Child mortality drop 'too slow'

Unicef says preventable diseases are the biggest killers of children

The UN children's agency says child mortality is decreasing, but the rate of decline is not enough.

A new report says more than eight million children under five died last year with pneumonia and diarrhoea the two leading causes of death.

Unicef says 40% of under-five deaths take place in just three countries - Nigeria, India and DR Congo.

The report singled out Malawi and Eritrea as success stories, but said in South Africa child mortality had risen.

Unicef says the world is failing to reach the UN's target of a two-thirds reduction in under-five child mortality between 1990 and 2015.

In 1990, 12.5 million children under the age of five died.

"Compared to 1990, 10,000 fewer children are dying every day," said Unicef Executive Director Ann Veneman in a statement.

"While progress is being made, it is unacceptable that each year 8.8 million children die before their fifth birthday."

'Improvement possible'

Unicef says the tools are there to significantly reduce child mortality.

They include bed nets to stop malaria, improved water and sanitation and increased vaccination programmes.

Those countries that use these tools - even some of the poorest nations - have seen big improvements in child survival rates, Unicef says.

But in some countries progress is at best slow and at worst non-existent.

In South Africa, under-five mortality has actually increased since 1990.

The reason, Unicef says, is the high rate of HIV and Aids among mothers.

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Innovators shortlisted for award

Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys is based at the University of Leicester

The creator of DNA fingerprinting heads the shortlist for the prestigious Millennium Technology Prize.

Professor Alec Jeffreys is joined by Prof David Payne, co-inventor of an optical amplifier which transformed telecommunications, on the list.

Prof Payne's co-inventors, Prof Emmanual Desurvire and Dr Randy Giles, are also finalists.

Dr Andrew Viterbi, whose algorithm aids communications, and biomaterial pioneer Prof Robert Langer are also contenders.

The Millennium Technology Prize, a kind of unofficial Nobel Prize for technology, is one of the most prestigious awards for innovation and is given every second year for a technology that "significantly improves the quality of human life, today and in the future".

The prize is awarded by the Technology Academy Finland, an independent foundation established by Finnish industry, in partnership with the Finnish government.

If nothing else, DNA has captured the public's imagination Sir Alec Jeffreys

The winner of the prize receives 800,000 euros, while the creators of the other innovations will each be awarded 115,000 euros.

Previous recipients include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the world wide web, and Prof Shuji Nakamura, inventor of blue, green and white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the blue laser diode.

Continued development

Sir Alec, from the University of Leicester, UK, said being shortlisted was a great honour and "a great recognition for DNA technology and the way it has progressed over the last 24 years".

"If nothing else, DNA has captured the public's imagination; it's out there every single day in papers and on the television; and the technology has reached out and touched the lives of 20 million people," he told BBC News.

He added: "Every single time this has happened it's a drama for that person, in terms of a DNA test; whether it's a father learning about his son, an immigrant family being reunited or an innocent man being saved off death row."

Sir Alec's innovation has been described as a "Eureka" moment, when he looked at the X-ray of a DNA experiment he was working on in September 1984 and saw both similarities and differences in his technician's family DNA.

He said the only people not celebrating this honour were "criminals who were being caught thanks to DNA fingerprinting".

The current research focus, he explained, was to reduce the time lag between taking a DNA test and getting a result, or fingerprint.

"It can be as quick as a few hours, but we want to get it down to a second, to real time. Imagine the security possibilities if we could establish identity that quickly," he said.

Fibre solution

Prof Robert Langer, who is based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a pioneer in biomaterials and has been shortlisted "for his inventions and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration that have saved and improved the lives of millions of people".

Prof Payne's co-creation helped transform global communications

Italian-American engineer Andrew Viterbi has been shortlisted for his creation of an algorithm that makes billions of phone calls every day possible on mobile networks.

The Viterbi algorithm, said the Academy, was "the key building element in modern wireless and digital communications systems, touching lives of people everywhere".

Three scientists have been shortlisted for their work in developing technology which made possible the creation of a high-speed global fibre-optic network.

In the mid-1980s, Prof David Payne, and his team at Southampton University, was in competition with Dr Emmanuel Desurvire and Dr Randy Giles at Bell Labs to develop an optical amplifier that could solve the inadequacies of fibre optic cables of the day.

The two teams developed an optical amplifier, called an erbium-doped fibre amplifier, which was power efficient and enabled light to travel along cables without having to be transformed into an electrical signal and then resent with a new laser.

Keeping pace

Prof Payne was first to publish a paper about erbium-doped fibre amplifiers, but Dr Desurvire, now at Thales Research, and Dr Giles, now director of optical subsystems at Bell Labs, were first to make it a working tool.

The amplifier transformed the telecommunications industry and is now a vital part of the global optical fibre network that acts as a backbone to the net.

Prof Payne said he was proud and humbled by the way his amplifiers had helped the global roll-out of the internet and optical telecommunications.

He said fibre to the home was essential if Britain was going to compete with broadband take-up around the world.

"Sadly broadband speeds in this country aren't really broadband at all. I won't be happy until every home has a one gigabit per second connection," he told BBC News.

He added: "If we were able to afford to dig up the road in the 1980s to roll out cable TV then we can afford to do it again."

He said fibre networks needed to grow if they were to cope with demand for bandwidth in the future.

"Forward projections show that we will fill up the bandwidth of the existing backbone around 2015. What that means is that you have to put in as many fibres every year as the growth of the internet.

The winner of the Millennium Technology Prize will be announced on 11 June.

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Poll: Muslim Americans Still Struggle for Acceptance

By Amy Sullivan / Washington Wednesday, Sep. 09, 2009

Muslim women pray at a conference in New York City

Melanie Stetson Freeman / The Christian Science Monitor / Getty

Eight years after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Muslim Americans — particularly Muslim-American women — continue to face battles in their struggle for acceptance and the right to wear religious garb in public settings. A new poll from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life finds that Americans see Muslims as encountering more discrimination than any other religious group. But while Americans are more likely to be familiar with Islam or personally know a Muslim than they were at the time of the attacks, levels of tolerance are lower today than they were in the months immediately following Sept. 11. (See pictures of Muslims in America.)

It may be difficult to remember now, but just days after the attacks in New York City and Washington, President George W. Bush went out of his way to remind Americans not to confuse ordinary Muslims with the handful of terrorists who committed the violence. "We should not hold one who is a Muslim responsible for an act of terror," Bush said on Sept. 13, 2001.

The message appeared to sink in. A Pew Forum poll conducted that November found that only 17% of Americans held unfavorable views of Muslim Americans, a decrease from 24% just eight months earlier. The shift was most striking among conservative Republicans — in March 2001, 40% viewed Muslim Americans unfavorably, but by November, that number had plummeted by more than half to 19%. In the wake of the attacks, Americans were also reluctant to say that Islam encourages violence more than other faiths; only one-quarter agreed with that statement in March 2002. But by the time the war in Iraq began one year later, that view had changed dramatically, with 44% of Americans willing to associate Islam with violence.

Today, the broad tolerance that existed in the days following 9/11 has largely evaporated. Nearly 40% of Americans still say they think Islam is more likely to encourage violence, according to a new Pew Forum survey, and only a minority hold favorable views of Muslims (the latest poll does not distinguish between Muslims and Muslim Americans).

Muslim Americans are also increasingly battling to adhere to their religious beliefs in the workplace and other public spaces. In Philadelphia, the police department disciplined an officer for wearing a hijab (a headscarf that covers hair and sometimes the neck), and the move was upheld in court. Legislators in Oklahoma and Minnesota have proposed legislation that would prohibit women from wearing a hijab for drivers-license photos. And in Oregon, the state legislature just affirmed a law prohibiting public school teachers from wearing religious garb. The law was originally developed in the 1920s as an anti-Catholic measure aimed at priest collars and nun habits, and it was supported by the Ku Klux Klan. Now some Muslim advocates worry that they are being targeted the same way. "Attire is always a red flag," says Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council for Islamic-American Relations. "But what we're seeing is the overall trend of a vocal minority in our society trying to block any accommodation to Muslims." (See the top 10 religion stories of 2008.)

At the same time, Muslims have become a more familiar part of American society — nearly half of all Americans claim to personally know someone who is Muslim, compared with just 38% of Americans in November 2001. And that number will probably rise in the future, as familiarity with Islam and Muslims is much more common among younger Americans.

A majority of Americans under age 30 (52%) know a Muslim, but less than one-third (30%) of those over age 65 do. That's significant because researchers have found that knowledge of Islam and Muslims tends to make an individual more inclined to express favorable views of the two. "People who know a Muslim tend to be less likely than others to see a connection between Islam and violence," says Gregory Smith, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum. (See people finding God on YouTube.)

It may well be, however, that an uncomfortable gray area exists between tolerating Muslim Americans and fully integrating them into U.S. society. It's not an accident that several recent cases challenging the right of judges to ask Muslim women to remove their hijab in the courtroom have come out of Michigan, which has the largest Arab population outside of the Middle East. Muslims are visible everywhere in the metro Detroit area, selling magazines in the airport, taking orders at Starbucksa and manning tellers at local banks — but the community is still struggling with the question of how far to extend accommodation for their beliefs and practices.

Muslim Americans still enjoy a status less fraught than that of their cousins in Europe, where France is considering banning the wearing of burqas in public and has already outlawed headscarves in schools, and where this summer Muslim women wearing what have been termed "burkinis" were refused entry to pools in France and Italy. But Americans are still divided on whether to embrace the declaration that President Obama made during his speech in Cairo this summer. "Freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion," said Obama. "That is why the U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it."

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Eight years since the 'dark day'

Dealing with the legacy of the attacks is one of Barack Obama's toughest challenges

By Roger Hardy BBC Middle East and Islamic affairs analyst

Across the United States, the memory of 9/11 - that fateful Tuesday in 2001 when suicide attacks struck New York and Washington - is still very much alive.

This year the annual commemoration of the attacks in the US has been given a new name - the National Day of Service and Remembrance.

President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have called on Americans to carry out community service as a way of honouring "the heroes of that dark day".

Down but not out

Dealing with the legacy of 9/11 is one of Mr Obama's toughest challenges.

There has been no repeat of 9/11 on American soil - but around the world al-Qaeda and its extended family are still in business.

Three recent events show that the global threat remains real:

• the hotel bombings in the Indonesian capital Jakarta in July
• the assassination attempt in August against the Saudi prince who is in day-to-day charge of his country's internal security
• and the conviction this week of three British Muslims for their involvement in a plot to bomb seven transatlantic airliners in 2006.

Al-Qaeda leaders could still be winning the global battle for hearts and minds

The consensus among most experts is that al-Qaeda is down but not out.

It has been weakened by constant pressure from the US and its allies. Some of its middle-ranking leaders have been killed in US air strikes by pilotless Predator drones.

In two important countries where it once seemed strong - Iraq and Saudi Arabia - it has been pushed on to the defensive.

But the same experts tend to think that, in the global battle for Muslim hearts and minds, al-Qaeda has outperformed its adversaries.

Its ideology still seems to have a potent appeal to disaffected young Muslims around the world.

Epicentre

On the global jigsaw of extremism, the main front is now the remote and lawless region along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

This is not just where Osama Bin Laden and his number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are thought to be.

For the jihadists, Afghanistan, Pakistan - and perhaps India - now look more promising terrain than Iraq.

It is here that al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies are stepping up the pressure.

Elsewhere, al-Qaeda "franchises" operate in North Africa, Yemen and south-east Asia.

And, as the airliner plot showed, al-Qaeda continues to target Europe, using young "home-grown" Muslims, including converts.

The Obama effect

But if the picture is broadly familiar, there is one new element in the equation - Barack Obama.

Obama has made outreach to the Muslim world a high priority

His election prompted a fierce attack from the al-Qaeda information machine.

Ayman al-Zawahiri went so far as to use a racist slur, calling the new president a house slave.

This suggested the jihadists saw Mr Obama as a trickier target than his predecessor, George W Bush.

The new president was quick to make outreach to Muslims a priority.

He dropped the term "war on terror" and other language deemed counter-productive.

And in a much-publicised speech at Cairo University in June, he offered Muslims a "new beginning" in their relations with America.

He pledged to withdraw US troops from Iraq by 2012 - and called the situation of the Palestinians "intolerable".

But, three months on, even Muslims who welcomed the speech are sceptical.

They see Israel building more settlements in the West Bank, they hear US officials threaten Iran with "crippling" sanctions and they watch the build-up of American troops in Afghanistan.

"He speaks like Obama," remarked one American Muslim commentator, "but acts like Bush."

Islamophobia

While coping with Muslim suspicion of the West, the president also has to deal with the other side of the coin - Western suspicion of Islam.

This is not a temporary law and order exercise, but a long-term war fought for the defence of Western civilisation Nile Gardiner, Heritage Foundation

Many still believe that what's under way is a clash of civilisations.

"The danger posed by Islamists is the gravest threat to the free world since the fall of communism and the earlier crushing of Nazi Germany," wrote Nile Gardiner in the London-based Daily Telegraph this week.

Mr Gardiner works at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank in Washington.

Challenging extremism, he went on, "is not a temporary law and order exercise, but a long-term war fought for the defence of Western civilisation".

An anonymous comment posted on the Telegraph website reads: "Militant Islam does the dirty work for Islam."

Such sentiments - in stronger or more muted form - are not uncommon.

Students were recently sent home from their school in Florida for wearing T-shirts - supplied by a local church - proclaiming "Islam is of the Devil".

'Narratives of humiliation'

Healing the rift between Islam and the West is a long-term challenge.

Writing in Newsweek, seasoned American diplomat Ryan Crocker ponders the lessons of 9/11, eight years on.

Mr Crocker recently retired after almost four decades in the State Department, serving as US ambassador in Kabul and most recently in Baghdad.

Americans, he writes, have yet to learn that "imposing ourselves on hostile or chaotic societies is no solution".

"The perceived arrogance and ignorance of overbearing powers can create new narratives of humiliation that will feed calls for vengeance centuries from now."

What's needed, he says, is "strategic patience" - something Americans have traditionally "found hard to muster".

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Afghan election process 'biased'

By David Loyn BBC News, Kabul

Mr Abdullah said the election was being stolen from the Afghan people

The main challenger in the Afghan election has claimed the body carrying out the count is being manipulated by the incumbent President Hamid Karzai.

Speaking exclusively to the BBC, Abdullah Abdullah said the election commission was on the president's side.

Since the Afghan election three weeks ago, the number of claims of fraud in the voting have been rising.

As the counting goes on Mr Karzai has just passed the 50% mark that means he does not have to face a second round.

But now for the first time, Mr Abdullah has said that the counting process itself is flawed.

In a strongly-worded interview for the BBC, he said the election was being stolen from the Afghan people, and the Independent Election Commission was anything but independent.

"It's not independent at all; it's on President Karzai's side," said Mr Abdullah.

"It has been corrupt, and their malpractice is now widespread. I think it's not for the good of the country that somebody who commits massive fraud rules the country for (almost) five years."

Mr Abdullah said the way the election had been conducted was a recipe for instability.

"I'm not talking about just my own supporters, but those who cast their vote for Mr Karzai," he said.

"Their vote is now part of the fraud. And on top of that, a fraudulent outcome: illegitimate rule for another five years. I think this in itself is a recipe for instability in this country."

But Mr Abdullah said he still wanted a fair result to be found through peaceful channels.

Earlier this week the international body overseeing the process took their first decisive step - ordering the election commission to hold a recount wherever there were suspicious ballots - potentially opening months of arguments.

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Obama urges action on healthcare

President Barack Obama urged Congress to set aside partisan bickering

US President Barack Obama has made one of the most critical speeches of his presidency, as he faced Congress over his plans for healthcare reform.

Mr Obama said that failure to introduce reform had led the country to breaking point and it was now time to act.

He said he planned to improve health insurance for those who have it and to create an insurance exchange to extend cover to those who do not.

Republicans said Mr Obama's plans would make healthcare much more expensive.

See how healthcare spending is divided up

Mr Obama told Congress that the US was the only developed country that allowed millions of its people to endure the hardship of going without healthcare.

MARDELL BLOG It seemed to go down pretty well in the chamber, but it's how Americans receive it over the next few hours and days that really counts Mark Mardell BBC North America editor Mark Mardell follows the speech Obama speech: Full text Send us your comments

"Everyone understands the extraordinary hardships that are placed on the uninsured, who live every day just one accident or illness away from bankruptcy," he said.

"These are not primarily people on welfare. These are middle-class Americans."

But Mr Obama said the current system did not serve well those Americans who do have health insurance either.

"Those who do have insurance have never had less security and stability than they do today.

"More and more Americans worry that if you move, lose your job, or change your job, you'll lose your health insurance too."

He said the US spent one-and-a-half times more on health insurance than any other country but Americans were no healthier than other people.

Heckled

Mr Obama set out details of his plan to reform the system.

One Republican shouted: "You lie" at Barack Obama during the speech

He said that nothing in his proposal would require Americans who already have health insurance to change their coverage or doctor.

But he said he would make the insurance work better for individuals by prohibiting insurers from dropping coverage for sick patients or by capping it.

He would also require insurers to cover the cost of routine check-ups and preventative care.

For the millions of uninsured Americans, he said he would create an insurance exchange - a market place where individuals and small business will be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices.

Mr Obama said a public insurance option could help keep the private health insurance companies honest and competitive.

But he said it would not be subsidised by the government, so would not create unfair competition for the private sector.

He added that the public option was only a means to an end, and he remained open to other ideas if they had the same effect.

HEALTHCARE IN THE US 46 million uninsured, 25 million under-insured Healthcare costs represent 16% of GDP, almost twice OECD average Reform plans would require all Americans to get insurance Some propose public insurance option to compete with private insurers Q&A: US healthcare reform Reform: Who wants what? Obama's healthcare fight-back

When Mr Obama said illegal immigrants would not benefit from his plan, the Republican ranks showed signs of near mutiny, says the BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington.

One Republican representative shouted: "You lie", and the president paused briefly.

In the official Republican response to Mr Obama's speech, Representative Charles Boustany, a heart surgeon, urged a fresh start on "a commonsense, bipartisan plan".

He added: "Replacing your family's current healthcare with government-run healthcare is not the answer. In fact, it'll make healthcare much more expensive."

Our correspondent says Mr Obama was clearly not looking for right-wing Republican support - he knows he will not get it.

He says the speech was another strong performance from Mr Obama and an attempt to turn the tide in the healthcare debate.

But our correspondent adds the speech may have also come too late as positions are already entrenched and some of Mr Obama's supporters wonder why he did not do this months ago.

Healthcare reform has been the central issue of his change agenda but has divided both the US public and the country's political establishment.

President Obama said that Congress agreed on about 80% of the reforms that are needed.

But he said months of partisan bickering had only hardened the disdain many Americans have towards their own government.

He is facing almost unanimous opposition from Republicans, who are uneasy about the idea of government-run healthcare and who have accused Mr Obama of attempting to introduce a "socialist" policy.

There are, in theory, enough Democrats in Congress to approve the changes.

But in practice, the party is deeply divided between those that want a publicly-run insurance scheme and those alarmed by the borrowing necessary to fund it.

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Samoa switches to driving on left

Samoa direction changes causes jams

Samoa has become the first country since the 1970s to change the side of the road on which cars are driven.

At 0600 local time (1700GMT) sirens sounded and drivers were told to move from the right side to the left.

The government brought about the change to bring Samoa into line with other South Pacific nations.

A two-day holiday was declared to ease traffic as people got used to the new rules, which faced legal challenges from groups which predicted chaos.

At 0600, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Lupesoliai Malielegaoi addressed the country on national radio.

"After this announcement you will all be permitted to move to the other side of the road, to begin this new era in our history," the New Zealand Herald quoted him as saying.

Emergency vehicles and government workers were reportedly stationed at every junction and corner but witnesses said the change happened smoothly.

Barbara Dreaver, a correspondent for New Zealand Television, said the scene was "just amazing" but that traffic was flowing "fairly well".

"There were hundreds of people who had come out, just to watch this happen," she said.

Cars are going to crash, people are going to die - not to mention the huge expense to our country Tole'afoa Solomona Toa'iloa Samoa lawyer Samoa drivers brace for left turn

"We've had the odd squealing of brakes as people suddenly realise that they should not be on that side of the road, but for the most part it's been very smooth."

The move survived a late legal appeal by the protest group People Against Switching Sides (Pass), who argued that it would bring mayhem to the highways and byways of this remote South Pacific nation.

Bus drivers have also protested that their doors will now open on the wrong side, in the middle of the road.

But the Samoan government introduced the change to end its reliance on expensive, left-hand drive imports from America.

It hopes that Samoan expatriates in Australia and New Zealand will now ship used, more affordable vehicles back to their homeland.

To minimise the chaos, a two-day national holiday has been declared to keep cars off the road, and prayers have been said at the country's churches in the hope of blessing the changeover.

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Anger at Israeli settlement plan

Some 2,500 housing units are now under construction in settlements

Israel has officially approved the construction of more than 450 new homes in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli defence ministry has announced.

This is the first new government-approved construction project in the West Bank since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in March.

It comes despite US pressure to halt settlement building.

A senior Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said the move "nullified" the effect of any future building freeze.

Palestinians have ruled out resumption of peace talks with Israel until there is a complete halt to settlement construction.

Mr Erekat said Israel's decision further undermined its credibility as a partner for peace.

WEST BANK SETTLEMENTS Construction of settlements began in 1967, shortly after the Middle East War Some 280,000 Israelis now live in the 121 officially-recognised settlements in the West Bank A further 190,000 Israelis live in settlements in occupied East Jerusalem The largest West Bank settlement is Modiin Illit, where 38,000 people live There are a further 102 unauthorised outposts in the West Bank which are not officially recognised by Israel The population of West Bank settlements has been growing at a rate of 5-6% since 2001 Source: Peace Now Obama's Mid-East plans in jeopardy

"Israel's decision to approve the construction nullifies any effect that a settlement freeze, when and if announced, will have," Mr Erekat said.

"Given the choice between making peace and making settlements, they have chosen to make settlements," he added.

Mitchell visit

"Defence Minister Ehud Barak has authorised the construction of 455 housing units in settlement blocs," the Israeli defence ministry said in a statement.

It updated its earlier statement that said Mr Barak had approved the building of 366 housing units.

The homes will be built in six settlements - all of which are included in the settlement blocs that Israel wants to keep under any peace agreement, according to Israel's Haaretz newspaper.

It says the settlements include Har Gilo, Modiin Illit and Ariel.

Last week, Israeli officials announced that Mr Netanyahu would give the go-ahead for the new housing units.

The issue is expected to be discussed when Mr Netanyahu's aides meet US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, later this week.

BBC Jerusalem correspondent Tim Franks says there is little doubt that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is feeling pressure from the settlers - who dismissed this latest approval to build as insultingly limited.

But today's announcement can only complicate a possible resumption of meaningful peace talks with the Palestinians.

"What Netanyahu is doing is clearly at the scale of a grand deception," said Fatah spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi.

"He thinks that he can deceive the rest of the world... but what he is doing under a variety of pretexts is the continuation of settlements and at the same time demanding a price in return."

The Americans, who are trying to broker new peace negotiations, have already expressed their displeasure, our correspondent says.

They say they are trying to build credibility across the Middle East in a new Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The question for the US special envoy is whether he will, in the end, accept the Israeli version of a settlement freeze.

Close to 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.

Some 2,500 housing units are currently under construction.

The settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

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