Reuters: Rich nations’ climate cash offers still not clear
Canada’s finance minister warned today that just weeks from a major U.N. climate summit, rich nations have yet to unveil specific amounts to help poor countries fight global warming. Funding to help poorer nations adapt to rising seas and more chaotic weather is a make-or-break issue for talks to try to seal a broader climate pact in Copenhagen next month. According to Reuters, the G20 finance ministers made very little progress during their talks on climate funding in Scotland last week, with heated arguments over who should foot the bill.

Associated Press: UN food summit to back new strategy against hunger
A draft declaration for next week’s U.N. food summit would commit world leaders to a new hunger-fighting strategy by pledging to increase agricultural development aid to help the world’s 1 billion hungry people feed themselves. Under the draft, developed countries would “commit to a crucial, decisive shift” that aims to “substantially increase the share” of aid invested in agriculture to help the world’s poor become less dependent on direct food assistance. Humanitarian groups said, however, that the document was weak, and that the summit could fail if world leaders don’t come up with mechanisms to hold governments to their commitments.

Reuters: Food majors triple investment in ending hunger
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) contended Thursday that while world majors in agriculture and food sectors have tripled their investments in boosting global food security, they need to spend more to help eradicate hunger. With the number of hungry people rising to a record 1.02 billion this year, up 100 million from 2008, the FAO urged private and public investors to pour more funds in developing countries’ farming. Remarked the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. food agencies in Rome, “Private sector, governments, non-government organizations should work together to solve long-term problems in developing countries and eradicate hunger in the world.”

UPI.com: Drug companies to fight neglected diseases
Officials at U.S. drug companies and non-profit organizations say they plan to develop new drugs for “neglected” diseases. UPI reports that the search for drugs to fight hard-to-treat diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and dengue fever had been largely abandoned a decade ago but concern about rapidly rising rates for the diseases has caused an about-face. A new article published this week describes how public-private partnerships among drug companies, non-profits and philanthropists are attempting to address the problems involved not only in producing drugs to treat the diseases but their distribution.

TIME: In a Malaria Hot Spot, an Ambitious New Plan to Find a Cure
TIME explores the emergence of a rogue strain of malaria on the Thai-Cambodian border that has started to resist the only remaining effective drug against malaria’s most deadly strain. To combat this growing problem, TIME reports that Cambodia has opted to participate in a “controversial two-year program” that will make medication affordable for the first time in the country. However, despite these efforts, researchers fear that time in running out, warning that “it won’t be long until the resistant strain spreads from Cambodia’s precious gem mines to Africa, putting half the world’s population at risk of catching what would be an untreatable, deadly disease.”

The Economist: When patience finally runs out and Hints of a new chapter
The latest edition of The Economist features two relevant stories about Africa this week: First, the latest on the government in Zimbabwe and the power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe and former opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. The second article takes an interesting look at the fight against corruption—and extremism—in Nigeria.