Corné van Walbeek, principal investigator of the Economics of Tobacco Control project in South Africa, highlights some of the policy debates concerning tobacco control in South Africa, and indicates their relevance to other developing countries.

Signaling that stopping the transmission of AIDS is the foundation's top global health priority, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced that it will commit $100 million to the Global Fund for AIDS and Health. The foundation used the occasion to call on other organizations and governments around the world also to support the new fund. The foundation is making this commitment over a multi-year period for innovative HIV/AIDS prevention efforts.

THE cost of curbing the worldwide HIV/Aids epidemic in lower-income countries will soar almost fivefold by 2005, reaching an estimated $9,2-billion, compared to current expenditure on the disease of about $1,8-billion. This compares with the estimated $20-billion a year that the United States alone spends on Aids domestically.

Agricultural policy-makers at times seem more like powerless referees in a multi-sided tug-of-war - wrestling with the divergent thrusts of maximising food harvests, strengthening livestock numbers and boosting income from cash crop exports. So, asks the latest issue of Spore, would input from farmers and other stakeholders make things any easier?