Twelve are tried for poisoning in the Ivory Coast. Twelve people are being tried for dumping tons of toxic chemical waste in the Ivory Coast that allegedly resulted in the deaths of 17 people. The incident happened two years ago when a shocking 500 tons of waste from the oil industry was dumped in the nation’s largest city, Abidjan. Locals complained of breathing difficulties and rashes soon after. The head of a local company that entered an agreement with Dutch company Trafigura, to treat the waste, along with port and customs authorities face charges that include poisoning and complicity to poison, reports the BBC. While the victims’ family members are excited to see the trial begin, some are upset that no one from the Dutch company is charged. Some are also wondering why more of the higher-ranking government and port officials, who they accuse of ignoring the crime, aren’t in court either. But the Dutch company refuses to take responsibility for the poisoning since, they say, they trusted the local company they had the agreement with to dispose the waste safely. They did, however, pay the Ivorian government $200 million out of “sympathy.” Even now, two years later, the waste has not been removed and residents still claim to be suffering sickness and children born with defects due to it.

Charity will cut back on food aid to HIV positive. The World Food Program will have to cut back on aid to HIV-positive people in Uganda because funds are decreasing, reports The Monitor. The cuts are expected to hit 1.5 million people, not including the children currently receiving food from the school-feeding program. The organization will keep providing aid to people in the nation who are HIV-positive, but they should be in certain categories (like new moms and their babies, and some homeless people). Stanlake Samkange, the charity’s Ugandan representative, said if more money came their way they would be “happy to help” those who needed it. But he doesn’t want the group to promise aid when it isn’t sure it can provide it. A spokesman for the government’s AIDS Commission also stated that aid received from the program was never meant to be permanent anyway and that a replacement would need to be found soon so the needy won’t suffer. AIDS activists, of course, are not happy with the program’s announcement. One advocate said the patients are especially vulnerable. “They are not strong enough to engage in agriculture to feed themselves,” he said.

Text-driving is more dangerous than drunk driving. Young drivers are putting themselves in more danger than if they were driving drunk when they text behind the wheel, says a new study. Texting while driving – either reading a text or writing one – caused problems for a small group of young drivers (ages 17 to 24) who were studied while behind simulators in London. Reaction times slowed to 35 percent when they were writing or reading texts messages on their phones or handheld devices, the researchers found. By comparison, reaction time deteriorated 21 percent for people who had smoked marijuana and 12 percent who were driving legally drunk. Steering control also dropped a surprising 91 percent for text drivers compared to 35 percent for drunk drivers, the Transportation Research Laboratory – which carried out the study for the RAC Foundation – discovered. The tests also showed that texters were less able to maintain safe distances from other cars and they tended to drift out of their lane more often. RAC Foundation director Stephen Glaister said the research “clearly shows that a motorist who is texting is significantly more impaired than a motorist at the legal limit for alcohol.”

Vital Signs: Your finances and job can affect your health. With all that’s going on on Wall Street, there’s new evidence that a poor financial outlook can lead to all sorts of health problems. Vital signs has the results of two new studies, and some solid solutions offered by the non-profit arm of financial services company ING.

TV ads featuring HIV-positive Latinos will air. The Kaiser Family Foundation and Univision Communications Inc., the nation’s leading Spanish-language media company, have unveiled “SOY…” (“I AM…”), a groundbreaking Spanish-language media campaign featuring the personal stories of a diverse group of Latinos living with HIV and the people who love them. The campaign was previewed today for about 3,000 members of the HIV/AIDS community during the opening session of the 2008 United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Thursday. SOY… will debut nationally on Univision network and radio in conjunction with National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD) on Oct. 15 and continue throughout 2009. The campaign was developed as part of ¡Entérate del VIH y SIDA! (Get the Facts about HIV and AIDS!), a long-standing public information partnership established in 2001 between Univision and the Kaiser Family Foundation to provide culturally relevant Spanish-language information and resources about HIV/AIDS.

World Lens: Barack Obama’s Kenyan grandma shows her support, flood waters leave Haitians stranded and Usain Bolt is still dominating. Get these pictures and more here.

.
Nigeria is hooking up HIV positive couples. One Nigerian state has decided to match up HIV positive couples in an effort to slow the spread of the disease. “Suitors who have tested positive and are willing to wed each other, can reduce the spread of the virus and also cushion the psychological trauma of isolation,” the executive secretary of the Bauchi Action Committee on AIDS, Dr. Lirwan Mohammed, told the BBC. In recent weeks, about 70 couples have been matched by the country’s Bauchi state government. The couples are (confidentially) hooked up during counseling sessions and have the freedom to accept or reject prospective mates.  Under the Islamic laws the state operates under, condom use is not encouraged. But members from UNAids not only think this is a bad idea, but also a dangerous one. “There may be a very big danger in terms of the spread of the disease,” a spokesman said. Since two people could have differing strains of HIV that could interact, they should still use condoms, he added. He also believes it would be bad for kids. “The chances are that child would become a double orphan, they would lose both parents.” At least one HIV groom is happy, though. “If we should fear God, we should stop spreading the HIV virus through indiscriminate marriage, thereby infecting innocent people,” he told the news service anonymously. An estimated 2.4 million Nigerians are living with HIV.

Thousands of Zambians mourn late president. Thousands came out in Zambia Wednesday to pay their final respects to late President Levy Mwanwasa. After suffering a stroke in June, Mwanwasa passed away at age 59 last month in a French hospital. The ceremony brought the country to a standstill – businesses closed and millions of Zambians watched a live telecast of his funeral on state television, reports Reuters. As he was buried, Mwanawasa was honored with a 21-gun salute by five air force jets. “The flag has been lowered and a gallant fighter is gone, but Zambia must pick up the bits and pieces and forge ahead so that his legacy can live on,” Zambian pastor, Peter Ndhlovu said. Mwanawasa, respected for his strong financial reforms in his country, was a strong critic of longtime Zimbabwe leader, Robert Mugabe, whose country is in financial crisis. Mugabe, along with other African leaders (including presidents of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and Malawi) attended Mwanawasa funeral. “Mwanawasa was a very courageous leader. He was very frank and wanted to change not only his country but the entire southern African region. We will greatly miss him,” Mugabe told a Zambian radio station. Mwanwasa left behind his widow Maureen and six children. At the service, she spoke of her late husband’s willingness to take care of orphans at his church. “He was the father of all. It is the orphans he took care of that bring pain to my throat, they are orphaned again,” she said. Rupiah Banda, the country’s vice president, is currently serving as acting president.