says corruption is “widespread in all … levels of government” in Haiti, is “arrogant” and that Haiti should have the final say in approving plans to rebuild the country after the January earthquake, the news agency reports.

A report released Monday by the WHO and UNICEF documents mixed progress in improving drinking water and sanitation conditions worldwide, VOA News reports (Schlein, 3/15). “The report – presenting the latest data on improved sources of sanitation and drinking water in 209 countries or territories – is aimed at assisting policy-makers, donors, government and non-governmental agencies decide what needs to be done,” U.N. News Centre writes (3/15).

Nearly 50% Of Food Aid Sent To Somalia Never Makes It To People In Need “As much as half the food aid sent to Somalia is diverted from needy people to a web of corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants and local United Nations staff members, according to a new Security…

“Chile launched a hepatitis and tetanus vaccination campaign Friday and doctors warned of outbreaks of diarrhea and infection among thousands of people displaced by the earthquake and the tsunami that heavily damaged or destroyed 36 hospitals and made garbage dumps of coastal towns and cities,” the Associated Press reports. So far, no dysentery outbreaks or other communicable diseases had been reported, Chile’s health ministry said, adding that it believed it had adequate amounts of tetanus and hepatitis vaccinations.