SOUTH AFRICA

CAPE TOWN - South Africa's Health Minister Barbara Hogan says former President Thabo Mbeki's government wasted time in fighting HIV/AIDS and vows to step up efforts after years of controversy. The health minister’s comments are her most critical yet of the Mbeki government's stance on HIV. South Africa, which has one of the world's heaviest HIV caseloads, is accused by activists of dragging its feet in dealing with the disease which kills an estimated 1 000 people every day. Hogan adds that South Africa must now show more urgency in implementing a national programme launched last year to fight HIV/Aids.

AFRICA & WORLD

GENEVA - Nearly 60-million women will give birth without any medical assistance this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says in a report calling for an overhaul of how health care is financed and managed globally. The United Nations agency states in its annual World Health Report that the billions of aid dollars devoted to fighting specific epidemics, such as HIV/Aids, have distracted attention from providing comprehensive care to mothers and children.  Another aspect of global health that is highlighted by the report is the difference in life expectancy between the richest and poorest countries, which still exceeds 40 years. The World Health 2008 report’s launch coincides with a global financial crisis that could freeze aid flows and squeeze government budgets for health care.  However, it is not only in the developing world that the provision of quality healthcare is being threatened. Medical care in the developed world is also becoming dangerously fragmented, with the WHO arguing that front-line health workers are better placed to assess patients' overall needs than costly specialists. 


LONDON – A UK-commissioned report says that rich countries should pay tropical nations billions of dollars a year to save their forests, using donor money and global carbon markets to foot the bill. In the longer-term, by 2030, developing countries should also start paying to help create "carbon neutral" global forests through binding targets to slow deforestation and plant trees. Clearing and burning forests for timber and farms creates about a fifth of the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change, but growing urgency to tackle the problem is dividing opinion on the best methods to use. The report is drawing criticism from some carbon traders and green groups, saying it downplays costs and skirts real world issues of corruption and land disputes. Extra pressures on tropical forests include clearances to plant vegetable oils for biodiesel and establish cattle ranches to satisfy a richer world's increasingly meat-hungry diet.

STOCKHOLM – US economist Paul Krugman wins the 2008 Nobel Prize for economics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says the prestigious 10-million crown award recognises Krugman's formulation of a new theory on what drives worldwide urbanisation. Krugman’s theory suggests that countries that dominate world trade, not only share similar socioeconomic and political conditions, but also trade in similar products. Krugman, a fierce critic of US President George W. Bush, believes that the Bush Administration’s policies are responsible for the US financial crisis. Krugman argues that Bush's zeal for deregulation and loose fiscal policies helped spark the current banking meltdown. It is the second year in a row that a major Nobel Prize is awarded to an American known for strong criticism of Bush.  Last year's peace prize went to former US Vice President Al Gore for his work on climate change.

WASHINGTON - World finance and development ministers warn that developing countries risk serious and lasting setbacks from the global financial crisis and urge major economies to deliver on aid pledges. The World Bank says it has the capacity to "comfortably double" lending to developing countries in need. Ministers also urge the World Bank to explore all options to help recapitalise banks in developing countries affected by the global liquidity crunch. Ministers state big donor nations should not use the turmoil in the financial markets as an excuse to pull back on aid promises to the poor. African finance ministers pointed to the speed with which the US and Europe have raised billions of dollars for faltering banks but are behind in aid commitments to poor countries.