Priest accuses drug companies of genocide
The Catholic Church has fired a broadside at giant pharmaceutical companies, accusing them of "genocidal action" in making large profits from anti-AIDS drugs which remain unaffordable to millions dying in sub-Saharan Africa. Speaking a news conference in the Vatican this morning, Father Angelo D'Agostino, a Jesuit priest who runs an AIDS orphanage in Nairobi, said: "Today, at least 400 people die in Kenya every day because of AIDS. Yet in Europe and North America it is no longer a fatal disease, it is only a chronic disease." He added: "Why the difference? It is the genocidal action of the drug cartels who refuse to make the drugs affordable in Africa even after they reported a 517 billion dollar profit in 2002."