'Poorest nations unlikely to reach poverty-reduction targets

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11: The United Nations has warned that despite increased official development aid and wider debt cancellation, the world's 50 poorest nations are unlikely to reach poverty-reduction targets.

"The quest for adequate and predictable external resources for their economic and social development continues for the LDCs. Despite considerable progress in mobilising domestic resources, this vulnerable group of countries needs special support," Anwarul K Chowdhury, the UN Envoy for Least Developed Countries has said.

The LDCs received less than five per cent of all Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that flowed to developing countries in 2005, Chowdhury said while noting the positive impact of increased migrant remittances.

But, Chowdhary stressed, individual cash transfers were no "substitute for increased aid and FDI".

Of the globe's 50 LDCs, 34 are in Africa, the remainder scattered across Asia, the Pacific and the Caribbean.

The High Representative called on wealthy nations to fulfill aid commitments outlined in the 2001 Brussels Programme of Action which asked donors to expeditiously raise their aid targets to between 0.15 per cent and 0.20 per cent of their gross national income.

Chowdhury also reiterated an earlier appeal to oil-producing nations to earmark 10 cents per barrel from their rising petroleum incomes to help fund infrastructure in the LDCs for the coming decade. (PTI)

US calls eradication of polio a key policy objective

WASHINGTON, Oct 11: The United States has called for "commitment, cooperation and community involvement," to eradicate polio which continues to occur naturally in India and three other countries - Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

The eradication of polio is "a key foreign policy objective and one of the Bush administration's highest international public health priorities," US Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky said in a speech at George Washington University here.

The occurrence of polio has declined 99 per cent since the 1980s after the launch of a major effort to increase immunizations among children worldwide to protect them from the crippling disease.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) aspired to wipe out the disease by 2005, but the virus continues to occur naturally in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan. Ten other nations in which polio once was eradicated have reported cases this year, a situation attributed to poor implementation of immunization programmes which allows the virus to travel from endemic countries to places where it was thought to have been eradicated.

"To continue the battle against the disease, diplomacy must reinforce public health action," Dobriansky said, calling for a renewed and strengthened commitment from the international community.

She said, "we must fight what may be fatigue, waning enthusiasm and decreased financial support among some donors." The United States has contributed 28 per cent of the 5 billion dollars so far allocated to GPEI, including 132 million dollars this year alone.Dobriansky said the Bush administration would work with international partners to attempt to raise further resources for the cause.

"Local political and religious figures have a crucial role to play in disseminating helpful information, dispelling myths, and instilling confidence regarding immunization," she said.

As of October 4, GPEI reported 1,353 cases of polio so far in 2006, compared to about 1,273 in the same period of 2005. Nigeria is the most seriously stricken nation in 2006, with almost 850 cases.

(UNI)

Climbers watched as Chinese guards shot Tibetans

KATHMANDU, Oct 11: Foreign climbers described the horror of watching Chinese guards shoot at a group of Tibetans high in the Himalayas, killing at least one of them.

Three climbers from Britain and Australia told Reuters yesterday they watched the incident on September 30 in Chinese territory, close to Nangpa La, a mountain pass in the Mount Everest region.

At least 10 Tibetan children were also taken into custody by Chinese authorities, one climber said.

''We felt a bit shocked and upset because we came to climb the mountain and here we are watching people being shot,'' said British climber Steve Lawes, who was at the advance base camp on Cho-Oyu -- at 8,201 metres, the world's sixth highest mountain.

The area is about 20 km west of Mount Everest.

There has been no official Chinese comment about the incident.

Lawes, who returned to Nepal's capital Kathmandu at the weekend, said the Chinese guards took aim at a group of about 20 or 30 people in dark clothing as they prepared to cross the icy pass into Nepal.

''I heard two single shots, I assume those were the warning shots,'' he said. ''There were two more shots quite widely spaced -- bang, bang.

''I saw one person fall. A little later that person got up and went to another 15 metres and maybe there was one or two (more) shots. I think the same person fell.''

Another British climber, 44-year-old Steve Marsh, said the victim was the last one in the line.

An Australian climber who declined to be named said: ''I looked through the telescope. I saw two objects - the first one looked like it was a backpack and the second one was definitely a body.''

The body was lying at the glacier for almost 28 hours before the Chinese soldiers took it away, 42-year-old Lawes from Bristol said.

''I was disgusted that the body was left there for so long.''

Tibetan refugee groups, as well as the London-based International Campaign for Tibet, said a young nun was killed in the incident, and a young boy may also have died.

Lawes said soon after the shooting at least 10 Tibetan children, aged between six and 12, walked through the climbers' base camp in single file. They were escorted by three soldiers and taken to the nearby Chinese camp.

''It was upsetting because we assume they were part of the same group and had been left behind in the shooting,'' Lawes said.

Hundreds of Tibetans cross the Himalayas every year to Nepal, many making their way to Dharmasala, a town in northern India where their exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, has been living since 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule.

Nepal is home to more than 20,000 Tibetan refugees. But recent arrivals are not allowed to stay in Nepal and must travel to neighbouring India.

Communist troops entered Tibet in 1950 and overthrew the Buddhist theocracy.(AGENCIES)

Cape Town takes centre stage as Bollywood crosses Indian Ocean

CAPE TOWN, Oct 11: Cape Town, the undisputed star of South Africa's tourist industry, is flaunting its majestic mountains and white beaches in a bid to play a leading role in international movie-making.

Hollywood may also have its hills and ocean surf, but the sheer cost of shooting in "Tinsel Town" means that producers on a tight budget are having to look farther and wider to find their ideal location.

Although the film industry is still in its infancy, Cape Town provided the setting for the recent Dennis Hopper movie "The Piano Player" as well as "Country of My Skull," starring Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche.

But it is not just Western film-makers who are now splashing the cash, with even Bollywood moguls making the journey across the Indian Ocean from their usual base in Mumbai.

"Cape Town has got everything a producer looks for. It has the sea, it has mountains, you can shoot action here," said Sohail Maklai as he took a break from filming of a five million-dollar Bollywood movie called Cash.

The slick action thriller stars some of Bollywood's hottest acting talent including Ajay Devgun, Esha Deol and Shamita Shetty.

The film's director, Anubhav Sinha, described the Cape as a stunning setting for any movie.

Recent Bollywood films to be shot in Cape Town include "Mujhse Shaadi Karogi?" ("Will You Marry Me?") starring Mumbai heartthrobs Salman Khan and Akshaye Kumar and "Armaan" ("Desire") featuring veteran star Amitabh Bachchan, once described by French filmmaker Francois Truffaut as a "one-man industry." (AFP)

US not examining A Q Khan role on N Korea's nuke development

WASHINGTON, Oct 11: The Bush administration has refused to speculate on what the disgraced Pakistani scientist A Q Khan's input may have been in the North Korean nuclear blast.

"I don't know who's talked to him (A Q Khan) lately. But he's out of business, and that's a good thing for nonproliferation efforts around the world," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said replying to a question on whether Khan "the mentor" of North Korea had been interviewed by both the United Nations and the IAEA because he would know "where all the pieces" lay.

In the meantime the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US was still trying to figure out what really happened in North Korea.

"... We're still trying to evaluate what really happened here. And I think it will take a little while to evaluate it. But we have to take the claim seriously because it's a political claim if nothing else that tries to get the bargaining position of being a nuclear power" Rice said in an interview to CNN.

"I think it's very obvious that they were pursuing another path to a nuclear weapon, so called highly enriched uranium path. But the important thing here is that we now have an opportunity with the international community speaking with one voice to bring world pressure on the North Koreans to make a different choice than they have made over this decade" Rice said. (PTI)

UN expanding reach of humanitarian video game

NEW YORK, Oct 11: The world's first humanitarian video game-- a United Nations-produced virtual world of planes launching food airdrops over crisis zones and emergency trucks struggling up treacherous roads under rebel threat-- is extending its potential audience by tens of millions of people.

Already available in English, Japanese, Italian and Polish, the game will now be accessible in French, Hungarian and Chinese by the end of next week, vastly increasing the forum for the UN World Food Programme's design to teach youngsters about the problems of global hunger and what humanitarian organisations do to fight it.

The English, Japanese, Italian and Polish versions, which were launched over the past 18 months, have totaled over 4.5 million downloads to date, making Food Force a major success story in the educational gaming sector.

"Food Force is clear evidence that with the right medium, an issue as invisible and distant as hunger in the developing world can trigger interest and support in countries where too much food is the high profile problem today," WFP's Director of Communications Neil Gallagher said of the free download, which is targeted at children aged 8 to 13.

"Positive reactions from children, teachers, parents, game specialists around the world have surpassed all our expectations. We are thrilled that Food Force has crossed so many borders," he added.

Gamers face a number of realistic challenges to urgently feed thousands of people on the fictitious island of Sheylan, piloting helicopters on reconnaissance missions, negotiating with armed rebels on convoy runs and using food to help rebuild villages. (PTI)

Sanofi-Aventis gives 20 mln dollar for tropical diseases

GENEVA, Oct 11: Sanofi-Aventis SA pledged 20 million dollar to the United Nations health agency today to fight three of the world's most neglected tropical diseases: leishmaniasis, Buruli ulcer and Chagas disease.

Under a five-year agreement signed with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva, the French pharmaceutical maker will provide funds to detect, prevent and treat the scourges most often found in remote corners of South and Central America, Africa and the Middle East.

Sanofi-Aventis will also donate 5 million dollar of drugs to treat sleeping sickness, extending a former deal between the company and the WHO until 2011.

Leishmaniasis, a scarring ailment spread by bites from sand flies, infects 1.5 million people worldwide each year.

Some 50,000 people die from the parasitic Chagas disease every year, and Buruli ulcer, rooted in the same family of bacteria as those causing tuberculosis and leprosy, has been reported in more than 30 countries, according to WHO data. (AGENCIES)

Heavier weight tied to poorer mental function

NEW YORK, Oct 11: Overweight middle-aged adults tend to score more poorly on tests of memory, attention and learning ability than their thinner peers do, according to researchers.

The findings, they say, suggest that a heavier weight in middle age may mean a higher risk of dementia later in life.

Reporting in the journal Neurology on monday, the researchers speculate that higher rates of cardiovascular disease or diabetes might help explain the link. But it's also possible that substances produced by fat cells, such as the hormone leptin, have direct effects on the brain.

Both obesity and dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, are becoming increasingly common, noted lead study author Dr Maxime Cournot, of Toulouse University Hospital in France.

''Our results, along with other previous studies, strongly suggest a greater risk of dementia in these (overweight) persons at middle-age,'' Cournot told Reuters Heath.

The study included 2,223 healthy French adults who were between the ages of 32 and 62 in 1996. At that time, they took a battery of standard cognitive tests, assessing abilities like memory, attention and speed of learning. Five years later, they took the tests again.

In general, the researchers found, people with a high body mass index (BMI) garnered lower test scores than those with a lower BMI. They also tended to show greater cognitive decline between the two test periods.

Factors such as age, education and general health did not seem to explain the link.

According to Cournot, the tests used in the study are sensitive enough to detect ''small variations'' in cognition, and the weight-related differences seen among these healthy middle-aged adults would probably not be obvious in daily life.

But over time, the researcher explained, there could be more apparent effects on the rate of age-related mental decline.

It's possible, according to Cournot's team, that excess fat cells have some direct effect on brain function. For example, some studies suggest the ''hunger'' hormone leptin, which is produced by fat cells, plays a role in learning and memory.

And although these study participants were in generally good health, disorders like elevated blood pressure and diabetes could act as a bridge between high BMI and poorer cognitive function.

Thickening and hardening of the blood vessels supplying the brain can contribute to dementia, Cournot noted. Similarly, diabetes may harm cognition by either leading to artery disease or via direct effects of the hormone insulin on brain cells.

Regardless of what the impact of weight on dementia risk turns out to be, Cournot said, there are already many reasons to maintain a healthy weight. The potential effects on mental function, the researcher added, may give people added motivation to change their lifestyle habits.(AGENCIES)

Multicolored Colombian bird hailed as new species

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA, Oct 11: A multicolored bird with reddish-brown and black eyes has been discovered as a new species in a Colombian cloud forest accessible only by helicopter, scientists say.

The fist-sized yellow and black Yariguies Brush-Finch, topped with an orange plume, was found by a Colombian-English ProAves Foundation team high atop the country's eastern Andean range in Santander province.

Discovery of the bird, named after an Indian tribe that once lived in the nature reserve where it was found, was published in the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club.

Colombia, one of the most ecologically diverse countries in the world, has about 1,800 species of bird.

''The description of a new bird is a rare event,'' said expedition member Blanca Huertas of The Natural History Museum in London. ''However, this is just the first of several new species that we will be describing from the Yariguies mountains, including several new butterflies.''

Legend has it that the Yariguies tribe committed mass suicide to avoid enslavement by Spanish conquistadors. (AGENCIES)

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