WHO plans financial reforms

This is a late covering of the WHO reform...
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Posted: 05 November 2011

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation plans financial reforms as it seeks to cope with budget shortfalls amid the global economic crisis, an official said Friday.

Proposals include reducing the size of the UN agency's Geneva headquarters by sending some staff to work in less expensive areas, the WHO's director of strategy Daniel Lopez-Acuna told reporters.

The WHO's executive body said after an extraordinary session this week that the organisation was planning "ambitious reforms designed to build on the organisation's already strong foundations and better equip it to respond to public health challenges in the 21st century."

But Lopez-Acuna said not to expect a "big bang". Reforms at the 63-year-old organisation with a staff of nearly 8,500 around the world will be "a process that takes some time," he said.

In May, the WHO's 193 members adopted an austerity budget for 2012-2013 in the face of a deficit of some $300 million (215 million euros) in donor contributions prompted by the global crisis.

Some 300 headquarters staff will be axed, but further reforms are needed.

Resources will increasingly be transferred to in-country programmes, Lopez-Acuna said, and some activities could be shut down entirely depending on funding and priorities.

The executive council's statement Thursday following a three-day meeting said the body would meet again in January to examine ways to "better anticipate and be more flexible in its financing".

In the interim, it authorised the WHO leadership to take "immediate measures", the statement said, without elaborating.

- AFP/wk


Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
WHO plans financial reforms

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Complacency fuels new AIDS surge in West: UN

UNITED NATIONS: Complacency among young people is causing a new surge of the AIDS epidemic in the United States and European nations like Britain and Germany, a top UN expert said ahead of World AIDS Day on Wednesday.

The worrying sexual behaviour of young adults, particularly men, in rich nations and a surge of the spread of AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia linked to drug use, officials said, has tainted positive signs such as dramatic cut in the number of infections passed from mothers to their newborn babies.

Agencies including the UN's HIV/AIDS program UNAIDS have cautiously highlighted a fall in the number of global infections in figures released ahead of World AIDS Day on Wednesday.

But Paul De Lay, deputy executive director of UNAIDS, said: "There seem to be secondary and tertiary waves of the epidemic, particularly the sexually transmitted side.

"You have a young people who don't know enough about AIDS, there is less of a fear factor about it."

He said it was a particular problem in Britain, Germany and the United States. Without giving specific figures, he said infection rates among young people are three times what they were in the early 2000s.

"We find that every five to seven years we need to go through a new re-energized education campaign. We are doing that in the UK and Germany. Here in the US we have had a huge resurgence of sexually transmitted AIDS."

According to the UNAIDS annual report released last week there were an estimated 54,000 new infections in the United States last year and 3,900 in Germany. There are an estimated 1.2 million AIDS sufferers in the United States, 85,000 in Britain and 67,000 in Germany.

In Eastern Europe and Central Asia "there has been been an explosion of young people who are experimenting with injected drugs," according to the UN expert.

This is "ripe" for spreading HIV/AIDS and pregnant addicts pass on the infection to their children extending "an ongoing transmission cycle," said De Lay.

Russia and Ukraine together account for almost 90 per cent of new HIV/AIDS infections in recent years, said the UNAIDS report. Ukraine now has the highest adult AIDS rate in Europe and Central Asia.

UNAIDS said "there is strong evidence of resurgent HIV epidemics among men who have sex with men" in North America and Western Europe, where there are now an estimated total of 2.7 million sufferers, up 30 per cent since 2001.

The 3,160 new HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men in Britain in 2007 were the most ever reported. In the United States, new HIV infections attributed to unprotected sex between men increased by more than 50 per cent from 1991-1993 to 2003-2006.

Around the world there were an estimated 2.6 million new infections last year, down from about 3.3 million at the peak of the AIDS epidemic in 1999, according to De Lay.

"It is a slow, steady decrease," said De Lay, who predicted that at the current rate it would take about 50 years to conquer Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

The 370,00 babies a year born with AIDS is down from 500,000 a year at the start of the decade and a new UN report said it would be possible to eradicate mother-to-baby transmission of AIDS by 2015.

Virtually no babies are born with AIDS in Europe and North America now as wealthier countries launched aggressive screening and prevention programs in the the 1990s.

But in Africa, 1,000 babies a day are still infected with HIV/AIDS through mother-to-child transmission.

Anthony Lake, executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) called the figure "outrageous" and demanded greater efforts for "the hardest hit communities."

But, highlighting the greater use of anti-viral drugs and other treatments, World Health Organisation director general Margaret Chan said "we have strong evidence that elimination of mother-to-child transmission is achievable."

-AFP/ac


Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:Complacency fuels new AIDS surge in West: UN

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Haiti's cholera outbreak - update

Image via Wikipedia

Health experts have suspected for a while that Haiti's cholera epidemic, which has upset the nation's recovery after the Jan. 12 earthquake, came from a single source. Those suspicions have now been confirmed.


Ever since rumors circulated that the cholera infection was brought into the stricken nation by U.N. sanctioned Nepalese troops, many Haitians have held the U.N. presence in the country responsible. Indeed, there have been attacks on U.N. camps and hospitals by locals.

(See TIME's Top 10 Terrible Epidemics.)

While medical checks proved that it was not the Nepalese who carried the infection, DNA fingerprinting from a sample of Haitian sufferers revealed that the infection in every case was identical. This points to a single source and rules out the possibility of the dormant prevalence of cholera over there.

(See pictures from Haiti's Cholera Outbreak.)

This will not come as good news for Haitians as this still implies that rumors that the U.N. brought in cholera could be true. With over 10,000 different aid agencies employing a working presence in Haiti to provide humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of January's earthquake, it's improbable that the source itself will be identified. However, the result of the international presence does demonstrate the emergence of a catch-22 situation for the humanitarian effort. Bring in more aid and risk further spread of infection or cease the aid effort and risk Haiti devolving into chaos?

(See the Top 10 Deadliest Earthquakes.)

Now that the infection has showed its strength by spreading to the Dominican Republic, is it possible that the outbreak could become an international pandemic? (via Reuters)

Lifted from this article:
Haiti's Cholera Epidemic: Infection Came from 'Single Source'

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North Korea suspect ship has turned around, says US official

Posted: 01 July 2009 0803 hrs

North Korean ship, the Kang Nam I, is anchored in Hong Kong waters.

WASHINGTON: A North Korean ship tracked by the US Navy and suspected of transporting weapons or military know-how in violation of UN sanctions has turned around, a Pentagon official said.

The official declined to provide details, including where the Kang Nam 1 ship - reportedly originally bound for Myanmar - could now be headed, but news reports out of South Korea suggested the ship may be returning home two weeks after it set sail June 17.

A diplomatic source speaking on condition of anonymity told the Korea Herald that the ship was "near our waters," which could suggest that sanctions were having an effect on reclusive North Korea.

"If the ship is on its way back, it would mean that Resolution 1874 is taking effect and causing the North to retreat," Kim Tae-woo, vice president of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, told the newspaper.

The Kang Nam 1 quickly drew the attention of the US military under new UN sanctions designed to punish Pyongyang over its May 25 underground nuclear test.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, confirmed Sunday that the United States was tracking the cargo ship.

"Obviously we're pursuing and following the progress of that ship very closely," she told the CBS network.

"I'm not going to get into our operational details or what we might actually do on the high seas, if anything, or what allies and partners in the region might do."

UN Security Council Resolution 1874, adopted in response to the May 25 nuclear test, calls for beefed up inspections of air, sea and land shipments going to and from North Korea, and an expanded arms embargo.

But a senior US lawmaker, Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, last week said the resolution had "serious limitations" because it rules out the use of military force to back up the searches.

- AFP/yb

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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UN chief urges North Korea to show restraint

Posted: 01 July 2009 0453 hrs

Ban Ki-Moon

TOKYO: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged communist North Korea to refrain from further steps which may worsen a "very serious situation" after its recent nuclear and missile tests.

"I urge North Korean authorities to refrain from taking any further measures which may deteriorate the already very serious situation," Ban told a joint press event with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone.

Regional tension spiked after North Korea on May 25 carried out its second nuclear test, followed by missile launches, which resulted in new UN sanctions.

The North has also vowed to build more nuclear bombs and to start a new weapons programme based on uranium enrichment.

Ban called on UN members to implement the resolution passed in response to the nuclear test which authorises tougher inspections of North Korean shipments suspected to contain nuclear- and missile-related materials.

The UN chief urged North Korea "to fully cooperate and fully comply with this resolution" and "member states of the United Nations to fully cooperate so that this resolution should be able to be implemented."

The North's policy has grown notably harder-line this year after leader Kim Jong-Il was widely believed to have suffered a stroke last August.

US and South Korean officials believe the ailing Kim is projecting an image of strength to bolster his authority as he prepares one of his sons for a takeover. - AFP/de

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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NKorean ship may be heading to Myanmar

Posted: 23 June 2009 0752 hrs

North Korean ship, the Kang Nam I, anchored in Hong Kong waters. (file photo)

WASHINGTON: A North Korean ship being tracked by a US Navy destroyer under new UN sanctions could be headed to Myanmar, a US defense official said Monday.

The Kang Nam 1 is the first North Korean ship to be monitored since the adoption of a UN resolution designed to punish Pyongyang over its underground nuclear test last month.

As the Aegis destroyer USS John S. McCain continued to shadow the cargo ship, US officials said the vessel could be bound for another reclusive state, Myanmar.

It appears "they're trying to go to Burma," a US defense official told AFP on condition of anonymity, using the country's old name.

The official offered no further details but analysts have speculated that the aging ship could be destined for Myanmar, as the two countries have close ties and have agreed arms deals in the past.

South Korea's YTN television news channel, citing an unnamed intelligence source, reported on Sunday the ship was suspected of carrying missiles or related parts and was heading for Myanmar via Singapore.

The 2,000-tonne ship left the North Korean western port of Nampo on June 17, with Myanmar set as its final destination, YTN said.

The cargo ship provides the first possible test of United Nations sanctions that ban arms shipments -- including missile-related cargo -- to and from North Korea. The UN resolution, however, rules out the use of military force to enforce the sanctions.

The ship was one of a group of North Korean vessels previously linked to illicit cargo, according to US officials.

"It's still at sea and we're monitoring it," said another US defense official, who asked not to be named.

So far there has been "no request to query this vessel," he said.

US officials have yet to indicate if or when they might ask to search the vessel under the UN Security Council resolution.

The North Koreans are expected to reject any such request. But at some point, the ship will likely need to stop for refueling, possibly in Singapore, one of the world's largest ports.

It was unclear when and where the ship would stop but the defense official noted that "these type of ships typically don't have a long range."

Under the UN resolution, the country where the ship enters port is obliged to search the vessel if there are grounds for suspicion.

Regional tensions are at their highest for years after the North launched a long-range rocket on April 5 and conducted its second nuclear test on May 25, prompting the tougher UN sanctions.

The United States was also monitoring activity at North Korean missile sites and facilities that suggested the regime was preparing another long-range missile launch.

Although there was continued activity, "there's nothing that indicates an imminent launch," the defense official said.

According to a Japanese media report, North Korea could fire a rocket in the direction of Hawaii on or around US Independence Day on July 4.

The North staged missile launches in 2006 while the United States was marking the holiday.

- AFP/yt

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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UN to study security threat of climate change

A move to save the Earth – and its inhabitants. Have any thought on how to do this?

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06/04/2009 | 09:24 AM

UNITED NATIONS — With glaciers melting and oceans rising, the UN General Assembly on Wednesday expressed deep concern at the adverse impact of climate change and urged U.N. bodies to consider the possible security implications for all countries.

The nonbinding resolution, adopted by consensus, was the first ever sponsored by the 12-nation group of Pacific Small Island Developing States whose homelands are threatened by rising sea levels, and the first to raise the possible security threat from global warming.

It calls for a report by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon next year "on the possible security implications of climate change," based on the views of the 192 UN member states and regional and international organizations.

For the Pacific island nations, the implications are clear.

"The Pacific Ocean in which we have lived for centuries will eventually leave little of our homelands behind if urgent action is not taken," Ambassador Marlene Moses of Nauru, the world's smallest island nation covering only 21 square kilometers, warned the assembly.

Speaking on behalf of the group, she said, small islands are already grappling with the inundation of coastal areas where the majority of their population live, the submergence of islands, the loss of fresh water supplies, salt water intrusion, flooding, drought and damaged crops.

"In many cases, these impacts will ultimately render Pacific island nations uninhabitable, destroying our unique and ancient cultures," Moses said.

"As the rest of the world continues to debate the security implications of climate change, for our peoples the problem is astoundingly real," she said. "Communities on drowning islands throughout the Pacific are faced with a looming homelessness crisis due to rising sea levels. For some, the only viable option is to migrate. While many have already relocated, more are expected to follow as more of our islands eventually submerge."

Moses told the assembly before the resolution was adopted that the adverse effects of climate change could lead to the disappearance of many UN member states for the first time in the organization's history.

"The adoption of the resolution will not only prove that we are seriously concerned about the global environment but more importantly that we are seriously concerned about the survival of whole populations and the existence of their lands, from which they derive their sense of belonging and identity," she said.

Palau's deputy UN ambassador Joan Yang stressed that for the Pacific islands and other countries, climate change is a security threat.

"When we are told by scientists to prepare for humanitarian crises, including exodus, in our lifetimes, how can it be different from preparing for a threat like war?," she asked. "When we face the potential for economic and political disruption on a scale not seen since World War II, we must move to action."

The Pacific island states "are among those nations least responsible" for the harmful greenhouse gases, blamed for global warming, "yet will be among the first to disappear," Yang said.

She urged the UN Security Council to address the security threat posed by climate change and chart the way forward.

Ambassador Phillip Muller of the Marshall Islands said there is "a very small window for urgent international action, perhaps as little as 10 years, to best avoid irreversible and abrupt climate impacts."

"The people of the Marshall Islands pray that we shall not reach this point of no return," he said. - AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

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