MIDDLE EAST: New HIV report turns up some surprises

Photo: G Pirozzi/UNAIDS A women's group meets in Upper Egypt to discuss HIV/AIDS

DUBAI, 30 June 2010 (IRIN) - Statistics on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the Middle East are hard to come by but a new study launched on 28 June in the United Arab Emirates has attempted to gather all existing data into one place and add some analysis and action points for policymakers.



"In all previous reports we thought there was no HIV data from this region. But there turned out to be lots of data here," said Laith Abu Raddad, director of the Biostatistics and Biomathematic Research Core at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and the principal author of the study (not yet available online).



"This report is basically more like a scientific epidemiological study: Getting pieces of data, thousands of data that we managed to collect from every country in the region, putting them together and analysing them to see what they tell us in terms of HIV epidemiology," he said.



The report, characterizing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Middle East and North Africa, is a joint effort of the World Bank, the UN Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO). It covers 23 countries that the three organizations include in their MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. 

According to UNAIDS, about 412,000 people were living with HIV in

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Measles back with a vengeance

Photo: UNICEF/Kun Li Not enough children are being vaccinated

JOHANNESBURG, 28 June 2010 (IRIN) - "Out of sight, out of mind" explains why Southern Africa has been grappling with one of the biggest outbreaks of measles, a highly contagious viral disease, since 2009.



The outbreak has so far claimed 758 lives, mostly in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, Lesotho and South Africa. Ahmadu Yakubu, Regional Immunization Adviser at the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) told IRIN there had been lapses in the measles immunization programme because "countries were not seeing cases anymore".



Oladapo Walker, the Inter Country Support Coordinator for Eastern and Southern Africa at the World Health Organisation (WHO), told IRIN that at least 95 percent of all eligible children had not been vaccinated against the disease.



Walker said the outbreaks were "most likely the result of a build-up of susceptible children and adolescents who have missed immunization and escaped natural infection during the years of reduced transmission".



In developing countries, vaccination programmes are jointly funded by donors, but Yakubu said countries in the region had failed to raise adequate financial commitments because "there were no cases to report over the years", so they were unable to motivate funds.

In Brief: When donors receive - a tale of two CAPs

Photo: Mateusz Buczek/OCHA CAP launch

NAIROBI, 28 June 2010 (IRIN) - The aid world is an acronym jungle. Sometimes there are simply not enough good ones to go around, so they get used twice.



One of those is "CAP".



About 40%, some EUR55 billion (about US$76.5 billion in 2009 prices), of the EC's annual budget is spent on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a complex system of subsidy and support to farming in the bloc.



Meanwhile, appeals for some of the worst crises in

COTE D'IVOIRE: Nicaise Bouadou, "I could not grasp the child's hand"

Photo: Alexis Adele/IRIN Nicaise Bouadou

ABIDJAN, 25 June 2010 (IRIN) - When security officer Nicaise Bouadou, 43, heard the first drops of rain on his tin roof on the evening of 23 June in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire's commercial hub, he thought it was the typical start of the rainy season.



The cries of his neighbour's children woke him up. Frightened by the violent torrents that had rushed down the hill and set off a mudslide, adults frantically reached out, trying to grab something to steady themselves, while children hurled themselves into their parents' arms.

BP considering sales of assets in Argentina

The UK corporation is in deep trouble because of the Gulf of Mexico spill Zoom Image

BP said in March that it would sell assets totaling between 2 billion and 3 billion US dollars. In June the company increased that figure to up to 10 billion, and said it planned to sell assets over the next year.

A spokesman for BP declined to say which assets the company might be interested in selling.

“We're going through a process of identifying assets that we will sell or look to

Venezuela plans to nationalize a fleet of oil rigs from US corporation

President Chavez faces crucial legislative elections next September Zoom Image

President Chavez has made energy nationalization the linchpin in his 'Bolivarian revolution' and has also taken over assets in telecommunications, power, steel and banking. He has also advanced in land reform by taking over large farms and rich agricultural land, allegedly belonging to absentee landlords or owners lacking the ‘correct property documents’.

The 11 drilling rigs have been idle for months following a dispute over pending payments by Venezuela’s oil company PDVSA. Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said the rigs,

KENYA-SOMALIA: Fatuma Mohamoud*, "No one believed he was abused"

Photo: Caterina Pino/IRIN Ahmed Mohamoud: "I dare not leave this house"

KAKUMA, 24 June 2010 (IRIN) - Ahmed Mohamoud* seems like a typical eight-year old boy. He is dressed in jeans and sneakers and wears a hat of the New Orleans Saints, the team that won the US Super Bowl this year. Mohamed fled from the Hawiye area of Banadir region, not far from Mogadishu, with his parents. IRIN met Ahmed in Kakuma, northwestern Kenya, where his mother Fatuma agreed to tell IRIN their story.



"We arrived in Kenya in January 2009. We were first in Dadaab [refugee camp in northeastern Kenya]. After some time we were relocated to Kakuma. Mohamed, who is my only son, started going to the madrasa [Islamic school] inside the camp and not too far from our home here.



"He loved it and always said his dream was to teach the Koran to others. In May 2009, Ahmed was coming back home from the madrasa when he met one

SOUTH AFRICA: Hidden toll from TB

Photo: Stop TB Partnership TB is the leading cause of death in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, 23 June 2010 (PlusNews) - Shocking results from a study involving post-mortem examinations at a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal Province have revealed the extent to which tuberculosis (TB) is taking a toll on the lives of young, HIV-positive South Africans.



The study, published in the 22 June issue of the PLoS Medicine journal, found that out of 240 inpatients aged between 20 and 45 - who died after being admitted to Edendale Hospital between October 2008 and August 2009 - 94 percent were HIV-positive and half had TB.



South Africa is battling devastating dual epidemics of HIV and TB, with 80 percent of TB cases occurring in people who are also HIV-infected. While TB is known to be

Analysis: What is a famine?

Photo: Edward Parsons/IRIN A skeletal child receives emergency food through a tube at a centre in Niger in 2005

JOHANNESBURG, 13 May 2010 (IRIN) - Aid agencies and donors have warned of the possibility of a famine in Niger, evoking images of the last food crisis in the Sahelian country in 2005. Some media organizations have already pronounced the current crisis a famine. So, what exactly is a famine?



"There is no clear boundary or definition [of a famine]," said Christopher Barrett, a food aid expert who teaches development economics at Cornell University, in the US.



"Clearly, 1984 in Ethiopia was a famine [a million people died and an estimated eight million were on food aid]; equally clearly, 2009 in the United States was not [the US Department of Agriculture said on average 33.7 million Americans received food vouchers each month in 2009, the highest number ever].



Barrett said the typical explanation of a famine was "greater than usual mortality that is caused by insufficient availability of or access to food, whether directly due to starvation or far more commonly, indirectly, due to disease or injury associated with severe under-nutrition."



Stephen Devereux, author of Theories of Famine, a definitive reference book on the subject, noted that dictionary definitions such as "extreme scarcity of food" described a "few symptoms of famine" and selected some factors to "suggest causes", but failed to provide a "comprehensive and concise" definition.



"A good working definition of famine must describe a subsistence crisis afflicting particular groups of people within a bounded region over a specified period of time," he wrote.



Hundreds, if not thousands, of researchers, academics and humanitarian aid workers have tried defining it. Devereux quoted an academic as saying that "Famine is like insanity: hard to define, but glaring enough when recognized."



Why defining it is important?



Controversy has dogged the application of "famine" to several recent humanitarian emergencies: Sudan in 1998, Ethiopia in 1999/2000 and 2002/03, and Malawi in 2002.



In an influential paper in 2004, Devereux and Paul Howe, both researchers at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, proposed a scale to measure famines. "Both before and during these

Australia’s New Tourism Campaign to Have Travel Agent Component

The success of Australia’s new promotional campaign, launched Monday at the Australian Tourism Exchange in Adelaide, Australia, will depend heavily on travel agents, according to Andrew McEvoy, managing director of Tourism Australia. Two days after the launch at the Australia Tourism Exchange in Adelaide, McEvoy told Travel Pulse that the new website that is the centerpiece of the campaign is designed to work closely with travel agents.

Australia’s new campaign uses a combination of digital, print and broadcast media to emphasize what is unique about the country. The central component is a new website (www.nothinglikeaustralia.com), which features an online interactive

Australia’s New Tourism Campaign to Have Travel Agent Component

The success of Australia’s new promotional campaign, launched Monday at the Australian Tourism Exchange in Adelaide, Australia, will depend heavily on travel agents, according to Andrew McEvoy, managing director of Tourism Australia. Two days after the launch at the Australia Tourism Exchange in Adelaide, McEvoy told Travel Pulse that the new website that is the centerpiece of the campaign is designed to work closely with travel agents.

Australia’s new campaign uses a combination of digital, print and broadcast media to emphasize what is unique about the country. The central component is a new website (www.nothinglikeaustralia.com), which features an online interactive

KENYA: Monitoring water levels to reduce flood risk

Photo: Western Kenya Flood Mitigation Project A water radar sensor that measures the level of water

NAIROBI, 18 June 2010 (IRIN) - Kenyan authorities have installed water radar sensors to monitor levels on the western Nzoia river in an effort to mitigate flood damage, officials said.



The river perennially bursts its banks, flooding parts of Budalangi region in Bunyala District, with devastating results for thousands of people living in the area.



"The sensors are installed at a bridge, and have a GPRS [general packet radio service] modem that is solar-powered," Daniel Maina, the flood management coordinator with the Western Kenya Flood Mitigation Project, told IRIN. "Just the way you

SUDAN: Government must ensure aid reaches Darfur, says EU

Photo: Tim McKulka/UNMIS In May 2010 thousands of people were displaced from their homes to Mukjar, Bendesi and Zalingei, in South Darfur

NAIROBI, 18 June 2010 (IRIN) - The European Union has urged Sudanese authorities to ensure humanitarian workers reach thousands of people affected by ongoing fighting in Darfur and to improve security across the volatile western region.



"As fighting between government forces and [armed groups], and between [communities] continues, humanitarian workers are prevented from reaching some of the most needy communities," the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva said.



"Big parts of eastern Jebel Mara... where fighting is ongoing, have been inaccessible since February," she added. "I can only imagine the dire conditions for the women and children who are in great need of humanitarian assistance which we are simply unable to bring."



Access and security would also open up economic development

KENYA: Shazey Mazongy, "I thought I was going to die"

Photo: Caterina Pino/IRIN Shazey Mazongy. Kakuma refugee camp. Kenya

NAIROBI, 17 June 2010 (IRIN) - Shazey Mazongy, 25, fled the volatile North Kivu Province of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and arrived in Kakuma refugee camp, northwestern Kenya, hoping for a better life. But then her husband started drinking heavily. From a safe haven in the camp, she told IRIN how the abuse was so bad she thought he would kill her:



"I arrived in Kakuma about three years ago, with my husband and three children. I started selling bread to get some money to feed our children. My husband was so depressed he started drinking and using all the money I was making to buy beers.

IN BRIEF: Demining survey launched in Chad

Photo: National Demining Centre, Chad Landmine technical survey starting (file photo)

N'DJAMENA, 16 June 2010 (IRIN) - Nine years after an international NGO identified 249 communities in Chad living near landmines – putting at risk one in 10 people nationwide – the government is preparing to create the country's first landmine map, including the never-before-surveyed northwest Tibesti region.



The international demining NGO, Mines Advisory Group, is bringing equipment and project managers to launch the study in July. "We have never been able to get into Tibesti due to security concerns," the government's demining coordinator,

Australia’s New Tourism Campaign to Have Travel Agent Component

The success of Australia’s new promotional campaign, launched Monday at the Australian Tourism Exchange in Adelaide, Australia, will depend heavily on travel agents, according to Andrew McEvoy, managing director of Tourism Australia. Two days after the launch at the Australia Tourism Exchange in Adelaide, McEvoy told Travel Pulse that the new website that is the centerpiece of the campaign is designed to work closely with travel agents.

Australia’s new campaign uses a combination of digital, print and broadcast media to emphasize what is unique about the country. The central component is a new website (www.nothinglikeaustralia.com), which features an online interactive

Cuba for the first time names agronomist as Minister of Agriculture

Gustavo Rodriguez Rollero must cut Cuba’s dependency of food imports Zoom Image

Rosales was Cuba's sugar minister until taking over the Agriculture Ministry in 2008. Replacing Rosales is 46 year old agronomist Gustavo Rodriguez Rollero. According to a note published on Saturday by Granma newspaper, Rodríguez Rollero, who was the First Deputy Minister of Agriculture, holds a degree in agronomy.

The note points out that this decision will enable the Vice President of the Council of Ministers, Ulises Rosales del Toro, now freed from his responsibilities as Minister

Montserrat's 'One Caribbean' police force

BRADES, Montserrat -- Although there are many who use the phrase “One Caribbean” the Royal Montserrat Police Force is practicing this.

On Thursday, nine recruits all nationals of other countries in the Caribbean became members of the local police establishment.

Chief Minister Reuben Meade commended the officers for taking the bold step to commit to serving the people of Montserrat. He remarked that next Friday June 18, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States signs the Economic Union Treaty which will begin the process of connecting the economies of all member states. Chief Minister Meade said the RMPF was a true example of

ANALYSIS: Mixed report card for ICC

Photo: CC-CPI/Wim Van Cappellen The ICC is conducting investigations in the DRC, Uganda, CAR, Kenya and Sudan, and has issued 13 arrest warrants for eight cases (file photo)

KAMPALA, 10 June 2010 (IRIN) - The International Criminal Court (ICC) is beginning to deliver justice to survivors of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, but the world has yet to fully commit to ending impunity for the gravest crimes, according to participants at a conference reviewing the court's legal foundation.



"The Rome Statute has been described as the greatest advance in international law since the UN Charter," Oby Nwankwo, executive director of Nigeria's Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre, said in Uganda, where the 31 May-11 June conference is taking place. "While the ICC has its shortcomings, it provides a backstop to impunity."



Established by the Statute on 1 July 2002, the ICC now has 111 state parties, 18 judges, and field offices in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, Central African Republic (CAR) and Chad. It is conducting investigations in the DRC, Uganda, CAR, Kenya and Sudan, and has issued 13 arrest warrants for eight cases.



But critics say the Court has taken too long to conclude cases and is too focused on African countries. Describing the ICC as "European-driven, African-focused and irretrievably flawed", pro-Khartoum writer and publicist David Hoile said its "claims to international jurisdiction and judicial independence are institutionally flawed and the Court's approach has been marred by blatant double standards and serious judicial irregularities".



The Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies cited the

AFRICA: Go-ahead for IDP convention

Photo: Anthony Mitchell/IRIN The African Union flag: Member states are making plans to implement the Kampala convention on the protection of internally displaced people - file photo

NAIROBI, 11 June 2010 (IRIN) - African Union members have adopted plans to implement the Kampala convention on the protection of internally displaced people, including increasing their contributions to refugee and IDP funding and accelerating the convention's ratification, signature and domestication, the AU said.



Signed by 26 countries since it was endorsed in the Ugandan capital of Kampala on 23 October 2009, the convention obliges governments to

KENYA-SOMALIA: Halima*, "You find out very quickly who your friends are"

Photo: Casey Johnson/IRIN "We don't have to bury our heads in the sand like an ostrich"

NAIROBI, 10 June 2010 (PlusNews) - In Somalia's conservative Muslim society it is extremely rare for someone living with HIV to speak out about their status, and even more so for a woman. But Halima*, a Somali refugee in Kenya and a mother of four in her fifties, told IRIN her story, which is also part of a recent IRIN Radio Somali programme.



"I found that I was HIV-positive in 2009. I was being treated for TB [tuberculosis] when I was advised that I should go to the VCT [voluntary

CHAD: Rethinking HIV testing on the islands

Photo: Phuong Tran/ IRIN Positive test result from the first HIV testing campaign on Lake Chad's island of Kinaserom in May 2010

LAKE CHAD, 9 June 2010 (IRIN) - Health authorities in Chad are considering how to re-launch HIV testing on the islands of Lake Chad after they were forced to cut short their first attempt in April. The testing was offered without counselling or health education – and ended with rumours and confusion.



"We need to find out how to gain the confidence of local populations to resume testing. There was not [enough] health education done before the campaign," Raoul Ngarhounoum, the Health Ministry regional director overseeing the islands, told IRIN.



Health workers on the island of Kinaserom in Lake Chad advertised the tests as general health evaluations to encourage higher turnout, said nurse and clinic director, Mahamat Boukar Moussa.



"It was then painful for us to give results because people were shocked when they learned they were HIV-positive. They did not even know what test they received. People stopped coming

EAST AFRICA: Cassava comes in from the cold

Photo: African Crops Agronomists who hope to unlock casava's potential by capitalising of its utility as a source of products such as animal feed, glue, bio-fuel, and glucose syrup

NAIROBI, 8 June 2010 (IRIN) - Perishable, poisonous if mishandled and reputedly fit only for the plates of the poor, the cassava plant is set for an east African makeover by agronomists who hope to unlock its potential as a cash crop with a host of industrial uses. The key, they say, is to add value locally.



A programme led by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Farm Concern International (FCI), and various partners aims to improve the food security of small-scale farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The hope is also to capitalise on cassava's utility as a source of products such as animal feed, glue, bio-fuel,

KENYA: “Good” mould to the rescue

Photo: Wikimedia Commons The Kenya government announced in May that some 2.3 million 90kg bags of maize were contaminated with aflatoxin - file photo

NAIROBI, 7 June 2010 (IRIN) - A deadly fungus that has blighted thousands of tonnes of maize in Kenya could be defeated by introducing a less dangerous cousin to crops while still in the field, say scientists.



"The bio-control technology works by introducing strains of the Aspargillus flavus fungus that do not produce the aflatoxin, or 'the good guys', into the affected fields, which outcompete and drastically reduce the population of the poison-producing strains, or 'the bad guys'," according to a statement released by the Agriculture Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS), the Africa-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF).

SOUTH AFRICA: Drug resistance, alcohol and money

Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN Treating drug-resistant TB can take up to 24 months

DURBAN, 4 June 2010 (PlusNews) - A complex mix of issues drives drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patients to default on medication, not least of which are alcohol and money, according to new research presented by Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF), the international medical charity, at the South African TB Conference in the east-coast city of Durban.



When 22 percent of drug-resistant TB patients defaulted on treatment at one of MSF's clinics in the Cape Town township of Khayelitsha, despite access to services such as

DRC-CONGO: Security improves for DRC refugees

Photo: UNHCR/F. Noy Thousands of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo are living in Betou, Republic of Congo (file photo)

MOMBENZÉLÉ, 2 June 2010 (IRIN) - Humanitarian access in Impfondo, in the northern Likouala region of the Republic of Congo (ROC), has improved following the reinforcement of security, say officials.



Impfondo is hosting about 120,000 refugees from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), who fled fighting between the Enyele and Munzaya communities over land and fishing rights in the Dongo area of Equateur Province in late 2009.



"There has been an improvement since late March. Security has been restored and humanitarian [officials] including UN agencies can take aid to the people in this region," said Daniel

BURKINA FASO: Young girls at risk as they join exodus to cities

Photo: Nancy Palus/IRIN Children in Burkina Faso

LOUTA, 4 June 2010 (IRIN) - Migration in search of work has long been common in Sourou Province, northern Burkina Faso, but the trend is increasingly for younger girls to join the exodus, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the NGO Terre des hommes (Tdh).



"Migration is after all a method of survival," Herman Zoungrana, head of Tdh's protection programme in Burkina Faso, told IRIN. He said traditionally after the harvest people would fill up their granaries then set out to find work until the next planting season.



"But with younger and younger girls migrating, the risk of exploitation and violence grows," he said. Residents told IRIN in many cases parents encouraged their children to migrate – "because here we live in misery", as one woman put it.



Boys and young men in the region have also long migrated for work,

Evo Morales hopeful of restabilising full relations with Washington

President Evo Morales Zoom Image

Morales made the statement during a press conference at the same time that Deputy Secretary of State for Hemispheric affairs, Arturo Valenzuela was holding talks with Bolivian Foreign Affairs minister David Choquehuanca.

“Let’s hope we can advance with this new framework agreement for full diplomatic, trade and investment relations. We are hopeful that the visit from the US government representative can help us advance these negotiations”, added Morales.

The first elected indigenous Bolivian president had had a complicated relation with Washington and only 24

Egypt’s Brotherhood loses in parliamentary vote

CAIRO (Reuters)

The Muslim Brotherhood said on Wednesday it would back a drive by former U.N. atomic watchdog head Mohammed ElBaradei to reform Egyptian politics after the group secured no seats in a vote to parliament's upper house.



Egypt's biggest opposition group, which controls a fifth of the lower house seats but none in the Shura Council upper house, said it would help ElBaradei collect signatures for change, a move bound to boost his efforts to gather a million names.

Tuesday's Shura Council vote for a third of the seats was marred by abuses reported by rights groups and independent monitors, a common feature of

SOUTH AFRICA: Sports stars urge men to "do the right thing"

Photo: Brothers for Life Do the right thing

JOHANNESBURG, 1 June 2010 (PlusNews) - A team of top South African and international sportsmen will lend their star power to a campaign that promotes HIV prevention, and relegates violence against women and children.



South African football players Matthew Booth and Teko Modise, rugby captain John Smit, cricket captain Graeme Smith and international football stars Ryan Giggs of Manchester United and Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona have already signed up.



These sporting talents will be Sports Ambassadors for Brothers for Life, a national campaign encouraging men to take a