Awaz Apni

More than a billion people eat fewer than 1,900 calories per day. The majority of them work in agriculture, about 60 percent are women or girls, and most are in rural Africa and Asia. Ending their hunger is one of the few unimpeachably noble tasks left to humanity, and we live in a rare time when there is the knowledge and political will to do so. The question is, how? Conventional wisdom suggests that if people are hungry, there must be a shortage of food, and all we need do is figure out how to grow more. [...] The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with an endowment of more than $30 billion, has embarked on a multibillion-dollar effort to transform African agriculture. It helped to set up the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in 2006, and since then has spent $1.3 billion on agricultural development grants, largely in Africa. With such resources, solving African hunger could be Gates's greatest legacy. But there's a problem: the conventional wisdom is wrong. F...

CNews DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) Sunday postponed until next year September's Champions Trophy in Pakistan over security fears. The move came two days after South Africa refused to send their team, while players' associations from Australia, New Zealand and England urged their players not to travel to the troubled country over serious security concerns. The decision to postpone the event was taken after a tele-conference of the ICC executive board in Dubai on Sunday. Pakistan Cricket Board chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi said while disappointing, the decision to postpone was a sort of victory for Pakistan. "We are naturally disappointed but in a way the postponement is a victory for us. Under these circumstances there were only two solutions: either to relocate the event to Sri Lanka or postpone it. "Had it been relocated it would have deprived us of the hosting rights,"  Naghmi said. "We are sure that the event will be held in Pak...

CNews WASHINGTON: The US Senate has approved the spending of $48 billion over the next five years to treat and prevent the spread of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa and elsewhere around the world. The legislation more than triples the current $15 billion programme that has brought lifesaving drugs to some 1.7 million people with HIV/AIDS. The bill passed by a vote of 80-16. That sets up negotiations with the House on a final compromise. President George W. Bush has been a strong advocate for the global AIDS program and supports the bill.