Bill Gates pledges $750 mln in fighting three killer diseases

(January 27, 2012) Bill Gates, the chairman and co-founder of software giant Microsoft, pledged $750 million on Thursday to a global fund fighting three killer diseases and urged governments to continue their support to save lives. "These are tough economic times, but that is no excuse for cutting aid to the world's poorest," he said at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria, is a public-private organisation, which has the backing of several celebrities, but reported "grave misuse of funds" in four recipient nations last year that has cost it donor support. The 750$ million pledge by Gates through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was meant to rescue the beleaguered health fund. This is in addition the $650 million that the Gates charity has contributed since the fund was launched 10 years ago. Gates, however, played down the misuse of funds and praised the fund's transparency, which he said had exposed corruption problems that might well have remained hidden at other organisations.