Experts Say Global Warming Likely to Affect Africa Most Severely

By Scott Bobb Johannesburg 17 April 2007

Download

Experts say global warming is likely to affect people living in Africa more than on any other continent and warn that African policymakers must begin to prepare for such an event. An international panel of experts on climate change made the projection Tuesday in its latest report. Correspondent Scott Bobb reports from Johannesburg.

A child is carried by his mother as she harvests her maize crop early due to a food shortage caused by drought in Kampimphi, 68 kms north of Lilongwe, Malawi (file photo)

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, says global warming could upset the livelihood of as many as 250 million Africans in the next 13 years by reducing access to water and food, degrading forests, mangroves and coral reefs and causing large migrations of people.

One of the main authors of the report, Guy Midgley, says at the same time Africa is among the regions least able to address such a crisis.

"It's a continent which is most vulnerable to climate change because of its low adaptive capacity," he said. "You have fairly weak institutional control and inputs and at the same time high levels of projected climate impact. Put those two things together and you end up with substantial vulnerability."

The IPCC was formed nearly 20 years ago to assess scientific studies on climate change. The latest report was compiled over the past six years by hundreds of authors from 130 countries. It is meant to serve as a tool for policymakers.

Midgley says that research is growing and increasingly in agreement. It shows that surface temperatures on land and sea have risen by one to two degrees in the past 34 years and are already affecting weather and ecosystems around the world.

He says in Africa, fish populations have declined in major lakes and coastal areas. The amount of land available for agriculture is shrinking and growing seasons are shorter. The report projects that crops from rain-fed agriculture in some countries could be reduced by as much as 50 percent by 2020.

At the same time, rising sea levels could threaten coastal and island communities and affect industries such as tourism. The report says some adaptation has already begun but the cost could amount to as much as 10 percent of gross domestic products.

He says a major concern in Africa is that so many people are living at subsistence levels.

"A lot of people in Africa are not living buffered by insurance, buffered by savings, by credit availability," Midgely said. "So when resources become less available people potentially could be quite mobile. And that's always a problem for social security, for unrest, etc."

He notes that in a major irony, warming temperatures may actually boost agriculture and water supplies in temperate zones such as the northern hemisphere.

Last November, then-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke at the opening of the climate change meeting in Nairobi. He said the impact of climate change will fall disproportionately on the world's poorest countries, many of them here in Africa. He added that these people already live on the front lines of pollution, disaster and the degradation of resources and land.

Suspected Taleban Insurgents Hit UN Vehicle in Afghanistan, Killing Five

By Benjamin Sand Islamabad 17 April 2007

Download

The United Nations has come under attack in Afghanistan. Officials there say a roadside bomb ripped through a U.N. vehicle, killing five people. From Islamabad, VOA correspondent Benjamin Sand reports.

Afghan police officers check the destroyed United Nation's vehicle after it was hit by a road side bomb in the main city of Kandahar province, 17 Apr 2007

U.N. spokesman Aleem Siddique says the blast Tuesday morning was in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.

"The blast has claimed the lives of an Afghan driver and four Nepalese contractors working with the U.N. Office for Project Services," he said.

The U.N. vehicle was driving down the main road just outside Kandahar city.

The United Nations says the bomb was apparently detonated by remote control and was not a suicide attack.

The southern provinces are the Taleban's traditional stronghold and fighting there has continued unabated since U.S.-led forces ousted the Islamic militants from power in 2001.

Taleban commanders have already claimed responsibility for the explosion. U.N. officials sharply condemned the attack.

"Intentional attacks on civilians are a clear violation of international humanitarian law and the United Nations will be pursuing full accountability for those who are behind this," said Siddique.

The blast was the first deadly attack on the United Nations in nearly 11 months.

Security experts say Taleban attacks on civilians in general have surged dramatically, with more than 700 non-combatants killed in the past 15 months and thousands more seriously injured.

2006 was Afghanistan's deadliest year in more than half a decade and this year shows no signs of any improvement.

The fighting eased during the recent winter months when heavy snows restricted the Taleban's movement. But Afghan officials say attacks are again on the rise and the insurgency appears to be back with a vengeance.

On Monday, a suicide bomber in the northern city of Kunduz killed at least nine policemen and injured more than 25 others.

Officials there say it was the first large attack in the relatively stable northern provinces in several months and the deadliest since 2001.

US Hopes for New Nepal Election Date Soon, Expresses Caution Toward Maoists

By Steve Herman Kathmandu 17 April 2007

Download

The U.S. ambassador to Nepal understands the need for a delay in elections in the Himalayan kingdom. In the meantime, he says, the United States will conditionally cooperate with government ministries now being run by Maoists - who had been labeled terrorists by the U.S. VOA's Steve Herman reports from Kathmandu.

Ambassador James Moriarty (file photo)

U.S. ambassador James Moriarty says Nepal's government "ran out of time" to hold free and fair elections on June 20. No new date has been set for polling to select a constituent assembly that is to decide the fate of the country's unpopular monarchy.

Moriarty, in a VOA interview on Tuesday, expressed his desire to see the eight parties in the interim government formed this month quickly set a new election date.

In the meantime the United States and other foreign governments are dealing with a Nepalese government in which Maoists control several ministries. The United States has designated the Maoists as a terrorist group.

Ambassador Moriarty says a pragmatic decision has been made to not immediately sever ties with those ministries.

"We have decided we will not punish the people of Nepal for the sins of the Maoists," he said. "We'll look at the ministries that are controlled by the Maoists, see what we're doing with those ministries, see whether we need to change the way we work with those ministries in order that Maoist ministers don't get the credit for what we end up doing with those ministries."

Maoist leaders watch as an officer of the Election Commission registers the party's official name of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in Kathmandu, 10 Apr 2007

Nepal is one of the world's poorest countries, sandwiched between China and India. It maintains good relations with both countries, as well as the United States.

A Maoist victory in an election certified as free and fair would put the United States in a further quandary. The ambassador tells VOA News that Washington would have to accept any outcome of such an election.

"If they achieve that through a free and fair election, we will welcome it if that's really the will of the people of Nepal," he said. "I tend to have my doubts that's really the case. You don't win peoples' hearts and minds by brutalizing them and that's been the favorite Maoist tool."

The ambassador, a former senior official of the U.S. National Security Council, says the Maoists have what he calls a frightening agenda of collectivization, mass re-education and nationalization of key industries that would be a "recipe for disaster." Such programs, if implemented, he says, would bring into question whether the United States "in good conscience" could continue to support Nepal.

Annual support to Nepal through the U.S. Agency for International Development is about $40 million.

Despite recent statements by Maoist leaders to work for the abolition of the monarchy and other goals through the democratic process, Moriarty says they continue to "use violence on a fairly massive scale every day" in Nepal to shake down merchants and intimidate political opponents.

The Maoists waged a decade-long violent campaign to topple the monarchy. The violence left 14,000 people dead. In a landmark peace deal last year the Maoists agreed to enter the political process and have sent their militias and arms into camps under United Nations supervision.

VOASE0417_Health Report

17 April 2007

Vaccines: How They Work (and How Caterpillars Could Help)
Most influenza vaccine is made in chickens eggs. But scientists are testing a design made from caterpillar cells.

Download
Download

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Most vaccines are designed with the same goal in mind. That is, to help the

body's own defense system prevent a disease by producing antibodies against it. Antibodies are disease-fighting proteins. The immune system produces them in reaction to viruses, bacteria and other invaders.

The vaccine tricks the body into thinking it has already successfully defeated the disease. To activate the immune system, vaccines commonly introduce the disease-causing virus or bacteria into the body. But they use weakened or killed versions.

Weakened viruses are used, for example, in vaccines against chickenpox, measles, mumps and rubella. To prevent polio, the Sabin vaccine uses a weakened form of the virus; the Salk vaccine uses a killed version.

Experts say vaccines that use killed or inactivated virus can be safely given even to people with damaged immune systems.

Researchers may spend years working on a vaccine. They have still not succeeded against, for example, H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, or against malaria, but they are trying.

And not all vaccines offer long-term protection. The tetanus vaccine is a good example. It offers protection for only about ten years. Then a person must be immunized again.

Some vaccines are made with animal material. For example, influenza vaccine is grown in chicken eggs. This can be a problem for people who are allergic to eggs. Also, the process is complex.

But things could change in the future. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that flu vaccine could come from insect cells.

Researchers in the United States tested a flu vaccine made from caterpillar cells. The study involved four hundred sixty people. There were two versions of the vaccine, one stronger than the other.

The people were not told whether they were getting the vaccine or a substitute, a placebo. Here is what the scientists reported: Seven people in the placebo group caught the flu. So did two people who received the lower strength vaccine. But no one in the stronger vaccine group got the flu.

Protein Sciences, a vaccine maker, paid for the study. The company plans to begin testing the experimental flu vaccine on a larger group in order to seek government approval.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, along with transcripts and audio files of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE0417_Explorations

17 April 2007

Eleanor Creesy Helped Guide One of the Fastest Sailing Ships Ever Built
In 1851 the Flying Cloud set a record for sailing from New York City to San Francisco.

Download
Download

VOICE ONE:

I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Eleanor Creesy. She helped to guide one of the fastest sailing ships ever built.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The name Eleanor Creesy is almost unknown today. But in the middle eighteen

Painting of the Flying Cloud from eraoftheclipperships.com

hundreds she was a famous woman. Those were the days of wooden sailing ships. It was a time before ships had engines. Cloth sails were used to catch the wind to move a ship through the water.

A ship that sailed from New York to San Francisco had to travel around the bottom of South America. Such a trip could take two hundred days to complete. Not all ships completed the trip. The high winds and angry seas in this area of the world created deadly storms. Ships often sank. No one could survive the freezing waters in this dangerous area if the ship went down.

VOICE TWO:

One hundred fifty years ago, women did not receive much education. Most women were expected to learn to read and write. But they almost never held positions of great responsibility.

Eleanor Creesy was different. She was the navigator for a ship. A navigator is responsible for guiding a ship safely from one port to another.

Eleanor’s father taught her to navigate. She wanted to learn this difficult skill because she liked the mathematics involved. A navigator also had to know how to use a complex instrument called a sextant. It was used to gather information about the sun, moon, and some stars to find a ship’s position at sea.

Eleanor married a captain of a ship, Josiah Perkins Creesy, in eighteen forty-one. It was not unusual for a ship captain to take his wife with him on long trips. A captain’s wife often acted as a nurse, which Eleanor did. But she did a lot more. Josiah Creesy quickly learned that his wife was an extremely good navigator.

Eleanor was the navigator on each ship that Josiah commanded during all their years at sea. They were husband and wife, but they also enjoyed working together.

VOICE ONE:

Eleanor and Josiah Creesy are forever linked to one of the most famous ships in American history. That ship is the Flying Cloud. It was designed and built at the shipyard of Donald McKay in the eastern city of Boston. Grinell, Minturn and Company bought it. Captain Creesy worked for Grinell, Minturn. Company officials chose him to be the captain of the new ship.

The Flying Cloud was a new kind of ship. The front was very narrow and sharp. This helped it cut through the water. The ship itself was narrow and long. This also added to its speed. A New York newspaper wrote a story about the ship when it was new. The paper said it was extremely beautiful. The world soon learned it was one of the fastest sailing ships ever built.

The large number of sails the Flying Cloud could carry increased the speed of the ship. It usually carried at least twenty-one large sails. The crew often added many more to increase the speed.

VOICE TWO:

It was the second day of June, eighteen fifty-one. Goods and passengers had been loaded on the Flying Cloud. The ship quietly sailed out of New York City on its way to San Francisco.

Very quickly it became evident the ship was special. Part of Eleanor Creesy’s work was to find out how far the ship had traveled each day. This involved doing complex mathematics and usually took Eleanor several hours. The first time she completed her work, she could not believe the results. She did the mathematics again, carefully looking for mistakes. There were none.

The ship had traveled almost four hundred eighty kilometers in twenty-four hours. This was an extremely fast speed. Few ships had ever sailed this fast.

VOICE ONE:

The captain of a ship keeps a written record of each day’s events when a ship is at sea. This record is called a ship’s log. On May fifteenth, just seventeen days after leaving New York, Captain Creesy wrote this in the Flying Cloud’s log:

“We have passed the Equator in two days less time than ever before. We have traveled five thousand nine hundred and nine kilometers in seventeen days!”

As the Flying Cloud sailed south, each day was extremely exciting. As it neared the South Atlantic, however, storms began to cause great concern.

For Eleanor Creesy to learn the correct position of the ship each day, she had to be able to see the sun, the moon or stars. This was impossible when the ship entered an area of storms. It was then that her greatest skill as a navigator became extremely important.

VOICE TWO:

When bad weather prevented navigators from seeing the sun, moon or stars, they had to use a method called “dead reckoning” to find the ship’s position.

Dead reckoning is not exact. A navigator would take the last known position of the ship, then add the ship’s speed. The navigator also had to add any movement of the ship to the side caused by waves or the wind. But this information was only a guess. Even a good navigator could be wrong by many kilometers.

If a ship was sailing in the middle of the ocean, a navigator could make mistakes using dead reckoning and no harm would be done. However, when a ship was near land, dead reckoning became extremely dangerous. The ship might be much closer to land than the navigator knew. In a storm, the ship could be driven on to land and severely damaged or sunk. Using dead reckoning near the southern most area of South America called for an expert.

The Flying Cloud was near land at the end of the South American continent. Eleanor Creesy used all her skill to find a safe path for the huge ship.

VOICE ONE:

Captain Creesy was responsible for the safety of the Flying Cloud, the passengers and crew. He would be blamed for any serious accident. Most captains did their own navigating. Perhaps no other captain sailing at that time would think to have a woman do this extremely important work. However, Josiah Creesy never questioned his wife’s sailing directions.

He would often stand on the deck of his ship, in the cold rain and fierce winds. He would shout below to Missus Creesy and ask for a new sailing direction. She would quickly do the work required for a new dead reckoning direction and pass the information to her husband. Captain Creesy would give the orders to turn the big ship.

VOICE TWO:

The storm began to grow. The crew put out the fires used for heat and cooking. Fire was a great danger at sea. No fires were ever permitted on a ship during a storm. Not even lamps were lit. Everyone ate cold food. The temperatures were now near freezing.

Hour after hour Eleanor Creesy worked to find the ship’s dead reckoning position.

When the storm ended, the crew of the Flying Cloud could see the very southern coast of South America -- a place called Tierra del Fuego. They could see the snow-covered mountains and huge amounts of blue ice. It was an area of deadly beauty. And, it was only eight kilometers away. Eleanor Creesy had guided the ship perfectly.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The Flying Cloud sailed north toward San Francisco traveling at speeds no one thought possible. On July thirty-first, the ship traveled six hundred and one kilometers in only twenty-four hours. No ship had ever sailed that far in one day. The Flying Cloud had set a world record. That record belonged to the ship, the crew, the captain and the navigator.

On August thirty-first, the Flying Cloud sailed into San Francisco Bay. The Flying Cloud had set a record for sailing from New York to San Francisco. It made the trip in eighty-nine days, and twenty-one hours. Newspapers across the country spread the news. Josiah and Eleanor Creesy were famous.

Newspapers wrote stories about them and their beautiful ship. People wanted to meet them. But soon the two were back at sea.

Two years later Captain Creesy and his wife again took the Flying Cloud from New York to San Francisco. This time they made the trip in eighty-nine days, eight hours. This record would stand unbroken for more than one hundred years.

VOICE TWO:

Josiah and Eleanor Creesy went on to sail in other ships. They continued to work as a team until they left the sea in eighteen sixty-four. They retired to their home in Massachusetts.

Captain Josiah Creesy died in June of eighteen seventy-one. His wife lived until the beginning of the new century. She died at the age of eighty-five, in August of nineteen hundred.

Eleanor Creesy is remembered by anyone who loves the history of the sea. She is honored for her great skill as navigator of the Flying Cloud, one of the fastest sailing ships the world has ever seen.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Shirley Griffith. You can read scripts and download audio on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Bush Says America Shocked by University Shooting

By Paula Wolfson White House 16 April 2007

Download

America is in shock and mourning, following the worst mass shooting in the nation's history. VOA's Paula Wolfson has the latest on a day of bloodshed at Virginia Tech University that left 33 people dead, including the gunman.

SWAT team members head to Norris Hall, the site of a shooting on campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, 16 Apr 2007

A blustery spring morning turned into a living nightmare at Virginia Tech.

A gunman opened fire in a dormitory. Two hours later, he struck again in a classroom.

Students fled in panic as police rushed in. Buildings across the sprawling rural campus were locked down. And the nation mourned as the death toll increased over and over again.

"Our nation is shocked and saddened by the news of the shooting at Virginia Tech today," the president said.

President Bush reacting to shooting at Virginia Tech, 16 Apr 2007

President Bush gave a voice to the thoughts of the American people.

"Today, our nation grieves with those who lost loved ones at Virginia Tech," he said. "We hold the victims in our hearts, we lift them up in our prayers, and we ask a loving God to comfort those who are suffering today."

Across Washington, in the halls of Congress, political foes joined in a moment of silence for the dead - first in the Senate and then in the House.

The top Democrat in the Senate - Harry Reid - spoke of the senselessness of the shootings. He said many questions remain unanswered.

"What we do know breaks our hearts and shakes us to our very core," he said. "So for now all we can do is offer our thoughts and our prayers in a very individual way."

For members of Virginia's congressional delegation, the shootings literally struck close to home. Virginia Tech is the largest university in the state with roughly 25,000 students. Virginia's long-time senior Senator - Republican John Warner - spoke of the loss in personal terms.

"This tragedy is an incomprehensible situation," he said. "It is an incomprehensible, senseless act of violence."

The federal government has offered to help Virginia with its investigation of the tragedy. Officials at Virginia Tech - which is state-owned and run - have defended their handling of the crisis. Students have complained the school was slow to get out information about the first shooting and that a general warning might have prevented further loss of life.

Until Monday, the worst campus shooting in U.S. history was the 1966 massacre at the University of Texas, where a student killed 16 people. Eight years ago, two teenagers murdered 13 people at their high school in Colorado before committing suicide. And just last year, a gunman killed five young girls at an Amish school in Pennsylvania.

One Iraqi Woman Stands Up to Sectarian Intimidators

By Margaret Besheer Baghdad 16 April 2007

Download

In the Iraqi capital, illegal Sunni and Shi'ite groups are trying to shift the sectarian balance of neighborhoods to their favor. They use intimidation and executions to force residents of different sects to flee their homes. From Baghdad, VOA's Margaret Besheer has the story of one woman who would not be driven away.

Iraqi women hold portraits of relatives killed in clashes during protest by displaced Sunnis in Baghdad's al-Adil neighborhood (file photo)

Ala'a sits in her nearly-dark living room, just one lamp running off the generator. She is a Sunni Arab who lives in a predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood of northwestern Baghdad. In the last few weeks, Shi'ite militiamen targeted her and the few remaining Sunni families in the area.

Ala'a fidgets with her headscarf as she tells how her ordeal began on an ordinary morning when she discovered a red "X" painted on the small shop her family owns nearby. At first she thought it was just some mischievous teenagers, but then two days later, another red "X" appeared on her house. Written under it was "Leave, your blood is wanted."

Next a note was left in their front yard. It said, "You came back? Are you challenging us? We will burn you and kill you because you are Nawasib" - a derogatory name Shi'ites use against Sunnis.

Frightened, Ala'a called the American army unit responsible under the new Baghdad security plan for her neighborhood. Captain Benjamin Morales, the commander of Company B of the 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division responded.

"We went there, we talked to the family. They had a death threat note on the door and they gave it to us," he said. "We gave them our tip number and said if they ever came by again give us a call. About a week later they said they were outside and they were spray- painting graffiti and yelling at them again."

Captain Morales says there were seven armed men, five in a car, and two on a motorcycle. They were threatening the other Sunni families in the neighborhood and had sprayed graffiti glorifying the Mahdi Army on four or five other Sunni houses.

The Mahdi Army is the militia of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Many Sunnis blame its members for intimidation and executions in their neighborhoods.

A few days later the men returned.

Ala'a says she and her family were sitting in the front garden when they began shooting at the house. The family fled inside and then the militiamen locked them in using chains and padlocks.

They told Ala'a and her family they would be back to kill them. Ala'a called Captain Morales and his men responded immediately.

"We shot the locks off the doors and freed the families. There were multiple Sunni families that were locked into their houses," he said. "They went to every Sunni family in that neighborhood and locked them into their houses and said they would be back within 48 hours to kill them."

Amazingly, once Ala'a and her family were freed, they did not leave their home despite fears the gunmen would return.

That night, the American troops watched Ala'a's house from a distance. Four men returned and the soldiers arrested them.

Captain Morales says he cannot yet confirm whether they were Mahdi Army, only that they were criminals. But Ala'a has no doubts they were from the Mahdi Army, which has a strong presence in her neighborhood.

She says the militia has become much quieter in the area since the Americans arrested some of their members.

But she says persistent fear of the militia is keeping her from going out much. She says the militiamen have threatened her saying the Americans cannot protect her forever and they will kill her soon.

She remains in her home with some other female relatives and their children. They sent their husbands away weeks ago when the threats began. They say if the men had stayed they would certainly have been killed and then who would have taken care of them? They never imagined that women and children could be targets of such violence.

Ala'a says she has many good Shi'ite neighbors, but they too fear the militia, which tells them not to associate with Sunnis.

Captain Morales says his men have detained a total of 10 suspects and none are likely to be released anytime soon. But he cautions that senior leaders remain on the loose and that his unit is continuing to work to make the area safer for all its residents - Sunni and Shi'ite - and end the troubling trend of sectarian intimidation and displacement.

Sadr Ministers Quit Iraqi Cabinet Pressuring Maliki

By Margaret Besheer Irbil, Iraq 16 April 2007

Download

Six cabinet ministers loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr quit the Iraqi government Monday to protest the prime minister's refusal to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. and other coalition forces, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's already beleaguered government. From northern Iraq, VOA's Margaret Besheer has more.

Nassar al-Rubaie, head of the Sadr bloc in parliament read the statement to the assembly.

He said, in the interest of the Iraqi people and in order to alleviate their suffering, we find it necessary to order the Sadr bloc ministers to immediately withdraw from the government and give their posts to independent men who have the Iraqi people's interests in mind.

The move only affects the cabinet, not the 30 seats that supporters of the radical, anti-American cleric hold in the 275-member legislature. But it is likely to put more pressure on Prime Minister Maliki, who relied on Sadr's support to get his job.

Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr speaks near the Shi'ite Holy city of Najaf, Iraq (File)

Moqtada al-Sadr has significant influence on the country's majority Shiites, and Monday's move is designed to pressure Mr. Maliki to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. and coalition forces from Iraq. Mr. Maliki said last week during a visit to Japan that he sees no need for such a timetable.

Sadr's announcement may not be the only political storm brewing for Mr. Maliki.

Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani told VOA Monday, that the Kurdish bloc, which has about 58 seats in the Iraqi parliament, would rethink its support of Mr. Maliki if the prime minister goes ahead with a plan that would effectively delay resolving the status of the disputed oil rich-city of Kirkuk, which lies just outside the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

A committee in the parliament is responsible for making recommendations about implementing Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution. That article deals with determining the city's future within the central government and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

Under the constitution Mr. Maliki has the authority to implement those recommendations, but says he will instead refer them to the parliament for a vote.

Prime Minister Barzani says the moment these guidelines are sent to the parliament the normalization process will become further complicated and it will not help the implementation process.

He says he sees this as a step backwards on Mr. Maliki's part from implementing Article 140, and if he insists that the issue should be addressed in this way by the parliament, the Kurdish bloc would review its position on its alliance.

A referendum is due to be held on the city's future by the end of this year. Kirkuk's population is a mix of mainly Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen. Its vast oil and natural gas deposits make it a very valuable city.

VOASE0416_Science In the News

16 April 2007

World Health Experts Report Progress in Fight Against Tuberculosis
One-third of the world's population is infected with TB bacteria. But most people with the disease can be cured.

Download
Download
VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. On our program this week, we tell about the disease tuberculosis. Tuberculosis can be deadly if not treated the right way. It is a serous health problem around the world.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs

Tuberculosis is one of the leading infectious diseases. The World Health Organization says two billion people are infected with the TB bacteria. That is about one-third of the world’s total population.

One in ten people infected with the TB bacteria will become sick with tuberculosis at some time during their life. Almost nine million people become sick with the disease each year. About one million six hundred thousand people will die of the disease this year.

The World Health Organization says TB is a disease of poverty. It affects mostly young adults in their most productive years. The large majority of deaths from the disease are in developing countries. More than half of all deaths happen in Asia.

VOICE TWO:

The World Health Organization declared TB a public health emergency in nineteen ninety-three. A new WHO report shows tuberculosis rates around the world are falling or unchanged. The report says rates were unchanged in two thousand five after reaching record high levels one year earlier.

If this continues for the next three or four years, WHO officials believe their Millennium Development Goal could be reached. The goal is to discover at least seventy percent of TB cases and successfully treat eighty-five percent of those cases by the year two thousand fifteen.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Patients with TB in Hyderabad, India

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs. Most people infected with the bacteria never develop active TB. However, people with weak body defense systems often develop the disease. TB can damage a person’s lungs or other parts of the body and cause serious health problems.

The disease is spread by people who have active, untreated TB bacteria in their throat or lungs. The bacteria are spread into the air when people with the disease talk or expel air suddenly.

VOICE TWO:

People who breathe infected air from a TB victim can become infected with the tuberculosis bacteria. However, most people with active tuberculosis do not expel very many TB bacteria. So, the spread of the disease usually does not happen unless a person spends a large amount of time with a TB patient. Those most at risk are family members, friends and people who live or work closely with a patient.

If a person becomes infected with the TB bacteria, it does not mean he or she has the disease. Having the infection means that the bacteria are in the body, but they may be neutral, or inactive.

VOICE ONE:

When TB bacteria are inactive, they cannot damage the body. And they cannot spread to other people. People with the inactive bacteria are infected, but they are not sick. They probably do not know that they are infected. For most of them, the bacteria will always be inactive. They will never suffer signs of tuberculosis.

If the natural immune system against disease is weak, however, a person can get tuberculosis soon after the TB bacteria enter the body. Also, inactive TB bacteria may become active if the immune system becomes weak. When this happens, the bacteria begin reproducing and damaging the lungs or other organs and causing serious sickness.

The inactive TB bacteria can become active under several conditions. When a person becomes old, the immune system may become too weak to protect against the bacteria. The virus that causes AIDS can cause TB bacteria to become active. Also, doctors warn that people who drink too much alcohol or use drugs have a higher risk of becoming sick from the tuberculosis bacteria.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Tuberculosis can attack any part of the body. However, the lungs are the most common targets of the bacteria. People with the disease show several signs. They may expel air from the lungs suddenly with an explosive noise. This kind of cough continues for a long period of time. People with a more severe case of tuberculosis also may cough up blood.

People with the disease often have high body temperatures. They suffer what are called night sweats, during which their bodies release large amounts of water through the skin. TB victims also are tired all the time. They are not interested in eating. So their bodies lose weight.

One thing that is especially dangerous about TB is that people with moderate signs of the disease may not know they have it. They may spread the disease to others without even knowing it. So, it is very important for people to get tested for tuberculosis.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

There are several ways to test for TB. The first is the TB skin test. It also is known as the Mantoux skin test. The test can identify most people infected with tuberculosis six to eight weeks after the bacteria entered their bodies. A substance called purified protein derivative is injected under the skin of the arm. The place of the injection is examined two to three days later.

If a raised red area forms, the person may have been infected with the tuberculosis bacteria. However, this does not always mean the disease is active.

VOICE TWO:

If the skin test shows that TB bacteria have entered the body, doctors can use other methods to discover if the person has active TB. However, this sometimes can be difficult because tuberculosis may appear similar to other diseases. Doctors must consider other physical signs. Also, they must decide if a person’s history shows that he or she has been in situations where tuberculosis was present.

Doctors also use an X-ray examination to show if there is evidence of TB infection, such as damage to the lungs. Another way to test for the presence of active tuberculosis is to examine the fluids from a person’s mouth.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

It is very important for doctors to identify which kind of TB bacteria are present so they can decide which drugs to use to treat the disease. Most TB cases can be successfully treated with medicines. However, the death rate for untreated patients is reported to be about fifty percent. Successful treatment of TB requires close cooperation among patients, doctors and other health care workers.

The World Health Organization has a five-step program to guarantee that TB patients take their medicine correctly. The program is called Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course, or DOTS. Directly observed means that local health care workers watch to make sure patients take their medicine every day. Full treatment usually lasts from six to nine months to destroy all signs of the bacteria.

It is very important for patients to be educated about the disease and its treatment. Sometimes patients fail to finish taking the medicine ordered by their doctors. Experts say this is because some patients feel better after only two to four weeks of treatment and stop taking their medicine. This can lead to the TB bacteria becoming resistant to drugs and growing stronger, more dangerous and more difficult to treat.

VOICE TWO:

Experts say TB is a preventable disease. The goal of health organizations is to quickly identify infected persons – especially those who have the highest risk of developing the disease. There are several drugs that can prevent tuberculosis in these people.

Experts say tuberculosis can be cured if it is discovered early and if patients take their medicine correctly. And, like other diseases, education and understanding are extremely important in preventing and treating TB. Next week, we will tell you about efforts to fight TB in several countries.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow and Shelley Gollust. Brianna Blake was our producer. I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. We would like to hear from you. Write to us at Special English, Voice of America, Washington, DC, two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or send electronic messages to special@voanews.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

VOASE0416_Agriculture Report

16 April 2007

Lonely Farmers Look for Love Online
FarmersOnly.com and Singles in Agriculture try to help farmers in the US make new friends.

Download
Download
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

The Web site FarmersOnly.com calls itself an online dating and friendship finder. The idea started in the mind of a man in Ohio. Jerry Miller wondered how farmers could meet new people who understand the life of a farmer.

Jerry Miller is not a farmer. He works in advertising and public relations. But he represents a lot of farmers.

As he tells it, the idea for the site was planted when a farmer told him one day that she was recently divorced and would like to date. But she already knew everyone who might be a possible dating partner.

And the men she met through dating services did not understand the difference between city life and rural farm life. Someone would invite her to meet for coffee at nine o'clock at night, when she had to start her day at five the next morning.

So, in two thousand five, Jerry Miller launched his Web site. Yet the name is a little misleading. "You don't have to be a farmer to be on FarmersOnly.com, but you do have to have the good old-fashioned traditional values of America's Heartland." That is what it says.

You also have to live in the United States or Canada to be a member of the site. Some services are free, but a full membership costs fifty dollars for a year. As of last week the site listed more than fifty-eight thousand members.

Many of them are among the two million farmers in the United States. Others are students or workers involved in some way with agriculture. Still others are people who have said goodbye to farm life but would like to return.

Jerry Miller tells us about thirty marriages in the last year have resulted from his Web site.

Some farmers have also found love through a group based in Illinois. Singles in Agriculture was formed as a nonprofit organization in nineteen eighty-six. It organizes gatherings that usually end with a dance, but is not a dating service.

The purpose is to support educational and social activities that offer people a chance for friendship, travel and activities like camping. Its Web site, singlesinag dot o-r-g, says there are more than one thousand members across the nation and as far away as France.

Someone who says she might try singlesinag.org is a middle-aged woman in the Midwest named Linda. She raises goats and milk cows in Michigan. Her husband died several years ago. She wishes that she had more time for a social life, but says she is not looking to remarry.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember.

US Envoy Believes North Korea Will Honor Nuclear Agreement

By Michael Bowman Washington 15 April 2007

Download

Bill Richardson

A special U.S. envoy to North Korea says he believes the communist nation will honor an agreement to shut down a nuclear reactor, despite the expiration of a key deadline Saturday. VOA's Michael Bowman reports, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson made the comment on U.S. television early Sunday.

Governor Richardson, an opposition Democrat and presidential candidate, who also serves as a special envoy on North Korea, says Pyongyang may be late in honoring the terms of a February disarmament accord, but he does not believe the North Koreans are scuttling the deal.

"They are difficult, they are unpredictable, they are isolated. But at the same time I do believe that next week they are going to come forward and say, 'we are shutting down this reactor, we are inviting the international inspectors.' It is going to take a while, but I believe we are all moving in the right direction," Richardson said on ABC's This Week program.

The top U.S. representative to the six-party talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, has expressed disappointment and frustration, saying he is "not happy" with the passing of the deadline. He added that the United States will closely monitor the situation in coming days.

There has been no official comment from Pyongyang since Saturday, but North Korea previously insisted it must have access to funds that had been frozen in a Macau bank. Assistant Secretary of State Hill says Pyongyang now has access to the $25 million, funds the United States maintains were tied to money laundering operations. The U.S. cleared the way for the funds to be released last month. However, the transfer of the money has been delayed by what officials say are banking technicalities.

Some observers have questioned whether North Korean officials will ever find it advantageous to fully terminate their country's nuclear weapons program. Governor Richardson says he believes they will.

"In exchange for the North Koreans dismantling their nuclear weapons, North Korea gets a substantial amount of fuel oil, food, energy assistance, the lifting of sanctions, an armistice agreement which basically ends the Korean War. I believe they have made the strategic decision to move forward," he continued. "But at the same time the nuclear card is their biggest asset. So they are going to play it to the hilt."

Richardson added that he sees North Korea's return of the remains of six U.S. soldiers from the Korean war as a hopeful sign of cooperation from Pyongyang.

Nepal's Interim Government Shows Signs of Fraying

By Steve Herman Kathmandu 15 April 2007

Download

Nepal again has been thrust into political confusion just two weeks after a landmark interim government was formed. The country's elderly prime minister was a no-show for an emergency session of his cabinet on Sunday. That prevented coalition leaders from holding a critical meeting to set a new date for national elections. As VOA's Steve Herman reports from Kathmandu, members of the interim government, including the Maoists, are warning of the dangers of delaying the polls.

A meeting of Nepal's coalition government leaders to decide a new election date did not take place Sunday. Those who gathered for the emergency meeting were stood up by the prime minister.

Former deputy prime minister Amik Sherchan

Former deputy prime minister Amik Sherchan, representing the People's Front Nepal, says those at the prime minister's office were given no reason for the absence of the ailing government leader, 85-year-old Girija Prasad Koirala.

Sherchan told reporters outside the prime minister's office that the group waited more than two hours for Mr. Koirala. But the prime minister did not come into the meeting room and nobody was able to speak with him.

An interim government, including the Maoists and seven other parties, was created April 1st and the Maoists were given relatively minor posts in the cabinet.

The Maoists have now, threatened to pull out of the interim government if the election is delayed and called for Nepal's unpopular king, Gyanendra, to be dethroned ahead of the polling.

Esteem for the royal family plummeted following a palace massacre in 2001 and the current king's attempt to seize absolute power in 2005.

The Maoists, until last year, waged a decade-long campaign to overthrow the monarchy. The violence claimed 14,000 lives.

Rebel leaders last November agreed to a peace deal to end their uprising and have since registered as a political party for the elections to select lawmakers for a constituent assembly. That election had been scheduled for June 20 but Nepal's election commission says due to technical issues and security concerns that is much too soon for nationwide polling.

The Maoists, in recent days, have called the proposal to delay the election a political conspiracy. They have threatened to resume their struggle outside government, although it is unclear whether that would mean again taking up arms. Their soldiers and weapons have been placed in camps supervised by the United Nations.

Hundreds of Maoists came out of their barracks in southern Nepal on Saturday, in violation of an accord signed with the U.N., to protest the delay in the election.

Beijing 2008 Olympic Tickets Go on Sale

By Daniel Schearf Beijing 15 April 2007

Download

Beijing 2008 olympics logo

Tickets for the Beijing 2008 Olympics went on sale today to Chinese citizens at prices ranging from $4 to $650, with features to prevent fraud and ticket touting. Beijing's Olympic Committee officials say the price range means the majority of Chinese can afford to attend the games. Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing.

The Beijing Olympic Committee on Sunday announced more than seven million tickets are on sale for the 2008 games. The tickets will be offered in three phases, the first starting today.

Tickets can be purchased online or over the phone with a credit card and, in China, at Bank of China branches. Each ticket will have a digital chip that identifies the purchaser to prevent re-selling the much sought after tickets and to help identify counterfeits.

Officials said block ticket sales would be limited to corporate sponsors and youth groups while individuals could purchase only one ticket each for lead events, such as the opening ceremony, and only a few for less popular events.

Wang Wei

Wang Wei, the executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic Committee, told journalists in a live broadcast Sunday that the system would ensure fair distribution.

"[We will] respect international practice and in line with Olympic operation standards and China's situation, have fair and just, open and transparent ticket sales," said Wang.

Concerns had been raised that ordinary Chinese would not have access to or be able to afford the Olympics. Most Chinese live in the countryside where average annual incomes are around $463, less than a third of what city dwellers earn.

Wang says the range of ticket prices is reasonable and acceptable for the majority of Chinese.

"The biggest challenge is satisfying the vast public's desire to attend the Olympics," he added. "This is the Beijing Olympic Committee's ticket servicing principle and objective."

Olympic Committee officials say 75 percent of tickets will be set aside for Chinese sports fans and 25 percent for other nationalities. If an event were over-booked, random computerized booking would allocate tickets.

Distribution of tickets in countries outside China is the responsibility of National Olympics Committees.

Organizers are expecting to earn about $140 million from ticket sales, a fraction of the billions of dollars being spent by Beijing on hosting the Games.

VOASE0415_This Is America

15 April 2007

Put on Your Travel Shoes: Down the West Coast and Onward to Points East
Some facts about Washington State, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma.

Download
Download
VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty with Gwen Outen. Get ready for a ride. And hold on to your camera. Today we take you on a lightning-fast trip to seven states in fifteen minutes.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

We start in Washington. Not the capital city, but the state of Washington on the other side of the country. It is in the Pacific Northwest, on the border with Canada. It is the only state named after a president. George Washington was the first president of the United States.

Washington State entered the union in eighteen-eighty-nine. It is a major shipping port for Asia. Fishing is another big industry. So is technology. Washington State is home to the biggest maker of computer programs, Microsoft. Boeing still makes airplanes here. But its headquarters are now in Chicago.

Mountains divide Washington State. The east is heavily agricultural, but the west gets most of the rain.

VOICE TWO:

Mount Rainier

Washington is called the Evergreen State. It has lots of trees that keep their leaves all year. Those trees are important to the forest products industry. They are also important to the many people who hike through forests and climb mountains. The highest one here is Mount Rainier, in western Washington. It stands almost four-thousand-four-hundred meters above sea level.

Not too far away is Seattle. It is the largest city in Washington. But the state capital is Olympia.

VOICE ONE:

Washington is one of three states along the West Coast. As we leave Washington, we travel south into Oregon. It became a state in eighteen-fifty-nine. Forests cover a lot of the state. In fact, Oregon leads the United States in wood production.

Visitors enjoy places like Crater Lake National Park. A volcano formed this deep lake in the mountains. The bright blue water has appealed to photographers from all over the world. Cities in Oregon include Portland, Eugene and the capital, Salem.

VOICE TWO:

From Oregon, we continue south into California. People from Spain settled the land in the seventeen-hundreds. Mexico later controlled it, until some of the land became the American state. The capital is Sacramento.

Americans captured the California territory during the Mexican-American War in the eighteen-forties. The discovery of gold helped California join the United States in eighteen-fifty.

Many gold miners came through San Francisco. And that is where we stop. Visitors like to ride the old cable cars up and down the hills of the city. They also like to see the Golden Gate Bridge. And, when they get hungry, many go for seafood along Fisherman’s Wharf.

To the south of San Francisco is the area with a large of number of computer technology companies -- better known as Silicon Valley.

VOICE ONE:

And a lot farther south is Los Angeles. Many communities form the city and county of Los Angeles. One of them is Hollywood, the center of the film and television industry.

California has one of the largest economies in the world. It also has the largest population in the country, more than thirty-five million people. One-third of them are of Hispanic ancestry. But people come here from all over the world.

These include a growing number from Africa. Population researchers say the Los Angeles-Long Beach area has the third largest number of African-born people in the United States. About forty-three thousand live there. About twelve-thousand live farther south, in San Diego.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Now, from Southern California, we travel east into Arizona. Arizona is known the Grand Canyon State. Over time, the Colorado River cut through stone and rock to form the Grand Canyon. It is more than one and one-half kilometers deep. Millions of people come to see it.

Phoenix is the capital of Arizona, America's fastest-growing state

Arizona is a desert state. People once thought the land was worthless. But today many people come to Arizona for its hot, dry climate and its natural beauty. Phoenix is the largest city, and a shipping center for agriculture. It is also the state capital.

Many people who come to Arizona visit Native American reservations. Indians who live on these tribal lands must obey United States laws, but they also make their own laws.

VOICE ONE:

To the east of Arizona is New Mexico. Both states are on the border with the country of Mexico. New Mexico has a rich Spanish history. It also has a lot of land – almost three-hundred-fifteen thousand square kilometers. But fewer than two million people live here.

Lots more come to hunt, fish, or snow ski. They also come to enjoy arts and cultural activities. Santa Fe claims the largest collection of folk art in the world. Santa Fe is the state capital. But the largest city is Albuquerque.

New Mexico has mines for coal, copper, potash and uranium. And it has around as many cows as it has people. Cattle growers help keep some traditions of the Old West alive. But New Mexico is also a center of scientific research. There are national laboratories. In fact, the first atomic bomb was exploded in the desert here.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

To the east of New Mexico is a state with a tradition of thinking big: Texas. Texas has more land than any other state except Alaska.

There are still cowboys with big hats. That is true. But visitors can also find a rich cultural life in cities like San Antonio, Houston and Dallas. The city of Austin is the state capital.

Texas once belonged to Mexico. Mexican influence remains strong. More than thirty percent of Texans are Hispanic. But many other groups also live here. Among the more recent arrivals are people from Africa. About forty-seven thousand live in Houston and Dallas.

VOICE ONE:

The Alamo

One of the places that many people like to visit in Texas is a stone building in San Antonio called the Alamo. The American hero Davy Crockett was among those who died in a long battle there. They were fighting for independence from Mexico. "Remember the Alamo!" became a battle cry after that.

The Americans lost the battle of the Alamo, but they won the Mexican-American war. Texas became a state in eighteen-forty-five.

VOICE TWO:

From Texas we travel north into Oklahoma, deeper into the central part of the United States. Oklahoma is our last stop today. It too has lots of land but not a lot of people. It became a state in nineteen-oh-seven.

Oklahoma is a big producer of fuel and food for the country. Flat areas and low hills make good places to grow wheat and raise cows.

Years ago, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote a musical play called "Oklahoma!"

(MUSIC)

Oklahoma is part of what people call the American heartland. People think of the heartland as a peaceful place. So what happened in April of nineteen-ninety-five seemed especially shocking. A bomb wrecked the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City, the state capital.

A former soldier angry at the government was executed for the attack. One-hundred-sixty-eight people were killed. A national memorial now stands in place of the building to honor the victims.

Two rainbows form at Hopi Point, at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona

VOICE ONE:

So, we have told you a few things about seven of the fifty states. Visitors leave with memories of wide open spaces, and cities without enough space. Forest-covered mountains, and flat, dry land without any trees as far as the eye can see. Farmers working in their fields, and fields with workers drilling for oil and natural gas. White-topped waves on the Pacific Ocean, and a golden sun setting over the Grand Canyon.

If you do ever visit, don't forget to bring a camera.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Bob Doughty with Gwen Outen. Our programs are online with transcripts and audio archives at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

VOASE0415_Development Report

15 April 2007

In Kenya, an HIV/AIDS Program Includes Healthy Food
A partnership of Indiana University in the US and Moi University in Kenya provides drugs but also operates farms.

Download
Download
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

AMPATH patient in western Kenya

AMPATH is the Academic Model for Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS. This is a partnership between the medical schools at Indiana University in the United States and Moi University in Kenya.

The project began eighteen years ago. Today it treats more than forty thousand HIV-infected adults and children at nineteen centers in western Kenya.

Fran Quigley is the Indiana-based director of operations and development for AMPATH. He tells us that almost two thousand new patients are added to the program every month. And, he says, as long as AMPATH continues to receive enough antiretroviral drugs, the program will continue to grow.

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, started by the Bush administration, provides the drugs. Also, private individuals and organizations donate money to the program. Mister Quigley says AMPATH needs between twelve million and thirteen million dollars each year to operate.

Antiretrovirals are used to suppress HIV infections. New patients in the program are tested for the levels of virus in their blood. About half require immediate treatment. Patients whose own immune systems are still able to fight the virus can receive other services.

The way that the program deals with HIV/AIDS is holistic. In other words, it tries to deal with the complete needs of its patients. Most notably, many patients and their children get food assistance through the program. Mister Quigley says AMPATH doctors have learned that antiretroviral care cannot succeed if a patient is too weak from hunger.

AMPATH operates several farms. Patients can receive weekly or monthly food assistance. The United Nations World Food Program adds to these food supplies.

AMPATH also provides micro-loans and skills training to help patients become more economically secure. In addition, the program helps Kenyan children who have lost parents to AIDS. Often this assistance includes support for extended families that have taken in orphaned children.

Fran Quigley says the example of the Academic Model for Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS can be copied throughout the developing world. For now though, he says the goal is to provide more and better services at its centers in Kenya.

Last December, a group of professors in the state of Indiana nominated AMPATH for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Whatever the result, Fran Quigley says that simply being nominated is a huge honor.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Shep O'Neal.