North America:
Voice of America, Marketplace (radio), Toronto Star (Canada), CTV (Canada), UN WIRE

Caribbean:
Cubavision (television)

South Pacific:
ABC Online (Australia), Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

Newswires:
Associated Press, Reuters, Inter Press Service, Agence France-Presse, United Press International, CNN, UN News Centre, United Press International, Xinhua General News Service

Fistula Campaign Launched in Africa
Newsday (NY) reported October 7 on the campaign by EngenderHealth and UNFPA to raise awareness about obstetric fistula, develop services to prevent it and expand medical treatment for those with the condition in the developing world. Newsday noted that earlier this year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave $3 million over four years to UNFPA, EngenderHealth and the Women's Dignity Project of Tanzania to improve the prevention, treatment and management of fistula in four African countries. Read: Newsday

BUSH ADMINISTRATION CRITICIZED FOR GLOBAL GAG RULE
Gag Rule Causes Clinics to Close
Coverage on the report, 'Access Denied: U.S. Restrictions on International Family Planning,' by Population Action International (PAI), Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), Ipas, EngenderHealth and Pathfinder International continued in October. Knight Ridder reported October 12 that the Inca clinic is about to close its doors to thousands of poor Kenyan women, the latest casualty caused by the Bush administration's reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule, �This is a shock,� Mohamed, 29, said after learning that Inca would shut down in December. �I trust this place. I can afford this. What am I going to do?� Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, �This is the real face of Bush's compassionate conservatism: a war on the world's most vulnerable women and children, who bear the brunt of Bush's obsession with appeasing his domestic political base.� Critics say the regulation will not achieve its main goal of discouraging abortion in developing nations because reduced access to contraception will cause more unwanted pregnancies that will end in abortions. �This is like signing a death warrant for women,� said Fidelis Wambui, 48, head nurse at the Inca clinic. Read: Knight Ridder

Council of Europe Calls on Bush Administration to Lift Global Gag Rule
Agence France-Presse reported September 30 on the Council of Europe�s call for a lifting of the Global Gag Rule. In a resolution adopted by a vote of 89 to 8, the council's parliamentary assembly said the cut-off of aid was contributing to more unwanted pregnancies and abortions. "This policy is a contradiction in itself. It is not pro-life, but rather against it," said Dutch member Ans Zwerver. Zwerver insisted on women�s need for access to abortions performed under "secure and accessible" conditions.

Conference Attendees Cast President Bush as Villain
Inter Press Service reported October 6 that the Second Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health in Bangkok cast President Bush as a villain for his attempt to bully health clinics in the developing world to follow his conservative political agenda. The White House is trying to make up for what it cannot achieve domestically by pushing its policies overseas, Nancy Northup, president of the U.S.-based Centre for Reproductive Health Rights, said in her address. In July, UNFPA became a victim of the new conservative mood that governs Washington's thinking. The U.S. Congress voted to stop the UN agency from getting its annual contributions for the years 2004 and 2005, amounting to $100 million. Read: Inter Press Service and The Nation (Thailand)

VATICAN SAYS CONDOMS DO NOT PROTECT AGAINST AIDS
On October 9, BBC News reported that the Catholic Church was telling people in countries with high rates of HIV that condoms do not protect against the deadly virus. On the Oct. 12 BBC1 Panorama program, Sex and the Holy City, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo said, "The AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon [sperm cell]. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom.� The World Health Organization condemned the Vatican's views: "These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million."

According to an October 9 story by Agence France-Presse, Roman Catholic leaders in Africa have pledged to step up their involvement against the AIDS pandemic, but steadfastly refuse to endorse the use of condoms to fight the disease. An October 13 statement by UNFPA�s Thoraya Obaid said Cardinal Lopez�s statement is �scientifically incorrect and could contribute to the spread of the virus.� Read: BBC News, The Guardian, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, UN News Centre

SLUM POPULATION PROJECTED TO DOUBLE BY 2030
On October 5, the Associated Press reported that about a sixth of the world's population � nearly 1 billion people � live in slums, and that the number could double by 2030 if developed nations don't start giving the issue serious attention. A report by the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) describes slums as poor areas that lack basic services or access to clean water, where housing is poorly built and overcrowded. Developed nations are not immune: according to the report, 54 million people live in slum conditions in richer nations. "We have all known for a long time that all is not as it should be," said Anna Tibaijuka, UN-Habitat executive director. "Slums are not really worthy of the affluence of the times in which we live." UN officials said this is a clear sign the world is not meeting a goal it set in 2000 to improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020, and said even that goal is far too narrow in scope. The promise was part of a declaration adopted by 189 countries at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000. Read: Reuters, The Guardian (London)

GIVING BIRTH IS RISKY IN MALAWI
Inter Press Service reported October 15 with one in every 15 pregnant women dying from pregnancy and delivery complications, giving birth is risky business in Malawi. Doctors say women are dying as a result of loss of blood, inexperienced birth attendants and limited resources and drugs. Malawi's director of clinical services, Dr. Rex Mpazanje, attributes the deaths to women having babies either too early or too late and traditions that demand a husband's permission before the wife can go to a hospital. �These numbers are comparable to about eight buses full of passengers crushing in just thirty days. But, while such accidents will get prominence in press reports, the death of women caused by pregnancy complications is never highlighted. In the media women die a quiet death,� says Mpazanje. Martha Bokosi, project manager for Safe Motherhood in Malawi, says illegal abortions are also killing a lot of young girls in the country. Read: Inter Press Service

OPINIONS AND EDITORIALS
An October 15 editorial by The New York Times noted the Bush administration officials have tried to remove international endorsements of condom use. President Bush's decision to stop the funds for any overseas family planning group that mentions abortion has also effectively stopped condom provision to 16 countries and reduced it to 13 others, including some with the world's highest rates of AIDS infection. The editorial urged: �In much of Africa, teenage girls � many of them AIDS orphans themselves � are coerced into sex by older, wealthier men. Knowing how to negotiate condom use could save their lives. The right's answer to AIDS is the sexual equivalent of �just say no,� and is no more effective. It should not become the foundation of Washington's efforts to fight AIDS abroad.� Read: New York Times

On October 1, The New York Times ran a column by Nicholas Kristof that stated, �In America, we think of AIDS simply as an epidemic. In fact, like the Holocaust, it is a moral challenge to the world, one we are failing.� He noted that rape is common and deadly, because 45 percent of rapists caught in South Africa have the AIDS virus. �More broadly, social mores and institutions are eroding amid the desperation, leaving society increasingly a free-for-all.� He concluded: �Yet Botswana is also a rare place of hope. It has led the way in Africa in providing treatment, and 7,700 people are now getting antiretroviral drugs to fight AIDS�.Botswana shows that millions of lives can be saved if only we act aggressively � which simply raises the question: Why aren't we?� In an October 8 column, Kristof continued his criticism of President Bush: �Unless he delivers on his promises, then it will all look like the most cynical of gestures � using the great health tragedy of our age as a cheap photo-op to drape the White House with compassion.� Read: New York Times

The Boston Globe ran an October 12 editorial on the Global Gag Rule: �Throughout the world, progress is being made toward the emancipation of women through better education, economic development, and legal rights. The Bush administration's policies, embodied in the global gag rule, condemn women to a prison of poverty, ignorance, and ill health.� In her October 12 column for St. Petersburg Times, Robyn Blumner wrote: �These are the real-life consequences in Bush's war of ideology. The PAI report puts Bush on notice; if changes aren't made we must presume that he cares more about gaining a political edge than African lives.� Read: Boston Globe and St. Petersburg Times

The Daily Press (VA) ran an October 9 op ed by Geeta Rao Gupta, president of the International Center for Research on Women, calling attention to a pending Senate vote on an amendment to restore funding to UNFPA. It would clarify the interpretation of the 1985 provision� known as the Kemp-Kasten Amendment that the Bush administration used to de-fund the UN agency. �We hope Congress does not undermine U.S. development and humanitarian initiatives by failing to fund the very program that is critical to ensuring their success. Any other decision would sacrifice good public health policy to narrow ideological politics.� Read: Daily Press

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The above summary was written by Elena Cabatu and Kathy Bonk at the Communications Consortium Media Center, 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005, 202/326-8700. Redistributi