Words
in the News
Monday 08 July 2002 Vocabulary from the news. Listen to and read the report then find
explanations of difficult words below.
AIDS conference
Summary: The executive director of UNAIDS has told the BBC that political leaders who don't take the fight against the disease seriously should be kicked out of office. Dr Peter Piot's comments came at the start of the fourteenth international AIDS conference in Barcelona. This report from Chris Hogg.
Dr Piot has worked hard to ensure AIDS is seen as a political, and not just a health, problem. He points out that it's now on the agenda at world summits, like the G8 gathering of the richest nations. But he warns that elsewhere there are countries in what he calls 'very serious denial' about the scale of the problem they face. He said the key challenge for the coming months would be to persuade the Russian and Chinese governments to tackle the growing problem among their people.
He told the BBC that some political leaders should be rewarded for what they are doing on AIDS, but those who don't do the job should be kicked out. The conference here in Barcelona this week will hear calls for a greater commitmentto fund HIV treatment in those countries worst affected by the epidemic. Without it, Dr Piot warns, many will descend into chaos.
