International - Malaysia Set to Meet Aids MDGs

from All Africa

BuaNews (Tshwane)

NEWS
Putrajaya

Malaysia is expected to achieve the Millennium Development Goals on HIV and AIDS, following good results from a government programme in this regard.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said Monday, that the long-term effects of the methadone replacement therapy, exchange of syringes and anti-retroviral treatment programmes were expected be seen by 2010.

"If this is achieved, Malaysia is expected to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in three target areas, namely reducing child and maternal mortality and the spread of HIV," he told reporters after chairing a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on AIDS.

As well as reducing HIV, AIDS, malaria and other diseases, the other seven MDGs are eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health;

ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.

Mr Razak said the government's methadone replacement therapy programme would be extended to 25 000 HIV sufferers by 2010, from 5 000 people under the programme this year.

The programme had enabled 66 percent of HIV carries to hold down permanent jobs and 24 percent to do general work after 12 months of treatment.

A total of 76 389 cases of HIV and AIDS were detected in the country last year.

Of the 5 800 new cases detected last year, 32 percent contracted the disease through sex.

HIV screening last detected 15.6 percent of the HIV carriers in the drug rehabilitation centres, 5.3 percent in prisons and 8.9 percent in tuberculosis (TB) centres while 0.13 percent were detected through pre-nuptial tests and 0.03 percent involved pregnant mothers, he said. - BuaNews-NNN

International: Tentative deal in Korea nuclear talks

Beijing - Negotiators at the Six-Party Talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue reached a tentative agreement on denuclearisation, as the talks went into a two-day recess Sunday.

Details of the agreement will be made public after it receives approval by the governments concerned, quotes the Xinhua news agency.

The latest session of the multilateral talks, which opened on Thursday, aimed to work out a roadmap for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to declare and disable its nuclear programs.

This is in line with a 13 February agreement reached by China, the United States, the DPRK, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan in exchange for 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil, or the equivalent in economic aid.

Vice-Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, who is also the chief Chinese delegate, in Beijing on Sunday said the negotiators had "meaningful discussions" over the four days, and would release a final version of a joint document as soon as possible.

The draft "lays out an entire roadmap until the end of the year" for the DPRK's nuclear disablement, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, also the top US negotiator, told reporters Sunday before returning to his country.

"We're into the nuts and bolts now of implementing denuclearization," Mr Hill said. The level of details, he said, made it necessary for him to return to Washington for consultations.

Though Mr Hill declined to disclose details and the draft was not released, the ROK nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo said the proposed blueprint set some deadlines for Pyongyang and for the other parties to meet.

"The document outlines a timeframe on what the DPRK needs to do in terms of its disabling duties," Mr Chun said at the close of the talks. "The text clearly states that it will be completed by December 31."

While the US also restated its intention to eventually remove the DPRK from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism, the draft did not set a deadline, Mr Chun said.

Envoys described the meeting as a step forward. "Many countries exerted the spirit of compromise," Mr Chun said.

Mr Hill said: "Frankly, of all the six-party meetings, this was the least stressful in terms of coming up with common positions."