GLOBAL CHALLENGES: INDIAN NACO TO DISTRIBUTE 1.5M FEMALE CONDOMS TO SEX WORKERS IN FOUR STATES

Global Challenges India's NACO To Distribute 1.5M Female Condoms to Sex Workers in Four States
[Sep 11, 2008]
Approximately 1.5 million female condoms will be distributed and marketed to commercial sex workers in four Indian states this year in an attempt to provide women with a method of HIV prevention, IANS/Hindustan Times reports. Sujatha Rao, director-general of the National AIDS Control Organisation, said that female condoms were introduced to commercial sex workers through a 2007 pilot program and that the program will be expanded because of its high success rate. Rao added that the female condom is still a new product and that "demand for it has to be generated." NACO will focus the program on Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The condoms will be promoted through a social marketing campaign with NACO's 200 partner nongovernmental organizations that run targeted intervention sites for commercial sex workers. According to IANS/Times, the female condoms will be manufactured for the Indian market by Hindustan Latex through a technology transfer from the Female Health Company, which produces female condoms used worldwide. Kavitha Potturi of HLFPPT, the non-for-profit wing of Hindustan Latex, said that the four states will have "100% coverage" and that the product is "expected to benefit a population of 200,000 sex workers." According to FHC, cost has been the largest barrier to making female condoms widely available to women at risk of HIV. In addition, the company said that by manufacturing the female condoms in India, the cost per condom will decrease from 45 rupees, or about $1, to 23 rupees, or about 51 cents. Commercial sex workers will be able to buy the female condoms for three rupees, or about 6 cents, under the program, compared with the five rupees, or about 11 cents, needed to buy female condoms last year (Thapar, IANS/Hindustan Times, 9/9).

(Courtesey: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.)

HOT CLIMATE OFBANGLADESHI POLITICAL FIELDS AND COMING NATIONAL ELECTION

Free Khaleda eyes vote as son exits scene :-


Hasina's freedom before any talks: Zillur









**Thu, Sep 11th, 2008 8:44 pm BST

Dhaka, Sept 11 (bdnews24.com)–BNP chief Khaleda Zia, freed after a year in jail, has said her party will join the electoral dialogue and general elections, as son Tarique Rahman quit his party post before flying to London Thursday night. "BNP is united and will remain united," a frail former prime minister told cheering supporters at her party headquarters in the capital's Naya Paltan Thursday afternoon. Her release Thursday morning probably paved the way for the major parties, along with rival Sheikh Hasina's Awami League, to participate in general elections slated for December. "BNP wants to be engaged in dialogue. BNP wants to take part in elections," Khaleda said. She was flanked by confidants such as Khandaker Delwar Hossain, whom she named as secretary general before her Sep 3 arrest last year replacing longstanding ally Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan. "My son will take two to three years to recover. He will be away from politics until he fully recovers," Khaleda said of ailing Tarique, widely criticised for abuse of power during her second five-year term as prime minister. Tarique formally left the political scene behind, as he handed a note resigning his party post as senior joint secretary general to a party official before boarding a London-bound flight, highly-placed sources said. A senior party source, who wished to remain anonymous, told bdnews24.com: "Yes, I know he left a letter of resignation." Airport security chief M Nurul Islam told bdnews24.com that he flew out by an Emirates flight at 9:50pm. Wife, daughter, a doctor and two other relatives were with him on board while mother Khaleda Zia rested at her home in the Dhaka cantonment. The former prime minister, nowhere near her previous glamorous self, stepped out Thursday morning from special jail set up in the parliament complex, waved to the crowd, who showered her with flower petals. Pale but still smiling, Khaleda then drove straight to her slain husband Ziaur Rahman's graveside to pay her respects. Senior BNP leaders had already arrived at the grave to greet their chief. Delwar, SQ Chowdhury, ASM Hannan Shah and Goyeshwar Chandra Roy were, among others, present. Hundreds shouted slogans as her heavily-guarded cream-coloured Pajero reached the grave complex. Thousands also thronged the Sangsad Bhaban premises when she left the special jail flanked by daughter-in-law Zubaida and grand daughter Zaima. Prisons DIG Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said at 11.30am Thursday that the BNP chief was now free to go home, on bail. She then visited ailing Tarique at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital, where she hinted her elder son would quit party for now, before going to the party headquarters for the first time since the Jan 11 changeover last year. She left Naya Paltan at 5:20pm, reaching her Mainul Road residence in minutes under heavy security. "My son has been tortured … it was unjust … my two sons have been reduced to nothing," she said, breaking into tears at the Naya Paltan headquarters. Tarique, her political heir apparent, who was released from detention on bail on Sep 3 after securing bail in 12 cases, was blamed by many for creating a situation that led to the 1/11 declaration of emergency. Tarique, known more as a wheeler-dealer than a leader, had reputation for using political perches to benefit himself, his family and his friends. Secretary general Delwar however told partymen at Naya Paltan that presence of thousands at the hospital proved the popularity of the elder son of Khaleda Zia. As Delwar demanded Tarique be sent abroad for treatment, back at hospital, the ailing BNP joint secretary general was busy packing for his trip to London amid reports he had been relieved of his party post. "Tarique is flying to London on an Emirates flight to seek medical treatment. He also has a German visa. He might be taken to Germany if necessary," lawyer Ahmed Azam Khan told reporters at around 6.50pm. Tarique's wife Zubaida, daughter Zaima, doctor Kazi Mazharul Islam Dolon and two other relatives were seen accompanying him. The BNP leader's departure for the UK had been postponed, his lawyer complaining that he could not leave Wednesday as scheduled because of "obstructions" created by the government. BNP leader Hannan Shah told reporters earlier that detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia wished to see her ailing son before he went. Tarique remained in the hospital after the Sept 3 release. DIG Siddiqui had earlier said authorities had received all the Khaleda documents at 6:45pm Wednesday, and that she would be freed anytime on Thursday. Bail bonds for Khaleda were submitted by lawyers earlier on Wednesday to four separate courts handling the GATCO, Niko, Zia Orphanage Trust and Barapukuria coalmine cases. Khaleda and her younger son Arafat Rahman Coco were arrested on Sept 3 last year in GATCO graft case. Coco is now in Thailand for better medical treatment on bail. Later, three more graft cases were filed against her. She secured bail in all the cases. Chances are there that the Supreme Court could still cancel the bails after hearing the appeal of the Anticorruption Commission, likely on Sept 15. That now seems a remote possibility, given the statement from a government spokesman immediately after the release of Khaleda. "The government will take initiatives to get the two top leaders to sit together to help the nation overcome the current political crisis and restore sound political atmosphere," adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman Thursday told a briefing. "We hope they will not only respond to this move but also take initiatives on their own since the two leaders have contributed a lot to the country," he said. With Hasina already out on parole and making political speeches, Khaleda's latest overtures only made the prospects for a December general election look brighter.

**Thu, Sep 11th, 2008 9:33 pm BST

Dhaka, Sept 11 (bdnews24.com) - Awami League acting president Zillur Rahman Thursday demanded unconditional release of Sheikh Hasina before the government makes any plans to sit the two leaders of the two rival political parties across the table. "If the government can solve the problem by putting the two leaders across the table, that is all to the good." "But Sheikh Hasina has to be given unconditional release. Sheikh Hasina will not sit with anybody while under confinement, not even with the president." Zillur spoke to reporters at his Gulshan home Thursday afternoon, in response to commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman's earlier statement that the caretaker government would take the initiative to bring former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia together for talks. Said Zillur: "I do not know how and why an adviser of the government said this." His reaction to Khaleda Zia's release on bail was: "Very good." "We do not believe in wilful injustice to anybody. If a person is proved guilty, they will have to be punished. But no one has the right to keep a person confined for nothing." "But Awami League leaders are still behind bars without bail. The law should be equal for all. None of these people will flee if they are given bail," he added.

(Courtesey:Bangladeshi news online service)

GLOBAL ISSUE:An Urge Earth Journalists

Global Issues :-
Environmental Journalism
Climate Change Initiative
Interest in the Earth Journalism Network’s climate change media program has never been hotter. Supported by a recent influx of funding, several new activities are now underway or in the planning stages. There is clearly a growing awareness that empowering local media to provide better coverage is a vital and scalable strategy to grapple with this most global of issues.
Climate Change Media PartnershipHave Fellowship, Will Travel
The fellowship program run by EJN and its partners last year at the Bali Climate Summit proved to be a tremendous success. EJN brought 37 journalists from around the developing world to report on the treaty negotiations and the hundreds of concurrent climate events in Bali, and altogether these fellows produced over 660 stories. In many cases, the Climate Change Fellows we brought to Bali were the only journalists from their country able to attend and report on this important summit.
Thanks in part to generous seed funding from the V. Kann Rassmussen Foundation and the Germeshausen Foundation to EJN, the Climate Change Media Partnership is planning to bring journalism fellows to this year’s summit in Poznan, Poland, and to the crucial 2009 summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, where it is hoped a successor to the Kyoto Protocol will be completed. EJN is actively seeking matching funds to expand this effort.
Third Pole ProjectMelting Glaciers, Overflowing Rivers
EJN has formed a partnership with ChinaDialogue.net to focus on the climate change issues affecting the Himalayan region and downstream countries. The Third Pole Project (3PP) will improve media coverage of the impacts of climate change on the region – most significantly, on the effect of melting glaciers on the major Asian river basins.
3PP will provide training and other forms of support to journalists from Himalayan countries – China, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh – and those downstream in the Mekong region – Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Burma. These journalists will in turn provide stories not only to their home organizations but also to a website that will translate the stories into English and Chinese, and other local languages if funds permit.
Environmental Journalism WorkshopsChinese and Filipino Journalists On the Green Beat
EJN’s most recent training activities include a journalism training workshop on climate change organized by Internews Network in China and supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Held in Guangzhou for southern Chinese journalists, the workshop included a field trip to the Nansha Wetlands where mangrove reforestation is taking place. EJN also partnered with the Philippines Science Journalists Association to develop the curriculum for a Manila-based regional training workshop.
Projects in DevelopmentGeo-Blogging on Deforestation and Climate Change Training
The first priority for new funding is to provide fellowships that will enable developing country journalists to participate in the Poznan and Copenhagen summits.
With additional funding, EJN would be able to work with local partners to develop more country programs, including:
Vietnam – in addition to capacity- and network-building for journalists, EJN and its partners have targeted two coastal provinces where it would like to work with local communities and media to develop information materials to help them adapt to climate change;
Brazil – Internews is working with O Eco to develop a geo-blogging project that will map and provide in-depth reports on deforestation and forest fires;
Indonesia – the Society of Indonesian Environmental Journalists would like to build a domestic fellowship program that would improve climate change coverage in key regions;
Peru – EJN and the Peruvian Provincial Journalists association are keen to create a climate change training program that includes regional workshops and web-based media development;
China and Vietnam – EJN is seeking funds for training of trainers programs, enabling local journalists to carry on and expand our work of training and mentoring reporters in covering environmental issues.

The Earth Journalism Network is increasingly developing a global reach and membership. Once this community of local media professionals attains the skills and knowledge to turn this global issue into compelling and scientifically accurate local stories, it has the power to motivate citizens and policy-makers to address these environmental challenges.

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