"The IMF and the World Bank have stepped up aid to flood-hit Pakistan to help the country cope with its worst-ever humanitarian disaster," Agence France-Presse reports.

VOA News examines President Barack Obama's $63 billion Global Health Initiative (GHI), noting the initiative's emphasis on cost-effective strategies to improve child- and maternal-health as well as programs to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) "has called a special meeting on the recent spike in food prices, responding to fears of a repeat of the shortages that led to riots in parts of the world two years ago," the Associated Press reports. The inter-governmental committee on grains will meet on Sept. 24, most likely in Rome, according to FAO spokesperson Christopher Matthews. "He said a large number of member countries had expressed concern about a possible repeat of the 2008 food crisis," the AP reports (9/3).

An experimental malaria drug was shown to effectively treat the disease in mice with only a single dose, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science, Reuters reports (Kelland, 9/2). The new drug, known as NITD609, "represents an entirely new class of medicines to treat malaria ... Human trials, backed by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG, could begin later this year," the Wall Street Journal writes (Naik, 9/3).