Media mogul launches malaria fund with churches

Ted Turner has launched a $200 million dollar (£100 million) partnership with churches to fight malaria.

Turner, the head of CNN is joining forces through his United Nations Foundation with the Evangelical Lutheran movement and the United Methodist Church.

He told reporters ahead of a meeting with the UN General Assembly: "Together, we are announcing a new initiative to contribute to the internationally agreed goal of eliminating malaria death."

The Lutheran Church in America will raise over $75 million (£37.8 million) for the project and the United Methodist Church will contribute $100 million (£50 million) over several years.

Rev John Nunes, president and chief executive of Lutheran World Relief said to the Associated Press: "This will be the largest campaign of its type ever for Lutherans".

In the 1980s Mr Turner wrote his own version of the ten commandments and criticised Christianity, calling it a "religion for losers".

Figures suggest that malaria kills more than one million people a year worldwide, most of these are children under five in Africa.