US leads fight against AIDS

SIGNING a $15 billion authorisation to fight AIDS abroad gives US President George W Bush more leverage to press other wealthy nations to work harder against the killer disease as he prepares for a European summit.

In a ceremony yesterday at the State Department, Bush signed a five-year plan designed to help prevent and treat AIDS, especially in more than a dozen African and Caribbean nations.

If fully implemented, the legislation is supposed to prevent seven million new infections, care for 10 million HIV-infected people and AIDS