Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Friday, July 29, 2011

uly 29, 2011 | News covering the UN and the world

Top soccer club makes polio eradication a goal

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Top soccer club makes polio eradication a goal

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is teaming up with the popular Spanish soccer team FC Barcelona to boost global awareness of the role of vaccines in the increasingly focused effort to wipe out polio. "Just as [soccer] is a universal sport with the power to transform lives, vaccines are a universal tool with the power to save lives," the team's head coach, Josep Guardiola, said at a news conference Thursday. Google/Agence France-Presse (7/28), The Huffington Post (7/28) LinkedInFacebookTwitterEmail this Story



A new collaboration we love: @gatesfoundation & @FCBarcelona working together to end #polio. Check it out! http://ow.ly/5PSfa #morethanagoal"

@unfoundation



"Agencies are currently warning that the famine will spread unless there is increased humanitarian access to areas hit by the region's worst drought in 60 years."

UN Dispatch


United Nation
  • UN report raises concerns over Eritrea
    Eritrea's intelligence agencies are active across Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya and Somalia and pose a significant security risk to the region, the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea warns in a new report. Eritrea was the central force behind a foiled plot to attack an African Union meeting in January, and continues to fund al-Qaida-linked groups, according to the report. The Guardian (London) (7/28), AlertNet/Reuters (7/28) LinkedInFacebookTwitterEmail this Story
  • Israelis, Palestinians seek alternative as UN bid approaches
    Israeli officials are urging the U.S. to do more to dissuade Palestinian leaders from a United Nations statehood recognition bid, over fears the effort would increase Israel's diplomatic isolation. Both Israeli and Palestinian authorities agree there are currently no other initiatives on the table to jump-start stalled Middle East peace talks. NPR.org (7/28) LinkedInFacebookTwitterEmail this Story
  • Other News
Health and Development
  • Militants, lack of funding hinder famine relief
    The famine relief effort in parts of Somalia is being hindered by al-Shabab, the Islamist group which is refusing to permit aid workers to reach more than 2 million people in the southern provinces of Bakool and Lower Shabelle. Even without such interference, the United Nations says, efforts to save Somalis from starvation are limited because of an $800 million shortfall in international donations. The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model) (7/29) LinkedInFacebookTwitterEmail this Story
  • The U.S. must sustain pledge to eradicate polio
    The U.S. government's pledge of $2 billion toward the $9 billion requested through 2012 in a bid to eradicate polio is necessary, especially in light of the distrust sown by the CIA program in Pakistan that offered local children free hepatitis B vaccinations in an effort to gather DNA to determine whether children at a targeted compound were those of Osama Bin Laden. Vaccination efforts like those of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative already have helped reduce infection rates from 350,000 in 1988 to about 1,000 last year. Bloomberg (7/28) LinkedInFacebookTwitterEmail this Story
  • Other News
Women and Girls
Climate and Energy
  • Other News
Peacekeeping and Security
  • Libyan rebel leader is gunned down in mysterious attack
    Libyan rebel leader Abdel-Fattah Younis, who defected from the government of Moammar Gadhafi to join the uprising, was killed Thursday. The circumstances of his death have not been made public, but it's apparent that Younis had enemies both within the rebellion and among forces loyal to Gadhafi. His death raised concerns among observers that the fledgling rebel army could fracture. The Washington Post/The Associated Press (7/29) LinkedInFacebookTwitterEmail this Story
  • Other News
Program Officer, MHIOpen Society Institute, BudapestBudapest, Hungary
Brazil DirectorHuman Rights WatchNew York, NY
Advisor, Gender, Diversity and Human Rights (Grade P5)Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Washington, D.C.Washington, DC



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