Photos from around the world on 4 October
Court overturns convictions of Knox and Sollecito
Attack in the Somali capital, Mogadishu
Hundreds camp out in New York's financial district
Libyan transitional authority troops ceasefire
Anti-Wall Street protest march
Nalgae makes landfall in Philippines
A selection of pictures from this week's news
Anti-Gaddafi fighters capture Sirte airport
Photos from around the world on 29 Sept
As President Nicolas Sarkozy greeted the world's leaders at the Libya meeting in Paris last month, one leader who emerged from his limousine was perhaps a little less well known than the others.Qatar's Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, then proceeded to stand alongside President Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron as the talks began.
The tiny Gulf state's bank rolling of the Libyan rebels has given its leader a front-row seat in international politics.
The Arab uprising is changing the political map of the region and Qatar is playing an important role in it.
Tiny population
A picture of Qatar's emir hangs on a building in the anti-Gaddafi stronghold of Benghazi There are fewer than two million people living in Qatar. And of those, only about 250,000 are Qataris, the rest being foreign workers. But its vast gas reserves have made its people the richest on the planet.
At a time of unprecedented unrest and while traditional regional leaders like Egypt are dealing with their own problems, that wealth is being used to try to forge Qatar's new path as a regional political heavyweight.
But Qatar is not a democracy. Ruled by a monarchy, this may seem at odds with the political changes happening in the region, but some experts think it actually helps Qatar in making quicker decisions.
"We have the emir at the top, but he's generally well respected and he has a lot of genuine domestic legitimacy here," says David Roberts of the Royal United Services Institute think tank.
"It's quite conservative so there's some kind of societal deference."
Rebel TVQatar's support for the rebels has been widespread and was not just limited to funding the fighting on the ground.
It also provided money for projects such as Libya TV, a television station set up to counter the pro-Gaddafi propaganda machine.
Libya TV is funded by the Qatari government as part of its support for Libyan rebels It got off the ground in just five days - no dry runs or practices. Dozens of Libyan journalists and non-journalists alike were recruited and trained at lightning speed.
Among them is 26-year-old Yusra Tekbali. Born and brought up in the US, she returned to live in Tripoli in December. But when the violence started, her plans had to change.
A month ago she arrived in Doha to work for Libya TV as a blogger. And despite the shift in direction, she remains upbeat.
"I was lured to Libya by greater economic opportunities and also a connection with my roots," she says.
"But now, the opportunity for Libyans and young Libyans from abroad is going to grow at an amazing rate. And Qatar will have a role in that, of course."
Despite Qatar saying that its interests were solely about the welfare of the Libyan people, it is expected that Qatar's support for the rebels will pay off economically in time, too.
It has already helped to market oil for the rebels and that relationship is expected to continue.
And as the world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas - there may be potential to work with Libya on exploring its reserves.
'Arab renaissance' Continue reading the main storyThis opens the door quite well for Qatar to take this leadership role and to play a role in the Arab renaissance in the 21st Century”End Quote Ibrahim Sharqieh Brookings Doha Centre Qatar's role in the Libyan conflict has boosted its profile. And that, according to some experts, is exactly what Qatar wanted. It is a Gulf state trying to stand out from the crowd.
"These are brand new countries, dating back to the 1970s," says Mehran Kamrava, the director of the Centre for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University in Qatar.
"They're frantically trying to play catch-up, frantically trying to make a global presence felt.
"[They are] competing with countries like Egypt with centuries of history, competing with countries like Saudi Arabia, competing with countries like Iran that has tremendous resources and a massive demography and geography."
This stance has been well received at home.
In a region used to foreign intervention, an Arab country taking the lead is seen as a welcome step and one that provides both political security and economic stability too.
"This opens the door quite well for Qatar to take this leadership role and to play a role in the Arab renaissance in the 21st Century," says Ibrahim Sharqieh, deputy director of the Brookings Doha Centre.
"By having that active role in the international arena at this point and taking political leadership, Qatar is protecting its wealth and protecting its existence."
The federal government should create a corps of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians and computer specialists and deploy them in the hard-hit countries targeted by the Bush administration's five-year, $15 billion global AIDS program, according to a panel of experts.
That was the idea outlined yesterday by a group asked to come up with specific suggestions on how to create one of the key manpower components of the administration's ambitious AIDS plan.
? GAO Criticizes FDA On Spermicide Labels That Omit AIDS Risk (The Washington Post, Apr 12, 2005)The proposed Global Health Service (GHS) would be an overseas cousin of the domestic one that sends medical workers to isolated or underserved parts of the country, according to Fitzhugh Mullan, a former U.S. Public Health Service physician who chaired the panel.
"It would be a Peace Corps for health," Mullan said yesterday.
The service would offer options including three-year stints by qualified federal employees and one-year competitively awarded fellowships. The service would also serve as a clearinghouse of information where health care professionals could learn about overseas opportunities, public and private.
The Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator at the State Department said it is reviewing the Institute of Medicine report. A spokesman said no decision has been made about what, if any, parts of it would be adopted, or whether legislation would be required.
While the panel, convened by the Institute of Medicine, acknowledged it wanted to create a new "brand" of U.S. overseas service aimed primarily at fighting AIDS, it did not offer the idea as a magic bullet against the pandemic.
"It is strategically important, it is symbolically important, but it is not inherently the solution," Mullan said. But, he said, GHS would contribute to the ultimate goal of helping foreign nationals fight AIDS in their own countries.
The law creating the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) calls for the creation of a "pilot program for the placement of health care professionals in overseas areas severely affected by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria."
Various organizations offer American doctors and nurses chances to work overseas in places of need. For many, the length of time is short, often three months and sometimes as little as two weeks.
The GHS hopes to make it easier for American medical workers to work abroad for longer and more useful periods.
In a 199-page report, "Healers Abroad: Americans Responding to the Human Resource Crisis in HIV/AIDS," the panel proposed an initial Global Health Service Corps of 150 members. They would be government employees who would be sent to one of the 15 target countries in PEPFAR -- 12 nations of sub-Saharan Africa, plus Haiti and Guyana in the Caribbean and Vietnam in Southeast Asia -- and would work there for three years, primarily as advisers and trainers to health ministries and organizations.
In addition, the plan envisions about 1,000 people from various health fields receiving fellowships to work abroad for at least one year for $35,000. While the stipend would be less than what a person's regular job pays, the program would be designed to make motivated people believe they can afford to interrupt their career for such work. Ideally, the fellowships would expand their skills and marketability. "I think this gives them [the employees] some leverage that they never had before," said Andre-Jacques Neusy, the director of the Center for Global Health at New York University School of Medicine.
A third component would provide money to newly trained physicians, nurses and other health professionals to pay back school loans. One year of work in an approved overseas AIDS program would earn $25,000 in loan repayment. The minimum commitment would be two years.
The federal government would not find a job or provide a salary for people seeking to work abroad through this mechanism. Instead, the health workers would be employed by organizations, such as charities and academic institutions, with operations overseas.
Christina Polyak, 28, who is in her second year at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said "debt payment is essential" for many people like her who want to work in the developing world but feel they cannot afford to.