In The News

How Africans See the Initiative to Help the Continent

Bashir Goth July 8, 2005
As the G-8 discusses plans to cancel Africa's debt this week, most agree that the world's richest countries can and should aid the ailing continent. In fact, the group agreed to double aid to Africa by 2010. But in the excitement surrounding the G-8 summit, few have asked Africans how they feel about the plan. The answer, supplied by African journalist Bashir Goth, is surprisingly...

Avian Flu Found in Migrating Geese in China

Stephen Smith July 7, 2005
The recent deaths of migratory birds in western China are raising concerns that the avian flu may have found an unwelcome vehicle through which to spread around the world. According to newly released journal reports by Chinese scientists, at least 6,000 migratory geese have died so far due to the epidemic, which previously has been transmitted to humans only through contact with infected poultry...

Nagasaki 1945: While Independents Were Scorned, Embed Won Pulitzer

Mark Selden July 7, 2005
Sixty years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, some newly disclosed journalistic accounts offer a unique insight into wartime press controls. A copy of Chicago Daily News reporter George Weller's dispatches, which were stopped in 1945 by US military censors, has recently been uncovered by his son. Both Weller and another reporter had documented the atrocities in post-...

Unlike Africa, Crisis in Asia Not Yet on Political Radar

Eric Johnston July 6, 2005
As the recent Live 8 concerts and G-8 summit shed light on Africa's lingering problems, Asia's AIDS crisis is struggling to attract public attention. With the media focused on Africa, the 7th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, held last weekend in Japan, failed to raise the profile of the crisis in Asia, leading some to criticize the bad timing of the conference....

Progress on Global Access to HIV Antiretroviral Therapy

July 1, 2005
The number of people receiving combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS is increasing in every region of the world, tripling in the last 12 months in both sub-Saharan Africa and Asia – the two areas most affected by the disease. According to this newly released report by the WHO and UNAIDS, however, it is unlikely that the "3 by 5" goal of treating three million HIV-...

A Report from the Ground Zero of China’s AIDS Crisis

Pierre Haski June 30, 2005
The international community has praised the Chinese government for its recent change of heart toward the AIDS crisis. Whereas central authorities considered the epidemic a foreign issue just five years ago, Chinese leaders today acknowledge the severity of the problem and are participating in international programs aimed at the prevention and treatment of the disease. Journalist Pierre Haski...

Social Network's Healing Power Is Borne Out in Poorer Nations

Shankar Vedantam June 28, 2005
A three-decade-long study by the World Health Organization has shown that patients diagnosed with the mental illness schizophrenia consistently tend to recover better in poorer nations than in developed nations. Researchers attribute these surprising results to the cultural differences in treatment. Seen by most Western psychiatrists as an organic, incurable brain disease, schizophrenia is...