Day: 15 November 2006

UN Pledges Help for AU

The United Nations has announced that it is pledging $77 million for the African Union to continue it’s peace work in the troubled Darfur region.

“The aid has been offered because of Sudan’s refusal to allow a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur, Annabi told reporters.

“That (willingness) is not there today (for a United Nations peacekeeping force), so in the meantime we are looking at ways in which we can move forward by reinforcing (the African Union Mission in Sudan) to enable it to go on with its tasks effectively,” Annabi said.

The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in New York said the Sudanese government initially agreed to allow the United Nations to provide the AU troops with a support package worth about $22 million. Annabi was able to secure the government’s agreement to allow the rest of the $77 million aid package to go through in the last few days.”

Thanks, Shealyn

Spitting the Cure

Human saliva contains a natural painkiller according to new research. The chemical is named opiorphin may soon be able to provide a new gamut of painkillers and maybe even anti-depressent drugs.

I guess this means that YOU really are the cure.

“Its pain-suppressive effect is like that of morphine,” says Catherine Rougeot at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, who led the research. “But we have to test its side effects as it is not a pure painkiller,” she says. “It may also be an anti-depressive molecule.”