President Jimmy Carter weighs in on the Sudan vote

Former President Jimmy Carter has been in Southern Sudan observing the vote for independence. Carter is there as a part of his work with the Carter Center in ensuring the democratic process succeeds in the rest of the world.

President Carter says that nearly ninety percent of all Southern Sudanese have voted. He also says that only a tiny fraction have voted against succession from the north.

From Reuters Alert Net, writer Jeremy Clarke recieved the statements from President Carter.

"We already know that in the south there's been about an average of 90 percent (participation) from the stations we've observed and I think they are representative," Carter said.

He said that in the few centres where he had seen counting under way, the votes "were practically unanimous in favour of separation with only a few ballots to the contrary."

"It's highly likely that the referendum result will be in favour of separation," he said, but added that no one should prejudge the results.

At least 60 percent of registered voters needed to take part for the result to be binding. That point was reached just four days into the vote, the organising commission said.

Carter played down threats of popular protests in the north following the vote.

"My hope is that the opposition parties in the north will be brought into consultations with President (Omar Hassan al-) Bashir's party and that they will prepare for modifications for the constitution."

Students clashed with police in Khartoum and two northern towns on Wednesday and Thursday in protests over rising prices, part of an economic crisis that has been exacerbated by fears of the impact of losing the south.

Former President Carter travels to Hispaniola

Former President Jimmy Carter is traveling to the island of Hispaniola to begin a malaria fighting initiative through his foundation. The island contains the two countries Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The goals for the new malaria fight is for the two governments to work together to fight the disease, because mosquitoes have no respect for nations.... in a manner of speaking.

From the Associated Press article hosted at Google News, writer Greg Bluesteon interviewedthe former president. More information about the malaria project and much more can be found at the Carter Center website.

Former President Jimmy Carter will visit the two countries Wednesday in hopes of spurring their leaders to join an island-wide pact to fight the disease.

Carter will also check in on the progress of a $200,000 pilot project established by the nonprofit Carter Center that local health officials say has helped curb the spread of malaria.

The pilot project in Ouanaminthe and neighboring Dajabon, in the Dominican Republic, purchases nets treated with insecticide for residents to hang over their beds, microscopes to help lab technicians diagnose malaria samples and motorbikes so field workers can zip along cramped alleys to test and treat residents.

The center's goal is to remove from this corner of the world the last vestiges of malaria, a disease that causes high fevers and flulike symptoms and kills more than one million people each year, most of them in Africa. It also would eliminate the threat of the disease spreading to nearby islands, including Jamaica and the Bahamas.

The goal is to show the leaders of the two countries that it's more costly to neglect malaria than to erase it, said Dr. Don Hopkins, the director of the Carter Center's health programs. But he said only a combined effort between the two countries will eliminate the disease.

"We want to help both sides raise their sights up from the day-to-day battle with these two diseases and agree on the aspiration that where they should be trying to go is an ultimate target date to eliminate both diseases from the island," he said.

In an interview before the trip, Carter said he's committed to traveling to "the most distant and small and isolated and poverty-stricken villages in the deserts, in the jungles and in the poorest countries on Earth" and wiping out diseases that have long been distant memories in richer countries.

"It's a very different kind of life than any person could sort of do while still in the White House," Carter said.