Daily News Digest

The latest news on AIDS Funding, Trafficking sentence, Housing, Martin Luther King-Memphis, MDGs, Zimbabwe, Iraq, NATO, Poverty-UK, Poverty-Canada, Christian Zionism, Nuclear weapons, Interview, and Opinion.

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AIDS Funding. Bush AIDS initiative gets bipartisan renewal "A bipartisan coalition in the House voted to significantly expand a popular program aimed at combating HIV and AIDS around the world, renewing the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief by authorizing $50 billion -- $20 billion more than the White House requested -- over five years." House Approves Global AIDS Program "The House voted to triple to more than $10 billion a year U.S. humanitarian spending on fighting AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa and other stricken areas of the world."

Trafficking sentence. Former wrestler to serve life for sex trafficking "Former pro-wrestler Harrison "Hardbody" Norris Jr. was sentenced to life in prison, one of the harshest punishments ever handed down in a U.S. human trafficking case."

Housing. Mortgage relief plan advances "Senate Democratic and Republican leaders reached agreement on a multibillion-dollar package to address rampant foreclosures and other problems stemming from what may be the worst housing slump since the Great Depression." Housing Accord Puts Builders First "Senate Democratic and Republican leaders rushing to address the nation's housing crisis reached agreement yesterday on a package that would provide billions of dollars in tax rebates to the slumping home-building industry while offering little to homeowners threatened with foreclosure."

Martin Luther King-Memphis. Picking up where MLK left off in Memphis "Forty years after King's assassination, Broome and 24 of his co-workers from that time are still on the job. They are a living testament to the final, unfinished chapter in King's crusade for equal rights: to end poverty through guaranteed jobs with decent wages."

MDGs. Blair calls upon young to help UN meet millennium goals "Tony Blair will tonight urge young people to "awaken the world's conscience" over its failure to make sufficient progress towards meeting the UN's Millennium Development Goals. In a speech at Westminster Cathedral in London, the former prime minister will say that his new Faith Foundation will encourage young people from different religious groups to campaign around the world for the goals to be met."

Zimbabwe .Mugabe 'prepared to face run-off' "Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe is ready to contest a run-off presidential election, a ruling party spokesman says." With a runoff likely in Zimbabwe, violence is feared "President Robert Mugabe's party has lost its majority in parliament after 28 years in power, election officials announced Wednesday, as the aging Zimbabwean leader faced a more damaging blow: the virtual certainty of a runoff in the presidential race that he has scant hope of winning." Mugabe Foes Win Majority in Zimbabwe "Does that foretell a loss of the presidency itself, the job he has held tightly for the past 28 years?"

Iraq . Sadr calls for protests against US"Moqtada al-Sadr today called for hundreds of thousands of his followers to take to the streets in protest against US occupation, to mark the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad." U.S. Cites Planning Gaps in Iraqi Assault on Basra "the Iraqi operation was not what the United States expected. Instead of methodically building up their combat power and gradually stepping up operations against renegade militias, Mr. Maliki's forces lunged into the city, attacking before all of the Iraqi reinforcements had even arrived."

NATO . Nato denies Georgia and Ukraine "Nato has confirmed it will not yet offer membership to Georgia or Ukraine after the 26-member alliance was split amid strong objections from Russia." NATO cool to ex-Soviet states' bids "NATO is unlikely to immediately put Ukraine and Georgia on a course toward membership, the group's spokesman said Wednesday night, dealing a setback to President Bush, who has pushed hard to expand the 26-nation alliance to include the two countries on Russia's southern flank that had been part of the Soviet Union." Sarkozy ponders return of France to NATO military command "President Nicolas Sarkozy signalled a revolution in French security policy by announcing he will decide in the coming year on returning to NATO's military command, which Paris quit in 1966."

Poverty-UK. Labour is 'burying bad news' of poverty study until after elections "The Government has been accused of trying to bury bad news after delaying the publication of its annual poverty statistics until after the local elections next month. ... Independent experts expect the statistics to show Labour is in danger of missing its flagship target of halving child poverty by 2010 and abolish it by 2020."

Poverty-Canada. Report flags poverty concerns in Ontario "People on social assistance or working for minimum wage are still living below the poverty line in Ontario, anti-poverty activists said as they called on the provincial government to drastically increase the minimum wage and social assistance rates."

Christian Zionism. 'Allying with Christian Zionists is bad for Israel' "No, we cannot." We cannot cooperate with the Christian Zionists, Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, told the annual conference of the movement's rabbis Wednesday night in Cincinnati, Ohio, according to copies of the speech distributed ahead of time to the press."

Nuclear weapons. Report: Saudi Arabia, Turkey may join nuclear arms race "Saudi Arabia most likely would develop nuclear weapons if Iran acquires them, according to a report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."

Interview. A new landscape 'after King' "Friday marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Michael Eric Dyson, sociology professor at Georgetown University, Baptist minister and TV commentator, is the author of the new book April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Death and How It Changed America (Basic Civitas, $24.95). He spoke with USA TODAY's Arienne Thompson."

Opinion.

Embers From the Fires of '68 (Roger Wilkins, Washington Post) "Martin's death sapped the energy and the will of so many of us in the movement that the Poor People's Campaign was barely a shadow of the effort forming in his mind. Our city still feels the loss. The interracial coalition that might have been born in the summer of '68 is still some distance off."

King and Kerner: An Unfinished Agenda (Edward W. Brooke, Washington Post) "America has had much to reflect upon during the approach of the interrelated 40th anniversaries of the final report of the Kerner Commission, the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and the round of riots that followed in Washington, Baltimore, Chicago and well over 100 other cities across the nation. We have heard Sen. Barack Obama's insightful speech on race and the reactions it provoked. Today, unfortunately, Dr. King's dream remains deferred."