| World
AIDS Day: |
| UN head
says “do far, far more” against
AIDS |
agencies
Around
the globe, leaders, activists and victims used
World AIDS Day on Thursday to send the message
that far stronger action is needed in the battle
against the disease that kills millions of people
every year.
The United Nation's special envoy for AIDS in
Africa proposed big business dedicate a portion
of profits to the fight, French President Jacques
Chirac suggested schools install condom vending
machines and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
called on people to talk openly about safe sex.
The number of people living with HIV, the virus
that causes AIDS, has reached its highest level
with an estimated 40.3 million people, UNAIDS
Executive Director Peter Piot said. Nearly half
of them are women.
"
We must do far, far more," U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said. "It is time to recognize
that although our response so far has succeeded
in some of the particulars, it has yet to match
the epidemic in scale."
Others, including U.S. President George W.
Bush, noted what progress has been made. Speaking
in
Washington, he said U.S. efforts were helping
400,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa get treatment.
With just over 10 percent of the world's population,
sub-Saharan Africa is home to more than 60
percent of all people infected with HIV. Africa
saw about
3.2 million of the almost 5 million new infections
recorded in 2005.
"
These countries, and many others, are fighting
for the lives of their citizens, and America
is now their strongest partner in that fight," he
said. The 400,000 getting treatment, he said,
was up from 50,000 two years ago.
However, critics including senior U.N. officials
say Bush's emphasis on abstinence-only programs
has hobbled efforts by playing down the role
of condoms.
From Vatican City, Pope Benedict said programs
based on promoting abstinence and marital
fidelity were seeing success, saying "statistics
taken in several regions of Africa confirm the
results of policies based on continence, the
promotion of faithfulness in marriage and the
importance of family life."
But the Pope did not specify the regions
or the statistics, and he avoided a specific
mention
of the Roman Catholic Church's controversial
ban on condoms.
"
The international response to HIV and AIDS was
woefully slow. This is one of the scars on the
conscience of our generation," said U.N.
General Assembly President Jan Eliasson in remarks
prepared for a ceremony in New York.
"
We cannot turn back the clock. But we must ensure
that, when historians look at the way the world
responded to HIV and AIDS, they see that 2006
was the year when the international community
finally stepped up to the mark," he said.
"
This vast human tragedy is all the more unacceptable
because it could have been avoided."
AIDS FUND IN "TERRIBLE TROUBLE"
Stephen Lewis, the U.N. special envoy
for AIDS in Africa, called upon on
major corporations
to contribute 0.7 percent of pretax
profits to the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS.
The fund "is in terrible trouble" after
increases promised by the Group of 8 industrialized
nations in July failed to materialize, he said.
"
We need a new source of dollars," he said
in a statement. "That source must be the
private sector."
The United Nations has long called
on wealthy nations to donate 0.7
percent of gross
domestic product for development
aid every year.
African AIDS patients criticized
politicians for failing to take adequate
measures.
"
Money earmarked for HIV/AIDS has gone into everything
else but AIDS," said Meris Kafusi, a 64-year-old
AIDS patient in Tanzania who only recently began
receiving life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs
that are widespread in the West.
"
Organizations that say they are dealing with
AIDS are always in seminars or workshops. They
should be buying food for widows and orphans
... Is this fair?"
Lobby group Africa Action targeted
pharmaceutical companies.
"
The prices charged by pharmaceutical companies,
and the policies pursued by rich countries at
their behest, continue to keep life-saving treatment
out of reach for those most affected by HIV/AIDS," said
Salih Booker, Africa Action's executive director.
TALKING ABOUT SAFE SEX
Politicians say taboos need
to be broken to tackle AIDS.
In India, which says it has
5.13 million people with HIV/AIDS,
the second largest
number after
South Africa, Singh called
on
people to shed the inhibitions
that keep
them from
talking
about sex.
"
This, quite obviously, has to change if we are
to succeed in creating awareness of the hazards
of unsafe sexual practices," he said.
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| After
9/11: |
| Small scissors
to be allowed back on U.S. planes |
agencies
Small
scissors and screwdrivers -- banned after the
September 11, 2001, hijack attacks -- will be
allowed back on planes as security emphasis shifts
more to bomb threats, government officials said
on Thursday.
The changes, expected to be announced on Friday
by the Transportation Security Administration,
were directed by Congress and are part of a broader
move away from trying to counter methods used
to hijack four jets on September 11, 2001.
The al Qaeda hijackers -- who crashed three planes
into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
while the fourth went down in a Pennsylvania
field -- used boxcutters and knives to overpower
flight crews, investigators concluded. Flight
attendants, pilots and passengers were stabbed
or slashed.
Easing security was opposed by flight crews at
some airlines who contend aircraft remain vulnerable.
"
I have talked to some of my counterparts at other
flight attendants' unions and we're just stunned
that less than four years after September 11
this is even on the table," said Carl Walk,
air safety officer for the flight attendants
union at Northwest Airlines.
Critics of the move also include pilots at
American Airlines, which lost two planes on
September
11. United Airlines also lost two planes, but
the national union that represents its pilots
supports the security change.
"
By all appearances, they are shifting their focus
in the direction it needs to go," said John
Mazor, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association. "Anything
can be used as a weapon to a trained assailant,
a ballpoint pen can be used to kill people."
EXPLOSIVES NOW FOCUS
Security planners believe steps to boost
passenger and checked bag screening, arm
pilots, deploy
air marshals, and secure cockpits have addressed
the hijack threat. They now want to spend
less effort on time-consuming bag searches
and pay
more heed to explosives -- including potential
suicide bombers.
According to a government official, TSA director
Kip Hawley is expected to outline changes
in a speech on Friday.
Small scissors with blades less than four
inches long and tools like screwdrivers that
are less
than seven 7 inches will be removed from
the long list of banned items. Box cutters,
crowbars
and hammers remain off limits.
Hawley is also expected to announce that
more bomb-sniffing dogs will be deployed
at airports
and used to inspect cargo bound for passenger
aircraft. Security officials also plan more
random screening of passengers for prohibited
items
or traces of explosives, the source said.
Many of the permanent screening systems in
place at U.S. airports cannot detect sophisticated
explosives, a point that some congressional
lawmakers
have long stressed publicly and sought to
change.
Rep. John Mica, a Florida Republican and
chairman of the House aviation subcommittee,
said the
shift he helped direct is long overdue.
"
The real threat are explosives," said Mica.
Charles Slepian, an aviation security expert,
said cuticle scissors and other small sharp
objects have not posed a hijacking threat
since cockpit
doors were fortified in 2003.
Of greater concern, Slepian said, is not
the potential suicide bomber but the absence
of
reliable technology -- some of it available
now -- at
airports to detect bombs in bags and other
cargo loaded into the belly of commercial
planes.
"
We've invested billions of dollars in equipment
that doesn't do that," he said.
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