‘Time Has Come For Some Fresh Thinking’ On U.S. Food Aid Program May 13, 2013 News Summary “Among the more laudable ideas in President Obama’s budget for fiscal 2014 is a plan to modernize and reform the $1.5 billion U.S. food aid program,” a Washington Post editorial states. Noting some of the proposed changes, the editorial writes, “Obama’s plan has run into political opposition on Capitol Hill” as…
Wall Street Journal Examines Motivation Behind Melinda Gates’s Focus On Family Planning May 13, 2013 News Summary The Wall Street Journal examines how traveling the world inspired Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to “ma[ke] a bold and controversial pledge to help women in the developing world get better access to contraception” a little more than a year ago. “Declaring family planning to…
CBS News Interviews Bill Gates On ’60 Minutes’ May 13, 2013 News Summary CBS News’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday aired “Bill Gates 2.0,” a video interview with correspondent Charlie Rose and Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. According to the program transcript, Gates explains in the interview “why he thinks inventions are the key to success, and just what…
Health Experts Concerned About Novel Coronavirus As It Continues To Spread In Saudi Arabia, France May 13, 2013 News Summary “Two more people have died from novel coronavirus, a new strain of the virus similar to the one that caused SARS, in an outbreak in al-Ahsa region of Saudi Arabia, the deputy health minister for public health said on Sunday,” Reuters reports. “Ziad Memish said that in the latest cluster…
Working Toward Clean Cookstoves, Fuels For 100M Households By 2020 May 13, 2013 News Summary “The seemingly simple act of cooking a meal is responsible for four million deaths each year” and is the fourth leading health risk in the world, Radha Muthiah, executive director of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, writes in USAID’s “IMPACTblog” as part of a May series examining the agency’s…
Rational Discussion About Flu Pandemic Risks Necessary May 13, 2013 News Summary In his Wall Street Journal column “Mind and Matter,” Matt Ridley writes that the new H7N9 avian flu strain “is spreading alarm” and “has infected about 130 people and killed more than 30.” He continues, “Every time this happens, some journalists compete to foment fear, ably assisted by cautious but…
Cambodia On Track To Eliminate New HIV Infections By 2020, WHO Says May 13, 2013 News Summary “Cambodia is on track to become one of the few countries in the world to successfully reverse its HIV epidemic and may eliminate new infections by 2020, the [WHO] said Friday,” Agence France-Presse reports. “The Southeast Asian nation has reduced its HIV prevalence rate from a 1998 peak of 1.7…
MAMA Initiative Using Mobile Technologies To Help Mothers, Newborns In South Africa May 13, 2013 News Summary PBS Newshour’s “The Rundown” blog examines “the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action, affectionately known as MAMA — a global movement that uses mobile technologies to improve the health and lives of mothers in developing nations.” According to the blog, “MAMA provides pregnant women and new mothers with vital information and…
Direct References To Women’s Sexual, Reproductive Health Rights Needed In Post-2015 Development Goals, European Parliament Group Hears May 13, 2013 News Summary “Explicit references to women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights must appear in any new set of development targets, and the U.N. panel producing a first draft must be bold and seek real change, a conference of [European] parliamentarians heard on Thursday,” The Guardian reports. “Baroness Glenys Kinnock, honorary co-president…
Food Security Campaign Asks U.K. Prime Minister To Increase Efforts To Address Issue May 13, 2013 News Summary U.K. Prime Minister “David Cameron’s pledge to reduce the number of malnourished children by 20 million by 2020 will ‘ring hollow’ unless he redoubles his efforts to tackle the issue, according to leading aid agencies,” The Guardian reports. As Cameron “prepares to meet [U.S. President] Barack Obama in the White…