French president
pushes for airline ticket tax to fight AIDS

French president Jacques Chirac has written to 145 world leaders to press them to support his plan for an international tax on airline tickets to generate funds to fight AIDS and other serious diseases around the world, Agence France-Presse reports. Chirac is also asking the United Nations General Assembly to consider the proposal when it meets in September. The measure would place a $1 or $2 tax on all international airline tickets and could generate up to $3 billion a year for the global fight against AIDS. Officials in Algeria, Brazil, Chile, Germany, and Spain reportedly support the proposal.