WASHINGTON, D.C. � As levels of violence mount in advance of Sudan’s first multi-party elections in 24 years, and amid growing calls among opposition groups for the elections to be delayed, U.S-based Darfuris and policy experts from Sudan Now, a campaign led by a group of prominent anti-genocide and human rights organizations, will participate in a press teleconference to highlight the need for Congress to step up its oversight of the current U.S. Sudan policy.� According to the Sudan Now campaign, the current implementation of U.S. Sudan policy has not addressed a number of extremely concerning developments on the ground including Government attacks on Jebel Marra that have killed hundreds and displaced thousands in recent weeks, ongoing obstruction by the Government of Sudan in access for aid workers and UN investigators to Darfur, and clear indications that the national election scheduled for April will be neither free nor fair.� The group will launch a social media campaign this week to encourage leading members of Congress to privately and publicly engage with the Administration on Sudan.

The Obama administration�s Sudan policy, announced in October 2009, clearly stated that tough benchmarks would be applied to Sudan, and that a committee of deputies from various cabinet agencies would assess progress �based on verifiable changes in conditions on the ground.� �However neither the Administration nor the deputies� review process have addressed the many concerning developments on the ground.� These developments also include ongoing violence and clashes in South Sudan that have claimed more than 2,000 lives in the last year and driven a quarter-million people from their homes, ongoing violations of a UN arms embargo on Darfur by both the government of Sudan and rebel groups, and the resistance of the Government of Sudan to cooperate in any form with the International Criminal Court investigating war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Sudan.

This teleconference will provide commentary from Darfuris and policy experts on the importance of these recent developments on the ground and their implications for U.S. Sudan policy.� The call will also highlight the need for increased Congressional oversight and provide details of the social media campaign. A question and answer period will follow prepared comments.

WHO:
John Norris, Executive Director of the Enough Project at the Center for American Progress

Mohamed Suleiman, Darfuri and President of the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition
Sam Bell, Executive Director of the Genocide Intervention Network
Abdelgabar Adam, Darfuri and President of the Darfur Human Rights Organization
Gabriel Stauring, Director of Stop Genocide Now

DIAL IN NUMBER:
US/Canada Dial-in #: (877) 210-8943
International Dial-in #: (706) 902-0621

WHEN: Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 10 AM ET

SEND TO API BY: Susan Morgan, Investors Against Genocide, 617-797-0451 susan@paxcommunications.org

President Obama and Mrs Clinton.

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RE-EDITED EDITION: FIRST PUBLISHED ON April 1st, 2009

This was not expected to happen so soon, but now it is real. Obama sources confirm that the president will resign on the 15th of June and no reason has been given to the abrubt end of his presidency.

Many world leaders got a rude shock a few minutes ago when they got a “Top Secret” mail informing them on the intended resignation.

Obama will attend G20 summit in the UK soon and while there, he is expected to inform world leaders about the decision to resign.

Insiders contacted by API say Obama will resign because his push of things in Washington is not moving fast as he wanted because Washingtonians are not used to Obama’s way of handling things “quick-mannerly”.

Observers however have a different opinion. They think Obama’s resignation is due to the fact that many are calling for his impeachment because of the way he is handling issues in the White House.

The Democrats are reported to be in shock and although it is expected that the Vice president is to take over, there will be a battle before such a thing happens. Many Democrats would like to by-pass the constitution and elect Mrs Hillary Clinton to take over instead of Vice President Biden. They argue that Clinton got many votes and should lead the country now that Obama has decided to resign.

Chief Editor Korir

By Dickens Wasonga in Malaba.

A Malaba chief was yesterday arrested by anti corruption police officers while allegedly recieving a bribe to help arbitrate over a land row involving a mother and her two sons.

33 year old Lawrence Ingura who is the� Kamolo location chief In Amagoro division of Teso district was in his home waiting to recieve the money from one of the parties locked in the family land fued but little did he realise that his client had tipped off the anti graft officers who laid in wait outside his compound.

Earlier the administrator met one of the sons who wanted to get a share of the two acre piece of land left behind by their late father and struck a deal to offer ksh.2000 to the chief to favour his demands.

Simon Maswa fell out of favour of their mother Teresa Opili over who between the two brothers should inherit the land left to the widow 3 years ago.

While Maswa showed keen interest to inherit the land,his mother disowned him saying he was not the boilogical son of her late husband Opili Maswa and therefore had no right whatsoever over the family property.

Attempts by her son to get the local elders to help advance his case failed and at this point he chose to seek the help of the area chief but with something up his sleeves.

While the chief was waiting to for the bribe,the young man was planning behind the scene,how to fix the poor administrator who is paid to serve the public diligently.

The chief who is being held by the police at Malaba police station will tomorrow appear before� a Bungoma court to face corruption charges. He has since been interdicted.

Meanwhile the police arrested two Pakistani nationals who were found to have come into the country illegally.

The dou who are being investigated by the police in Malaba were nubbed at Adongosi near Kenya- Uganda border on Sunday without entry visas.

The police adentified one of the foreigners as Marjan Nek and the other one only as Madamin.

The Malaba district criminal investigations oficer Mr Teben Amos today told the press in his office that they were yet to find anything linking the two to any terrorist group but hastened to add that no chance could be taken given the increased incidences of suspected terrorist gaining entrance into the country through the Busia border.

During the� arrest the two foreigners claimed they strayed into the country to pray adding that they were not aware they had crossed over to Kenya.

Only recently a suspected terrorist who had been nubbed by the Kenyan police slipped away in Busia where he was being held under unclear circumstances.

Its believed that criminals linked to terrorism activities were using the porous Kenyan borders to sneak into the country to cool their heels or possibly plot attacks without being noticed by the country s law enforcement agencies.

ENDS

Joseph Ebuya and Emily Chebet led the charge Sunday as Kenya swept the individual and team gold medals at the World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

This marks the first time since 1994 that Team Kenya has taken all of the top titles. Kenya also swept the junior team and individual titles.

Chebet won the women’s eight-kilometers title with a time of 24 minutes and 19 seconds, outsprinting fellow Kenyan Linet Masai in the home stretch to secure the victory.

Ebuya spent most of the 12-kilometer senior men�s race trailing Eritrea�s Teklemariam Medhin, only to overpower him in the final moments and clock in at exactly 33 minutes. Of the top ten finishers in the race, five were Kenyans. Ebuya became the first Kenyan to win the title since the legendary Paul Tergat won his fifth and final race in Belfast in 1999.

Tergat hailed the team�s performance.

“It is a great day for us Kenyans,� he said. �I am so excited that they have brought back the titles. It has been a long wait and it makes me happy that we fought so gallantly.”

John Ngugi, another Kenyan long distance star and former Olympic gold medalist, said the result verifies Kenya�s prominence among the distance running community: “It shows that Kenyans are still the leading cross country nation. My congratulations to them.�

Send in By Benjamin Breit

Norway will provide assistance totalling NOK 800 million (USD 100 million) to Haiti over the next four years. The announcement was made by State Secretary Ingrid Fiskaa in New York today.

Following the earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January, Norway has provided NOK 200 million (USD 35 million) in emergency relief. Norway will step up its long-term assistance to Haiti by providing an additional NOK 600 million (USD 75 million).

�The earthquake has caused great suffering among the Haitian population. More than a million people have been left homeless. But helping Haiti requires more than building houses. We must help the Haitians to build an entirely new society. The average citizen must have political influence and economic opportunities,� said Ms Fiskaa.

The Norwegian assistance was announced at the International donors� conference towards a new future for Haiti today.

An important aim for Norway will be to promote political dialogue. In addition, Norway will help to make the country less vulnerable to natural disasters. Reforestation, agriculture and alternative sources of energy are relevant fields of cooperation with Haiti. Protecting women and children will be a cross-cutting element in Norway�s efforts.

The assistance needed in Haiti over the next 18 monts has been estimated at about USD 3,9 billion. In Norway�s view, the Action plan for national recovery and development of Haiti, is promising. But Fiskaa underlined the need to learn from the mistakes of the past.

�Decades of assistance to Haiti have not delivered the desired results. As a result of poor economic advice and excessive centralisation of power, rural areas have become poorer year by year. The Haitian government must be in the lead in the development of the country. But regional and local authorities must be given more resources and more power. There is also a need for transparency and control of the use of funds,� said Ms Fiskaa.

The Norwegian assistance will be channeled through multinational organisations, non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations.

Minster of the Environment and International Development Erik Solheim will visit Haiti in April. During his visit he will have meetings with the authorities, the opposition, UN representatives and other actors to discuss the way ahead for Haiti.

As a consequence of the increase in Norway�s assistance to Haiti, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has appointed a Special Envoy to Haiti and set up a broad-based team to follow up the assistance.

Photo: Casey Johnson/IRIN

The study recommended co-trimoxazole for at least 72 weeks in all adults starting combination ARVs in Africa

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NAIROBI,� – A cheap, widely available antibiotic given to patients when they start taking life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs could reduce HIV mortality in resource-limited settings by up to 50 percent says a new study published in the scientific journal, The Lancet.

“We studied patients who were starting HIV treatment and found that in the group that took co-trimoxazole alongside ARVs, mortality was half what it was in the group which started on ARVs alone,” Prof Diana Gibb, of the United Kingdom’s Medical Research Council (MRC), a co-author of the study, told IRIN/PlusNews.

“We know that ARVs on their own reduce HIV mortality by as much as 90 percent; what our study found was that the use of co-trimoxazole reduces it further still.”

The observational study analyzed 3,179 Ugandan and Zimbabwean participants�from the Development of Anti-Retroviral Therapy in Africa (DART) trial, conducted by the MRC in Uganda and Zimbabwe, for almost five years. All participants had a CD4 count – a measure of immune strength – of below 200 at the start of the study.

The United Nations World Health Organization recommends co-trimoxazole prophylaxis for all HIV-infected patients with a CD4 count below 350, particularly in resource-limited settings where bacterial infections and malaria are commonplace in HIV-positive people.

Despite these guidelines, the DART study found that the use of the antibiotic was inconsistent in Uganda and Zimbabwe, usually “initiated or continued at discretion of the treating clinician”.

“Co-trimoxazole is very low-cost, it’s generic and manufactured locally in many African countries, so it is widely available and is already in wide use as a treatment for infections such as pneumonia,” Gibb said. “It’s a pill a day – just a few [United States] cents.”

It’s a pill a day – just a few [United States cents]

A 2008 study among HIV-infected children in Zambia found co-trimoxazole prophylaxis “highly cost-effective”.
Other than a small number of patients developing a rash, Gibb said, there were hardly any side effects. An added benefit of using the antibiotic was a reduced frequency of malaria, which is endemic in Uganda.

The study recommended co-trimoxazole prophylaxis for at least 72 weeks in all adults starting combination ARVs in Africa.

kr/he source.irinnews

Photo: Edgar Mwakaba/IRIN

Money for Kenyan patients from Kenyan coffers

NAIROBI, ) – Smarting from two consecutive Global Fund rejections and declining donor interest, the Kenyan government is considering ways to fund its own national treatment programme.

Apart from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria rejecting Kenya’s proposals for HIV funding in rounds eight and nine, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has flat-lined its funding and the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) will be pulling out of funding paediatric ARVs in Kenya after the present fiscal period.

“Up to 2011, we are assured of PEPFAR support and we have enough support from the Global Fund [Round 7] and the CHAI [but] we still have a US$1.67 billion gap, of which $959 million is needed for treatment and care [up to 2013],” said Regina Ombam, head of strategy at the National AIDS Control Council (NACC), at a roundtable on HIV funding hosted by media NGO, Internews.

NACC has developed a raft of proposals for consideration by the Ministry of Finance which, if adopted, could go some way to offsetting the funding gap.

“With a 25 percent increase in premiums, NHIF [National Hospital Insurance Fund] would fund at least a quarter of the total need of [first-line] ARVs and [outpatient) opportunistic infection treatment,” said Ombam. “Since 58 percent of the financing gap in the Kenya National AIDS Strategic Plan is generated in the area of treatment and care, we feel that the first step of search for innovative financing should occur here.”

NACC has also proposed that the government enforce a 2 percent tax on mobile phone airtime, to raise $153 million over five years. Local press have reported that Safaricom, the country’s largest mobile phone network, has expressed willingness to participate in such a programme.

Kenya is part of UNITAID’s air ticket funding scheme, whereby a small levy on airline tickets and cargo goes towards HIV programmes; NACC hopes to use funds raised from outbound flights to buy ARVs.

Currently, the government spends only 6.9 percent of its total budget on health; NACC proposes that the Ministry of Finance live up to the Abuja Declaration of 2001, when African governments committed to spend at least 15 percent of the national budget on health.

If Kenya made this commitment starting with the upcoming 2010-2011 budget, Ombam noted, it could raise as much as $500 million for HIV over the next five years.

A paper will be prepared and presented to cabinet for approval and then for inclusion in the current budgeting process, due to end with the reading of the national budget on 30 June.

wm/kr/mw source.irinnews