Africa: Wealthy nations neglecting need, AIDS envoy says

With pointed jabs at the United States, a U.N. special envoy told a gathering of leading AIDS scientists that wealthy nations must make up for a "decade of financial abstinence'' to battle the global epidemic. Stephen Lewis, a Canadian diplomat who has been the United Nations' special representative for AIDS in Africa, made his case on Sunday for a dramatic increase in spending to fight the disease at the opening session of the 11th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, held in San Francisco.