Good News Agency – Year II, n° 12
Weekly - Year II, number 12
– 6 July 2001
Managing Editor: Sergio Tripi,
Ph. D.
Rome Law-court registration
no. 265 dated 20 June 2000.
Good News Agency carries positive and constructive news from all over the world relating to voluntary work, the work of the United Nations, non governmental organizations, and institutions engaged in improving the quality of life – news that doesn’t “burn out” in the space of a day.
Good News Agency is distributed through Internet to over 2,500 editorial offices of the daily newspapers and periodical magazines and of the radio and television stations with an e-mail address in 45 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Finland, Holland, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela, USA, and it is also available in its web site:
It is a free of
charge service of Associazione Culturale
dei Triangoli e della Buona Volontà Mondiale, a registered non-profit
educational organization chartered in Italy in 1979. The Association operates
for the development of consciousness and supports the activities of the Lucis
Trust, Radio For Peace International, The Club of Budapest and other
organizations promoting a culture of peace in the ‘global village’ perspective
based on unity within diversity and on sharing. Via Antagora
10, 00124 Rome, Italy. E-mail: s.tripi@tiscalinet.it
Contents:
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International legislation
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Energy
and safety
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Human
rights
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Science
and technology
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Economy
and development
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Environment and wildlife
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Solidarity
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Culture
and education
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Health
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(TOP)
Conditional nuclear arsenal
cuts
2 July - Russian President
Vladimir Putin repeated an offer to the USA to reduce its nuclear arsenal from
some 6,000 warheads to 1,500 provided there is a controlled process of
elimination and provided the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty remains
intact. Putin reiterated the offer while meeting with French President
Jacque Chirac. The two leaders issued a joint statement on 2 July on
international strategic issues. The statement notes that destruction of
the ABM Treaty could lead to a new arms race and also that an international
conference on nuclear proliferation would be useful. Both Russia and
France oppose US plans to build a national missile defense (NMD) system, which
they believe will be harmful to the future of international security.
sunflower-napf@yahoogroups.com (source: AP, 2 July 2001)
20 June - DRC President Joseph
Kabila has launched a national campaign to prevent the recruitment of child
soldiers and to prepare for their demobilisation from the Congolese army and
their reintegration into society, UNICEF announced on Thursday. The initiative,
which has the financial support of UNICEF, seeks to prohibit all children under
18 years of age from being sent to the frontline and from being involved in any
purely military task, such as the handling of weapons.
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/cea/countrystories/drc/20010615c.phtml
20 June - The Kenyan
parliament on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill which looks set to reduce the
cost of essential AIDS treatment significantly. The Industrial Property Bill
will allow the government to import or manufacture cheaper copies of brand-name
drugs, including the anti-retrovirals (ARVs) used in the drug cocktail used to
fight AIDS, according to campaigners for the affordable availability of drugs.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200106140553.html
20 June - The Nigerian
government has ratified five of the eight core conventions of the International
Labour Organization (ILO) conventions against child labour, 'The Guardian'
newspaper reported on Thursday. The ratification was disclosed by Godfrey
Preware, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Employment, Labour and
Productivity, at the 89th plenary session of the ILO which ended in Geneva
recently, the paper said.
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/wa/countrystories/nigeria/20010615a.phtml
Argentine lawmakers approve Kyoto Climate Protocol
Buenos Aires,
Argentina, June 22 - The Argentine House of Representatives has approved
the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement which aims
to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These gases are
linked to global warming. This approval was the last step needed towards the
ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the Argentine Congress.
The approval is
welcome support for the embattled Kyoto Protocol, but Argentina is not one of
the 39 industrialized countries that is actually governed by the agreement. (…)
The Kyoto Protocol
was signed by most countries including Argentina and the United States in 1997
as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, but
has not yet entered into force. The protocol will not take effect until it is
ratified by 55 percent of the nations emitting at least 55 percent of six
greenhouse gases that trap the Sun's heat close to the Earth's surface.
The Kyoto Protocol
is the only international agreement to address greenhouse gases emissions
linked to global warming. The aim of the protocol is to reduce by an average of
5.2 percent the emissions of the industrialized countries relative to their
1990 emissions levels.
By Alejandra
Herranz
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-22-02.html
Education bill targets pesticides in schools
Washington, DC,
USA, June 20 - The education bill passed last week in the U.S. Senate could
help protect children from pesticides in schools. The legislation would promote
safer pest management practices in schools, reducing the chemicals used in
classrooms, playgrounds and other school properties, to safeguard the nation's
most vulnerable population from the toxic effects of pesticides.
The School
Environment Protection Act (SEPA) of 2001 was sponsored by Senator Robert
Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat. The measure, included in the Senate version
of the Better Education for Students and Teachers Act, resulted from an
historic agreement between agricultural, environmental, children and labor
groups, and the chemical and pest management industries.
Thirty-one states
have taken some level of action in protecting children from pesticide use in,
around or near their schools, according to a report, "The Schooling of
State Pesticide Laws-2000," by the environmental group and public health
group Beyond Pesticides.
By Cat Lazaroff
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-20-06.html
EU renewable energy law virtually finalized
Brussels, Belgium, June
20 - A draft European Union law to promote electricity from renewable sources
came close to finalization today as the European Parliament's energy committee
endorsed a compromise reached between governments and the assembly's rapporteur
Member of the European Parliament Mechtild Rothe. But an argument over whether
biodegradable waste burning should be classed as renewable is likely to delay
adoption of the law.
Under the deal, individual
EU country targets to increase renewable electricity generation will remain
non-binding. National renewable support plans will enjoy a seven year
transition period once the European Union agrees on a harmonized support
scheme.
The European Commission,
the EU's executive branch, is to propose harmonizing rules within four years of
the directive's entry into force.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-20-01.html
Ship dismantling industry set
to go green
Geneva/Nairobi, 19 June -
International experts on hazardous wastes and shipping are joining forces in
Geneva today under the auspices of the Basel Convention on the Transboundary
Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal to start finalizing
international Guidelines for the environmentally safe dismantling of obsolete
ships. (…)
Although ships played a role
in inspiring the international community to adopt the Basel Convention in 1989
- as the vehicles for highly publicized cargoes of hazardous wastes sent from
industrialized countries for dumping in developing and East European countries
- it is only in the last several years that the toxic materials they themselves
are made of have become a priority issue.(…) The 89-page Guidelines seek to
minimize or eliminate these risks by introducing universally applied principles
for the environmentally sound management of ship dismantling. They detail
procedures and good practices for decommissioning and selling obsolete ships,
dismantling them, sorting the parts (for reuse, recycling and disposal),
identifying potential contaminants, preventing toxic releases, monitoring
environmental impacts, and responding to emergencies and accidents. They also
address the design, construction and operation of ship dismantling facilities.
http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=204&ArticleID=2873
(TOP)
Colombian towns choose peace
at last
21 June - "The only war
you win is the one that you can prevent." This maxim underlies the main
achievement of the Colombian communities of Lejanías, El Dorado, El Castillo,
San Martín, Cubarral and Guamal, which are overcoming a legacy of bloodshed and
taking a path of reconciliation and development. (…)
The communities have been able
to embark on the path of peace thanks to three reasons. First, the commitment
of the local governments, led by the Alto Ariari Association of Municipalities,
whose mayors decided to sit down, get to know each other, and start to work
together. Second, the people of the communities dared to participate in local
governance. Third, the communities found support from the General Directorate for
Resettlement of the Ministry of Interior, as well as from UNDP and
international NGOs. Human rights and democratization had become a priority in
Alto Ariari and the armed groups had to respect this.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Exploring humanitarian law
28
June – A month-long pilot
programme to introduce secondary schoolchildren to the principles of international
humanitarian law has just been completed in Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of the
'Exploring Humanitarian Law' project currently being developed by the ICRC in
more than a dozen countries worldwide.
Designed
to encourage children and adolescents to think about respect for life and
humanitarian principals, the project uses a participatory approach to stimulate
discussion and analysis of issues such as the protection of civilians in
wartime, the role of combatants, the displacement of communities, child
soldiers, mob violence and other forms of civil disturbance. (…)
The
programme, which received the blessing of the Ministries of Education, was led
by school teachers in collaboration with ICRC dissemination officers,
representatives of local educational institutes and personnel from the Red
Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/
(TOP)
High expectations for the
“World Food Summit” to be held in Rome 5-9 November
New York, 25 June – The AIDS
epidemic is rapidly spreading to rural areas in developing countries and is
contributing to an increase in the number of people who go to bed hungry every
night, the Director-General of the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture
Organization, Dr. Jacques Diouf, said in a message delivered to the Special
Session of the UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS.
“Unless national governments,
international bodies and organizations of civil society step up their efforts,
the vicious circle of poverty, hunger and HIV/AIDS will not be broken. Indeed,
it will intensify,” Dr. Diouf said. He hopes that the “World Food Summit: five
years later”, to be held in Rome 5-9 November 2001, will contribute to breaking
this vicious circle. The purpose of the Summit is to raise both the political
will and the financial resources to fight hunger.
Mexico: World Bank reviews
strategy, launches projects to expand health coverage, restructure banks
Washington, June 22 - The
World Bank's Executive Board reviewed a two-year progress report this week on
implementation of the Bank's assistance strategy in Mexico, and also approved
two new loans to Mexico, respectively, $350 million to expand and improve
health services to the poor, and $505 million to deepen reforms in the
country's banking sector.
The report on Mexico's Country
Assistance Strategy, in effect since June 1999, noted that the relationship
between Mexico and the World Bank Group is, "at an encouraging high
point," due to a "combination of country development progress and
success in delivering assistance." (…)
The Bank's portfolio in Mexico
is expected to begin 2002 with 23 projects, with disbursements in the past
three fiscal years totaling $3.9 billion. Loans and analytical work have
focused on social sustainability, including support for basic education and
health services, and addressing the needs of the rural poor, and support for a
viable macroeconomic framework which, the report says, has "placed Mexico
among the best macroeconomic performers in the region." The Country
Assistance Strategy Progress Report also highlights the Bank's support for
private sector growth and competitiveness, improvements in infrastructure,
agricultural productivity, environmental protection, and public governance. http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/news/pressrelease.nsf
India boosts wide range of
poverty reduction programs with World Bank support totaling US$ 914 million
New Delhi, June 21 - The World Bank today approved four
loans and credits totaling US$ 913.8 million, for a current fiscal year total lending
of US$ 2.5 billion, to the Government of India to support programs vital to
lasting poverty reduction. The four loans and credits finance programs
implemented at the national, state and local levels. (…)
Reinforcing initiatives by the
Government of India to support economic reforms at the state level, two of the
loans and credits approved today support reforms and poverty reduction within
the State of Karnataka. The Karnataka
Watershed Development Project (US$100.4 million) finances improved services
to poor communities in semi-arid regions and the Karnataka Economic Restructuring Project (US$150 million) supports
ongoing efforts to improve fiscal stability and government effectiveness in the
state.
The Grand Trunk Road Improvement Project (US$589 million) is part of
the Central Government's broader program to relieve transport bottlenecks on
India's key highways. The World Bank is financing expansion of the national
highway which connects New Delhi to Calcutta. The expanded highway, which
passes through some of India's poorest states, will facilitate trade and the
movement of people and goods while reducing the high number of road accidents.
The Second Rajasthan District
Primary Education Project (US$74.4 million) supports expansion of the
nationwide District Primary Education Program in the state of Rajasthan which
is increasing access to quality primary education for poor people-particularly girls. Coordinated by the
Government of India, the project builds on successful experiences in parallel
programs in other states and within Rajasthan.
http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/news/pressrelease.nsf
Washington, June 21 - The
World Bank today approved a US$100 million IBRD loan for the China Third Inland Waterways Project, which
will help to reduce transport and energy bottlenecks in Hunan Province. The
project will improve market access for the remote inland areas of the province,
provide more efficient and economic inland waterway transport, and generate
power to supplement the needs of the remote areas.
Infrastructure improvement is
a vital part of China's development agenda, particularly in the inland
provinces. This project, a combination of navigation and hydropower, aims to
improve the economic well-being of the majority of the poorest families along
the Xiangjiang River in Hunan Province. The project will remove dangerous
shoals, upgrade the 157-kilometer channel, and create a deeper channel along
the Xiangjiang River in order to enhance the safety and productivity of the
Inland Waterways system. These improvements will allow a more efficient mix of
vessel sizes to use the waterways, and will reduce their travel time by up to 2.5
hours. In addition, almost 640.5 million kwh of power will be produced annually
for Hunan Province, which will reduce the incidence of power outages.
http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/news/pressrelease.nsf
22 June - The Belgian-Swiss
airline consortium Sabena/Swissair has announced an embargo on the transport of
"coltan and all related minerals" from all points of the company's operations
in eastern Africa (Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda), airline industry
sources told IRIN on Wednesday. The decision was announced on 15 June and
became effective immediately, they added. The announcement follows the release
of a UN report in April that named the consortium as among those transporting
the highly sought-after mineral coltan (a naturally occurring compound of
columbium and tantalite found in eastern DRC and Rwanda), the exploitation of
which has been cited as a factor fuelling the conflict in the DRC.
Coltan is an essential
ingredient of high-tech components in the aerospace and communications
industries, and demand and prices for the mineral have risen markedly in recent
years. The UN report, completed by a panel of experts chosen to investigate
allegations of illegal exploitation of the natural resources of the DRC,
accused Rwanda and Congolese rebel groups of profiting from their control of
the eastern provinces of the Congo to mine and sell coltan in order to finance
military operations and enrich themselves.
Better seeds can boost
harvests for Iraq
20 June - With assistance from
UNDP, Iraq is upgrading the quality of seeds for cereal crops to boost yields
of these poor people's staples and improve farmers' livelihoods. (…)
Planting low quality seeds
leads to problems such as weed and pests, low productivity and an inability to
use seed processing machinery efficiently. Lack of high-yielding seed has
reduced farm efficiency and often forced poor farmers to abandon their lands.
To help Iraq improve seed
quality, UNDP launched an initiative in 1998 at the request of the government to
restore the seed multiplication programme. The UN Food and Agricultural
Organization (FAO) is implementing the $1 million project, building up stocks
of healthy, genetically pure seeds for multiplication, based on modern
agricultural standards.
Initially, the project
imported 45 tonnes of high productivity wheat seed, then distributed to
selected farmers for multiplication, along with a modern seed processing plant.
About half the farmers are women. The project has produced 5,000 tonnes of
seed, and is replacing low-yielding wheat varieties with new, more productive
ones. The project aims to output enough certified seed to meet 70 per cent of
the country's requirements within several years and eventually enable Iraq to
meet all its cereal needs.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
(TOP)
UNAIDS welcomes financial
contribution by Gates Foundation to the Global AIDS and Health Fund - Statement
by Peter Piot, Executive Director, UNAIDS
Geneva, 19 June – "UNAIDS warmly welcomes the financial
contribution of US$ 100 million to the global AIDS and health fund by the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation. We commend the Gates Foundation for being the
first private foundation to commit needed resources in the fight against
HIV/AIDS to the global fund. In making this contribution, the fund becomes a
still more diverse and international partnership - which is surely the only way
we will defeat this epidemic and reverse its terrible consequences. The
Foundation has also set out the high priority that they give to stopping
transmission and protecting a new generation of young people from becoming
infected. We hope that today's announcement by the Gates Foundation will
catalyse other donors including other private foundations to channel major
contributions to the global fund."
http://www.unaids.org/whatsnew/press/eng/pressarc01/Gates_190601.html
22 June - Some 136 children on
whose faces and bodies rebels carved their groups' acronyms during Sierra
Leone's 10-year civil war are to have them removed by two visiting plastic surgeons
from the International Medical Corps. A UNICEF official told IRIN the first
surgeon was due to arrive in mid-July. The official said some 95 percent of the
children had been branded with the letters RUF or AFRC, the acronyms of the
Revolutionary United Front and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which
ruled Sierra Leone in 1997-1998.
Many of the children were
forcibly separated from their relatives. Child protection agencies have started
a massive effort to trace the families of minors released from militia service
or captivity, OCHA reported in a review of the country's humanitarian situation
from 10 May to 16 June.
OCHA said that up to 11 June,
UNICEF and its partners had reunited 153 children who served in the
pro-government Civil Defence Forces with their families.
22 June - The WFP on Monday began a two-month airlift operation
targeting 25,600 accessible people in the north of Katanga Province,
southeastern DRC. The operation, based out of Kalemie in the east of the
province by Lake Tanganyika, aimed to fly some 650 mt of food and 100 mt of
non-food items into six war-ravaged locations in northern Katanga for hungry
and vulnerable populations, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday. (…)
The target population in all
six locations comprised severely malnourished children and their family
members. The food is to be distributed at hospitals and feeding centres rehabilitated
in the last months and weeks by the Italian NGO Nuova Frontiera, according to
WFP. Over the next two months, the DC-3 would make several flights a day to the
six northern Katanga locations, "all of which have been cut off from
markets and their food-producing fields by extreme insecurity for the past
several years", the agency added.
20 June - The Kenyan parliament
on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill which looks set to reduce the cost of
essential AIDS treatment significantly. The Industrial Property Bill will allow
the government to import or manufacture cheaper copies of brand-name drugs,
including the anti-retrovirals (ARVs) used in the drug cocktail used to fight
AIDS, according to campaigners for the affordable availability of drugs.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200106140553.html
28
June – ICRC teams in southern
Serbia have stepped up their efforts to warn the population of the threat posed
by mines and unexploded ordnance, the dangerous legacy of recent violence which
has already claimed the lives of five people in the area and injured several
more.
The
easing of tension in and around the so-called Ground Safety Zone has prompted
farmers to start tending their fields again and displaced families to return
home. This has heralded a new problem, since members of these groups, and
especially children, are the most likely to be injured by mines and unexploded
ordnance.
To
respond to the danger, the ICRC has expanded its existing mine-awareness
programme in the schools so as to reach as many schoolchildren as possible
before the end of the term. In addition, all relief beneficiaries are receiving
mine-awareness leaflets and posters, and local TV and radio stations have
agreed to broadcast an ICRC public information campaign. The ICRC is also
actively recruiting and training volunteers from the Yugoslav Red Cross and the
local community in order to ensure that the message reaches as many people as
possible.
http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/
Reinsurance firm makes donation to ICRC
22
June 2001 – Geneva (ICRC) – The Board of Directors of the New
Reinsurance Company in Geneva has decided to forego celebrations to mark the
company's 75thanniversary and instead donate one million Swiss francs to the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC will use the money
for water-supply projects in Afghanistan and East Timor.
By
means of this donation, the New Reinsurance Company seeks to give expression to
its humanitarian commitment and to make an active contribution to restoring
facilities on which people depend for their very survival. The money will
support projects that give access to clean water to men, women and children
living in areas that lack even the most basic infrastructure as a result of war
and general impoverishment. This in turn will lead to a considerable
improvement in the hygiene conditions and health of large groups of people
living in war-torn areas.
http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/
Peru:
MSF provides sanitary assistance to victims of earthquake
Lima, June 28th - Volunteers of the international
humanitarian aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are working in the
Departments of Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna in Peru, to assist the victims of
last Saturday's earthquake. The teams, made up of medical staff and water and
sanitation specialists, are focusing their efforts to respond to most urgent
medical needs of people living in rural areas and the most affected urban
areas. (…)
At the time of the earthquake,
MSF was already present in Peru running different medical programmes. In
Satipo, the organisation runs a project to improve diagnosis and treatment of
cutaneous and muco-cutaneous Leishmaniasis. In Lima, teams run various HIV/AIDS
prevention and treatment programmes. At the end of this month, MSF will end a
six-year project to improve access to healthcare for indigenous and mestizo
populations who live along Ucayali river in Pucallpa region.
(TOP)
Vigorous leadership and
adequate resources prerequisites to fighting AIDS, UNAIDS says
New UNAIDS report singles out
leadership as key to unlocking broad AIDS response
New York, 21 June – The
magnitude of the AIDS effort requires vigorous leadership and additional
resources, according to a report released today by the Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The report, entitled "Together We Can," notes that leadership is fundamental to
effective action against HIV/AIDS and that leaders at every level have been at
the forefront of the many successes achieved in fighting the epidemic. (…)
The report highlights advances
in the response to the epidemic and gives concrete examples of the successes
achieved in the 20 years since the first clinical description of AIDS was made.
It singles out leadership as one of the critical factors in mobilizing action
and resources to fight HIV/AIDS.
http://www.unaids.org/whatsnew/press/eng/pressarc01/Leader_210601.html
UNAIDS signs up Coca-Cola in
battle against AIDS
The
Coca-Cola Africa Foundation will co-ordinate local support for AIDS programmes
across the continent
Geneva, 20 June – UNAIDS today announced a partnership
with The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation to bring new impetus to the battle against
AIDS. Under the terms of the three-year
agreement, the Foundation will co-ordinate the efforts of Coca-Cola Africa and
its bottling partners across the continent to support AIDS education,
prevention and treatment programmes. This partnership is fully in line with the
philosophy behind the International Partnership against AIDS in Africa.(…)
The
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) brings together seven
United Nations system organizations (UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, UNDCP, UNESCO, WHO
and the World Bank) to help the world prevent new HIV infections, care for
those already infected and mitigate the epidemic's impact. (…)
http://www.unaids.org/whatsnew/press/eng/pressarc01/CocaCola_200601.html
20 June - The Ministry of
Health and Social Services yesterday launched this year's National Immunisation
Days of June 19 and 20 and July 24 and 25 countrywide, under the theme 'Let's
Kick Polio Out Of Namibia'. The project, which is part of the global effort to
eradicate polio was initiated in Namibia for the sixth consecutive year.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200106140552.html
20 June - Africa's first major
treatment and training centre for HIV/AIDS is scheduled to open in the Ugandan
capital, Kampala, early next year, according to a press statement on Monday
from the Academic Alliance for AIDS Care and Prevention in Africa.
http://www.kabissa.org/kfn/newsletter.php?id=1583
(TOP)
20 June - Chicago officials say that within five
years, at least 20 percent of electricity used by the city to power everything
from public buildings to elevated trains will come from renewable sources like
wind and solar power. City Environment Commissioner Bill Abolt said,
"The competition Chicago is involved in is an international one to
establish itself as the premier environmentally friendly city." Since Mayor
Richard Daley (D) took office, Chicago has planted thousands of trees, created
more than 100 miles of bike paths, installed solar panels on city museums, and
built a rooftop garden on City Hall.
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/171/nation/Chicago_tries_to_put_aside_smo:.shtml
Japanese and US
groups working together on certifications for biodegradable and compostable
plastics
Tokyo, Japan; New
York, USA, June 25 - The Biodegradable Plastics Society of Japan (BPS) and the
International Biodegradable Products Institute of the United States (BPI)
announced the signing of an agreement to cooperate in the development of
comparable tests and standards for biodegradable plastic products. This effort
will eventually result in the recognition of each other’s certifications,
facilitating the approval process for manufacturers. The action is an important
sign that the standards for biodegradable plastics are converging on a global
basis. "The agreement between the BPS and the BPI shows that Japan and the
United States are moving in the same direction in the critical areas of test
methods and specifications," noted Kazushi Ohshima, General Manager of the
BPS.
The agreement
stemmed from meetings held over the past 2 years between the BPS and BPI.
http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June01/25June0104.html
(TOP)
Cooperative research brightens
future of fiber-optic networks
Genoa Corp.
(Fremont, California, USA) recently unveiled a semiconductor chip roughly a square
millimeter in size that soon may revolutionize the design of local
communication networks, bringing the speed and capacity of fiber-optic networks
dramatically closer to the individual consumer. Genoa’s new device is the
world’s first single-chip linear optical amplifier, developed as part of a
research project under the NIST Advanced
Technology Program. Fiber-optic networks are used increasingly
for communications because they can move “firehose” quantities of data at
literally lightning speed.
COVAX, virtual filing for
libraries, archives and museums.
An international consortium
has given life to COVAX (Contemporary Cultures Virtual Archive in XML), a
biennial project financed by the European Commission and forming part of the
Information Society Technologies program (IST) with a cost of 2 million Euros.
The project, created for
demonstrating the feasibility of accessing distributed resources and to obtain
on the Web simple and advanced searches of electronic collections, aims at
putting together the descriptive and digital material of libraries, archives
and museums for the building of a global search and information retrieval
system. The project will demonstrate its feasibility through a prototype
containing a meaningful sample of all the different types of documents. The
fundamental idea resides in the application of XML and the varied DTDs defined
in libraries, archives and museums.
ENEA's Research Service (with
L. Bordoni as its scientific head) will represent Italy in the project,
together with: Angewandte InformationsTechnik Forschungsgesellschaft mbH and
Salzburg Research (Austria), Blekinge Tekniska Högskola (Blekinge Institute of
Technology, Sweden), Software AG España, S.A., Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
and the Biblioteca de Menéndez Pelayo (Spain), Laser (London and South Eastern
Library Region, UK). The Residencia de Estudiantes (Spain) will co-ordinate the
project.
Unaltered foods thanks to an
innovative system of concentration at low temperatures.
Italian ENEA (Biotecnological
and Agricultural Division, Biotecnological Plant and Processing Department),
the Bologna University (Department of Chemical Engineering, Mining and
Environmental Technologies - DICMA), the COIMEX corporation and the
Experimental Institute for industry of Food Preserves in Parma have developed
an innovative process for the low temperature concentration of liquid foods
such as vegetable juices, grape must, tomato juice, etc. that conserves intact
the organical and nutritional qualities of the foods themselves.
The experiment so far involves
a test plant for the concentration at low temperatures and through a process of
direct osmosis or, more precisely, of gaseous membrane extraction, that
exploits the properties of hydrophobic porous membranes to prevent the passage
of water in the liquid state, but allowing permeation of it in the gaseous
state; the concentration occurs through the use of a lower water vapor pressure
(or of a higher osmotic pressure) than the one processed.
With this method, for example,
strongly concentrated fruit juices have been obtained (up to 65° Brixes) but
which remain sufficiently liquid; the key to the process is the extractor,
developed by ENEA and DICMA, and the type of membrane used, protected by
patent.
(TOP)
20 June - Seven countries
signed a plan yesterday meant to save the albatross, those big seabirds with wingspans
of up to 11-and-a-half feet. Australian Environment Minister Robert Hill said
all 20 albatross species in the Southern Hemisphere would become extinct if
steps weren't taken to protect them. Australia, Brazil, Britain, Chile,
France, New Zealand, and Peru have pledged to find ways to reduce the threats
posed to the birds by pollution and fishing. The birds often get tangled
up in long fishing lines, which are commonly used by poachers fishing for sea
bass.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11255
Humane
Society of the United States plans "Humane Summer"
Web Site
to Provide Tips for Animal-Friendly Summertime Activities
Washington, June 21 - The
Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the nation's largest animal
protection organization, today is launching "Humane Summer" - a
series of weekly reports on the Internet. The reports will feature streaming
media on The HSUS's website - www.hsus.org - that will
provide tips on having an animal-friendly summer.
"We think people will be
amazed at the ways their choices for summer activities can help - or harm -
animals," said Kathy Milani, director of video projects and new media for
The HSUS. "It's so easy to have a more humane summer without sacrificing
fun and good times."
(TOP)
Israel: Peace Seminar and
Culture Festival a big success
July 3- The Peace Seminar
and Culture Festival held on June 29 at the IFLAC - EL Badia Tent of
Peace in Ussfiya, on Mount Carmel, near Haifa, was a great success, with more
than 300 people attending: Jewish, Moslems and Christians, Israeli
and Arab/ Palestinians. The harmonious and fruitful exchange of
opinions and conceptions proved again that working for peace in
the Middle East in these hard times is more crucial and urgent than
ever.
Important resolutions were
taken at this Peace seminar, among them: "Jewish and Arab /
Palestinian participants of the IFLAC Peace Culture Seminar, demand
the immediate cessation of violence and shootings on both the Palestinian and
Israel sides, and an immediate return to the peacemaking and negotiations
table."
http://tx.technion.ac.il/~ada/home.html
FAO-MIT
media lab initiative aims to close digital divide
Rome, 20 June - The UN Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today launched a new initiative aimed at
closing the digital divide between rich farmers in developed countries and poor
rural communities in developing countries, through innovative uses of
technologies at the grassroot level that can increase food production in
environmentally sound and sustainable ways.
An agreement aimed at
developing and improving the use of digital information in the developing world
was signed today by the FAO and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media
Laboratory (MIT Media Lab). (…)
The agreement provides for the
World Agricutural Information Centre (WAICENT) of the FAO to serve as a
platform for disseminating and supporting programmes initiated by the MIT Media
Lab, such as "Digital Life", "Digital Nations", and
"Things-that-Think". Both parties will join efforts to create
effective synergies in areas of common interest, particularly in FAO programmes
such as improving access to FAO information beyond the Internet, the FAO
virtual Library, and other related FAO-WAICENT activities.
http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/OIS/PRESS_NE/PRESSENG/2001/pren0140.htm
UNIFEM calls on world leaders
to make women's role central in the fight against HIV/AIDS
New York, United Nations, June
22 - UNIFEM Executive Director, Noeleen Heyzer, today announced a 5-point Call
for Action to make women central to every strategy in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
"There is a direct correlation between women's low status, the violation
of their human rights and HIV transmission," said Heyzer. "This is
not simply a matter of social justice. Gender inequality is fatal." The
announcement comes just before world leaders meet in New York from June 25-27
for the first Special Session of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS. "The
reason that AIDS has escalated into a pandemic is because inequality between
women and men continues to be pervasive and persistent," said Heyzer.
"Too often, women and girls cannot say no to unwanted and unprotected sex
without fear of reprisal." (…)
The Call for Action includes:
Guarantee Access to Prevention and Treatment, Make Research Gender Sensitive, Educate
and Inform, Address Gender Inequality in Policy, Address HIV Transmission in
Conflict Situations. UNIFEM has been working to mainstream gender within the UN
system and to promote gender equality, women's development and human rights in
developing countries. Given UNIFEM's expertise in gender mainstreaming, UNAIDS
signed a Cooperation Agreement with UNIFEM last month. The agreement will help
to strengthen the gender perspective in the UN response to the pandemic.
http://www.unifem.undp.org/pr_hivungass.html
22 June - Chad will receive a
US $7.3-million loan from the Islamic Development Bank to support educational
projects, AFP reported, citing a statement from the Jeddah-based institution.
Primary school enrolment in Chad is about 52 percent while some 10 percent of
eligible children attend secondary school, according to 1996 figures. The
country has one university and several technical colleges.
* * * * * *
(TOP)