The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe returned the USD7.3 million aid money that the country received from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Michel Kazatchkine, the fund’s executive director, said. The fund initially threatened to withhold fresh funding for the African nation’s initiatives to fight the three diseases until the sum was returned. “The Global Fund greatly appreciates this development which will accelerate the life-saving activities of the malaria, TB and HIV programmes supported by the Global Fund in Zimbabwe,” Kazatchkine said. (“Zimbabwe returns USD7 mln aid money to G8 disease fund” - Thomson Reuters, Nov. 7, 2008)