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U2, Coldplay Singers Urge African Aid
Posted on Thursday, June 03 @ 18:52:56 CEST by Macphisto
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(Billboard.com) -- U2 singer Bono and Coldplay singer Chris Martin are among a host of celebrities who have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair requesting more aid money for the world's poorest countries. Also signed by Jude Law, Helen Mirren, Colin Firth, Joseph Fiennes and Minnie Driver, the letter is intended to reach the government as it determines British aid budgets for the next three years.
Justin Forsyth, policy director of Oxfam, said millions of people in Africa are still living in absolute poverty, some 20 years after the Ethiopian famine. "One billion people do not have access to clean water, 6,400 are dying from AIDS in Africa every day and over 100 million children in the world do not get a chance to go to school," he said.
"Next year Blair and [Treasury chief Gordon] Brown are poised to lead a breakthrough on reducing poverty but they must lay the groundwork now by making sure there is money in the bank to fund it," Forsyth added.
Development campaigners have called on Britain and other countries to reach their promised targets of spending 0.7 percent of national income on aid. Otherwise, they say, international goals to halve world poverty and improve education and health by 2015 will not be met.
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