World News from OneWorld UK

07.04.2009 The US has flipped the switch on its new declaration system for plant product imports, a groundbreaking initiative established to collect information on what wood products are coming into the country and from where they are harvested.
+ Honey project 'symbolises commitment to sustainable use of forest resources'

24.03.2009 Iraqis continued to be the largest nationality seeking asylum in the industrialised world last year, even though the number fell 10 per cent, says the UN refugee agency.

13.03.2009 Twelve "Enemies of the Internet" - Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam - have transformed their Internet into an Intranet in order to prevent their population from accessing 'undesirable' online information,” says a new report.
+ handed to “Internet Enemy” embassies

09.03.2009 The French company tipped to transform Peru’s economy is having its income from oil revenues frozen in neighbouring Ecuador, it has been announced.

05.03.2009 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appealed to Sudan to urgently reconsider its decision, taken after an international court’s indictment of the country’s president, to expel 13 groups aiding some 4.7 million people in Darfur.
+ MSF Protests Expulsions
+ Oxfam GB pulls back international staff to Khartoum
+ Save the Children UK's statement
+ International Criminal Court 'working to protect African victims'

05.03.2009 The pay gap between men and women worldwide may be as high as 22 per cent, rather than the 16.5 per cent figure taken from official government figures, according to a new report.

04.03.2009 The UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs, starting March 11, should address the lack of access to pain relief medicines in many countries, which leaves tens of millions of people worldwide suffering from severe but treatable pain, according to an international rights group.

04.03.2009 The global financial crisis is hitting poor countries hard, including those in sub-Saharan Africa, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund warned as he called for quick and generous action to avoid the potentially devastating effects of this crisis on the most vulnerable countries.

02.03.2009 About 106,000 fire-related women's deaths occurred in a single year in India - far more than was reported by police, according to a report in the medical journal, The Lancet.

02.03.2009 Aquaculture - said today by a UN report to be the basis of all future growth in global seafood production - desparately needs to be put on a more sustainable basis, according to a global environment organisation.