$6.9 million have been granted by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for faster internet connections in public libraries.

The grant would be available to libraries in Arkansas, California, Kansas, Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Virginia. The sanctioned money would be given to Connected Nation, a non-profit broadband advocacy group and the American Libraries.

The grants are to be utilized for infrastructural support and to help libraries attract long-term financial support for high-speed Internet access.

A recent report by the American Library Association has indicated that that libraries are often the only source of free, public Web access in a community.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has also given $7 million to help fight a serious disease in Africa.

The foundation gave the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) of Seattle $7 million to care for patients in Africa with Leishmania donavani, a parasite that causes visceral leishmaniasis (VL). About 500,000 new cases of VL are reported every year, and 10 percent of these patients, mostly children, die, according to IDRI.