In a bid to eradicate malaria deaths globally by 2015, world leaders including the World Bank and the Gates Foundation on Wednesday pledged $3 billion to help eradicate the disease that kills approximately 1 million people a year.

The funding will support a new Global Malaria Action Plan to wipe out the disease in Africa by 2015. The plan will emphasize the introduction of a vaccine against the deadly disease, and provide better access to bed nets, indoor spraying, improved diagnosis and treatment and preventative measures for pregnant women

- A new report released by the Center for Disease Control says that the rate of annual new H.I.V. infections in the United States are 40 percent higher than previously thought.

The study concludes that the infection rate is 56,300 per year as opposed to the 40,000 a year that was thought to have been the average rate for the last several years. The new findings, experts say, are not necessarily due to more infections, but are a result of improved tests and a more accurate and new statistical methods

President George Bush on Wednesday approved $48 billion for fighting AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis around the world for next five years.

The amount authorized for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the successful U.S. global AIDS program, is $18 billion more than what Bush had requested. The measure will triple funding for these three diseases

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill authorizing $48 billion over the next five years to help treat and prevent AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the world. The measure, which will triple funding for these three diseases, is now sent to President George W. Bush, who is expected to sign it into law.

The amount authorized for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the successful U.S. global AIDS program, is $18 billion more than what Bush had requested. It would replace and expand the current $15 billion program started by the President in 2003. That act expires at the end of September

The Clinton Foundation has forged a deal with six drug makers to sell anti-malaria medicine at a fixed lower price to make it globally affordable to poor patients suffering the disease.

The charity formed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton announced the deal Thursday with two Chinese suppliers of artemisinin and four Indian firms that process the anti-malaria drug ingredient into finished products