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- UN provides forum to fight colonial legacies
The UN Special Committee on Decolonization is seen by some as an anachronism, but it is one of the few forums in which the world's remaining subjects of colonialism -- some 16 territories -- gain a voice. "For the people of the territories, it's an essential element in their struggle for self-determination," said Ahmed Boukhari of the Polisario Front in Western Sahara, which is seeking independence from Morocco. Google/The Associated Press (7/31)       - An uneasy future for U.S. foreign aid
 Some nongovernmental organizations fear that U.S. foreign-aid programs will be a casualty of the partisan budget talks already under way for 2012, which must usher in spending cuts slated to reach $2.4 trillion over the next decade. Conservative lawmakers appear to have won the inclusion of foreign aid under the rubric of defense spending, which could mean that programs like those run by the U.S. Agency for International Development will be slashed under the guise of defense cuts. The Guardian (London)/Poverty Matters blog (8/1), Devex.com/Obama's Foreign Aid Reform blog (8/1) - UNODC: Heroin moves through East Africa
East Africa is emerging as a major transhipment point for global heroin trade, warns a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Drug traffickers turned to the region in response to better policing of Asian and Middle Eastern transit routes. AlertNet/Reuters (7/30) - Aid and Uganda's health care struggles
The death of a Ugandan elected official in a government-run maternity ward is calling attention to the country's inability to pay for its public health system even as it spends money on fighter jets for its military. The case also points to a larger issue: As African governments receive more and more donor money to fight infectious diseases, they are devoting less of of their own budgets to health care. The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (7/29) - WFP gains rare access to isolated territory
The threat of malnutrition and starvation affecting 3.7 million Somalis has given UN aid workers a rare opportunity to return to areas in the Horn of Africa previously off-limits because of lawlessness and resistance from warlords and Islamic militants. "It's such a patchy situation on the ground, and such a complex place with clan dynamics that the assistance opportunities will vary from place to place," said a World Food Programme spokesman. TIME/Global Spin blog (7/28) - Women, children suffer most in drought
Across the Horn of Africa, women and children are bearing the brunt of drought-related famine and humanitarian organizations need additional funding to deliver lifesaving supplies, writes Caryl Stern, president and CEO of the U.S. fund for UNICEF. Children are susceptible to malnutrition that decreases their ability to fight off disease, while women are unable to access the services they need even as they carry the responsibility of caring for their families. The Huffington Post (8/1) - Indian authorities aim to increase breastfeeding rates
Authorities in the Indian state of Jharkhand have teamed up with UNICEF to sponsor programs associated with World Breastfeeding Week from Aug. 1 to 7 in a bid to raise public awareness around health benefits. Eleven percent of newborns receive breast milk within an hour of birth in Jharkhand and authorities believe that state can achieve the Millennium Development Goal to halve infant-mortality rates by 2015 with increased use of breastfeeding. The Times of India (8/1)  | - Climate scientists temper cloud report
Climate scientists say a July report in the journal Remote Sensing that argues cloud cover, rather than carbon dioxide, causes global warming relies on faulty use of data. The report's author, Roy Spencer, used a decade's worth of satellite data on clouds and ground temperatures to conclude that cloud changes drive warming trends. Kevin Trenberth, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said, "I cannot believe it got published." MSNBC/LiveScience (7/29) - Mexican carbon plan gains international recognition
Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve's carbon-credit plan has become the first Mexican effort to receive certification under the Verified Carbon Standard. Verification of the program, which allows entities to offset carbon gas emissions by paying local farmers to plant and manage trees, "demonstrates the integrity of Sierra Gorda's offsets and the overall value of the efforts to restore ecosystems, preserve biodiversity, alleviate poverty and sequester carbon in the reserve," says United Nations Foundation President Timothy E. Wirth. Reuters (7/30) - Researchers develop portable blood tester
U.S. researchers have developed a credit card-sized blood-testing device, estimated to cost only $1, that they say can help test for infections in developing countries. Results of tests conducted in Kigali, Rwanda, using a prototype of the mChip device showed it is 95% and 76% accurate for HIV and syphilis, respectively, according to a study published in the journal Nature Medicine. BBC (7/31) - New smartphone-based malaria test in field trials
Field tests are slated to begin this summer in India and Ethiopia for a new diagnostic tool that equips smartphones with a micro lens to diagnose blood-borne disorders, chiefly malaria -- transmitting the real-time results to public health workers, who are able to track cases more effectively. Lifelens works on smartphones running Windows Phone 7 software. San Francisco Chronicle/Bloomberg (7/31) Top five news stories selected by UN Wire readers in the past week. - Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.
 | |  | | | | |  |  Program Officer, MHI | Open Society Institute, Budapest | Budapest, Hungary | | Senior Technical Advisor, Regulatory Systems | Management Sciences for Health | Maputo, Mozambique | | Brazil Director | Human Rights Watch | New York, NY | | Advisor, Gender, Diversity and Human Rights (Grade P5) | Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Washington, D.C. | Washington, DC | | | |  | |  |
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