Japan has awarded a lucrative new medical prize for Africa to a Kenyan who has fought to stem HIV infections and a Briton whose research is credited with stemming malaria on the continent.
Emperor Akihito presented the new Hideo Noguchi Prize, which comes with ¥100 million (US$1 million) for each recipient, at a summit attended by 40 African heads of state in Yokohama, near Tokyo.
The prize, named after a renowned Japanese bacteriologist, was given to Miriam Were, who heads Kenya’s National AIDS Control Council, and Brian Greenwood, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Under Were’s leadership, new HIV infections in Kenya dropped by more than half between 2000 and 2006, a prize statement said.
Were, accepting the award on Wednesday evening, said that through the prize, “Japan communicates positive perceptions of Africa.”
“The nature of the focus of the existing prizes in medicine more or less rule out those working in Africa from getting these awards,” said Were, who is also a novelist.
Greenwood, a Manchester native, has conducted research on fighting disease in western Africa, including in Nigeria amid the civil war in the late 1960s.
He conducted the first clinical tests that showed how to reduce malaria deaths among children by setting up mosquito nets treated with insecticide.
Greenwood heads the Gates Malaria Partnership, funded by the Microsoft chairman’s Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has set up research laboratories in Africa to train scientists.
When announcing the Hideyo Noguchi award in 2006, Japan’s then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi voiced hope it could one day be as respected as the Nobel Prize.
Noguchi is best known for discovering the agent of syphilis — and for appearing on Japan’s ¥1,000 note.
ANGER: Unrest worsened after a taxi driver was killed by a police vehicle on Thursday, as protesters set alight government buildings across the nation Protests worsened overnight across major cities of Indonesia, far beyond the capital, Jakarta, as demonstrators defied Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s call for calm. The most serious unrest was seen in the eastern city of Makassar, while protests also unfolded in Bandung, Surabaya, Solo and Yogyakarta. By yesterday morning, crowds had dispersed in Jakarta. Troops patrolled the streets with tactical vehicles and helped civilians clear trash, although smoke was still rising in various protest sites. Three people died and five were injured in Makassar when protesters set fire to the regional parliament building during a plenary session on Friday evening, according to
Australia has announced an agreement with the tiny Pacific nation Nauru enabling it to send hundreds of immigrants to the barren island. The deal affects more than 220 immigrants in Australia, including some convicted of serious crimes. Australian Minister of Home Affairs Tony Burke signed the memorandum of understanding on a visit to Nauru, the government said in a statement on Friday. “It contains undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residence of people who have no legal right to stay in Australia, to be received in Nauru,” it said. “Australia will provide funding to underpin this arrangement and support Nauru’s long-term economic
‘NEO-NAZIS’: A minister described the rally as ‘spreading hate’ and ‘dividing our communities,’ adding that it had been organized and promoted by far-right groups Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country yesterday that the center-left government condemned, saying they sought to spread hate and were linked to neo-Nazis. “March for Australia” rallies against immigration were held in Sydney, and other state capitals and regional centers, according to the group’s Web site. “Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” the Web site said. The group posted on X on Saturday that the rallies aimed to do “what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.” The group also said it was concerned about culture,
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
RSS