U.N. leader
supports airline ticket tax to fight AIDS

United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan this week endorsed a proposal by French president Jacques Chirac to impose a $1 or $2 tax on international airline tickets to fund the fight against AIDS in Africa, the Financial Times reports. Annan said the tax would provide a constant influx of money into the continent to fight the disease and would reduce pressure on wealthy nations to continually increase their international AIDS funding. Chirac first proposed the idea in January at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. British chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown says he is seeking support in the United Kingdom and throughout the European Union for the proposal. Opponents of the tax say it would unfairly burden the already struggling airline industry.