“Germany will give one billion euros [$1.3 billion] to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the country’s minister for economic cooperation and development Dirk Niebel said Thursday” during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, CNN reports (Chapple, 1/24). Niebel made the announcement at a news conference “also attended by Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Mark Dybul, executive director of the Global Fund,” according to a Global Fund press release. “The commitment represents a continuation of Germany’s pledge for annual contributions of 200 million euros for a total of five years, through 2016,” the press release notes. “We need to continue to devote hard work and determined efforts to halting the spread of HIV, malaria and other infectious diseases,” Niebel said, according to the press release. Dybul added, “We need funding to get it done. We are at a critical moment for funding, and we need a big push this year,” the press release states (1/24).