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Sub-saharan Africa to receive most maternal health aid
Vancouver Sun -- International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda will announce today the 10 countries that will get help from the government's $1.1-billion maternal and child health initiative. Eighty per cent is slated for sub-Saharan Africa -- Mozambique, Mali, Malawi, Nigeria, southern Sudan, Ethiopia and Tanzania. The rest is earmarked for Afghanistan, Haiti and Bangladesh. On Sunday, Oda said the government is especially keen on projects where governments are already assuming responsibility for their own people's health care and don't leave it all to aid. "Canada's approach is going to be improving the health systems, particularly at the local and district level," Oda said...

Mosquito mutates into two species
The Independent -- The most dangerous type of malaria-carrying mosquito, which kills up to a million people each year, is evolving into two different species, posing grave problems for controlling the transmission of the blood parasite. Scientists have found that Anopheles gambiae, which is widespread across Africa and is responsible for about half of the 500 million new cases of malaria each year, has split into two genetically different strains that are well on their way to becoming distinct species. The revelation could present real difficulties in controlling malaria because eradication strategies directed against one mosquito species may not be effective against another, according to the scientists who discovered the genetic differences between the two strains...

Raising standards for India's women
ONE -- Heeding the call of the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit in September, the Indian government has introduced a monetary incentives scheme for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers in an unprecedented attempt to curb its high rate of maternal deaths and child mortality. Women enrolled in the program would be assigned a private bank account, and over a period of six months, 12,000 rupees — or $270 US dollars — would be deposited under the agreement that the woman regularly attends scheduled health check-ups and receives the prescribed vaccinations. The scope of the initiative is set to reach more than one million women at a projected price tag of $223 million...

South African solar plan draws interest
AFP -- South Africa's plan to build what could become the world's biggest solar project has drawn keen interest from investors even though it is still in its infancy, an official said Friday. More than 400 investors and solar industry insiders from around the world converged on the town of Upington in South Africa's arid Northern Cape province this week for a two-day conference aimed at generating investor interest in plans for a 5,000-Megawatt solar park at the edge of the Kalahari Desert. The park, whose estimated price tag is 150 billion rands (21.3 billion dollars, 15.4 billion euros), would provide one-eighth of South Africa's current generation capacity...