PAX GAEA WORLD POST HUMAN RIGHTS HEADLINES (12/13)
Topics: Better access to cervical cancer vaccine could save 1/4 million lives a year, 650 million disabled get UN treaty, Wolfowitz policies cause mass exodus by World Bank executives damaging overt fight, That Christmas diamond may be drenched in blood
Call for global use of cervical cancer vaccines
Shots against sexually transmitted disease could save 250,000 lives a year
LONDON - International health experts called on Tuesday for rapid worldwide access to promising but expensive cervical cancer vaccines that have the potential to save a quarter of a million lives a year. Merck & Co. Inc.’s recently launched Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Cervarix, which is expected to be approved next year, protect women against human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes most cases of the disease. MSNBC/Reuters (12/13)
UN adopts disability convention
By Geoff Adams-Spink Age & disability correspondent, BBC News website
The United Nations General Assembly has unanimously adopted a treaty on the rights of disabled people. The text of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was agreed by a UN committee in August. Countries that ratify it will have to introduce laws ensuring that disabled people are treated fairly. The treaty will enter into force once it has been ratified by 20 countries. It is thought that the world's disabled population is 650m. BBC (United Kingdom) (12/13)
Wolfowitz in firing line as World Bank faces mass exodus
Christopher Swann, Washington
WORLD Bank president Paul Wolfowitz faces mounting criticism from directors of the international lending organisation who say he relies on political advisers with little expertise in development while driving away seasoned managers. Half of the bank's 29 highest-level executives have left since Mr Wolfowitz, the former US deputy defence secretary and an architect of President George Bush's invasion of Iraq, took office in June last year. Among them is Christiaan Poortman, vice-president for the Middle East and a 30-year veteran, who left in September after resisting pressure to speed up lending and adding staff in Iraq. The Age (Australia) (1213)
Blood diamonds: Miners risk lives for chance at riches
By Jeff KoinangeCNN
MBUJI-MAYI, Democratic Republic of the Congo (CNN) -- At a bend in a tributary of the mighty Congo River, dirt-poor villagers feverishly pan for the shiny stones that have proved as elusive as they are rare -- diamonds. Hundreds stake their claims here hoping to strike it rich in this, the fourth-largest diamond-producing country in the world. Officials say that last year, diamond exports from the Congo grew to $2 billion, nearly one-fifth of the country's gross domestic product. But what these villagers don't know -- or hardly care about -- is the fact these are some of the precious stones that have, according to experts, indirectly fueled some of Africa's dirtiest wars from Sierra Leone to Liberia and from Angola to Congo. They're known as conflict diamonds or, more bluntly, blood diamonds. And in this corner of the Congo, men and boys constantly mine, hoping to find a way out of poverty. CNN (12/13)
posted by Dave Carroll @ 12/13/2006 02:30:00 PM
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