Overseas news archive

31.12.2005 United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has welcomed the full withdrawal of Indonesian troops from the strife-torn Aceh province, which has seen nearly 30 years of separatist conflict.

31.12.2005 The Chadian parliament has voted to scrap a fund set up to safeguard a portion of the country’s petrodollars for future generations, in a move the World Bank has called a "material breach" of a ground-breaking contract with donors.

30.12.2005 Several Kenyan MPs asked President Kibaki to declare the famine in various parts of the country a national disaster.

30.12.2005 The military situation in the Temporary Security Zone separating Ethiopia and Eritrea remains “tense and potentially volatile,” according to a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission there, which has been forced to relocate some staff because of Eritrean demands.
* OneWorld UK Guide to Ethiopia and Eritrea

30.12.2005 President Jalal Talabani has taken the lead in sponsoring dialogue between rival political groups to resolve a political crisis that erupted after some 60 political parties claimed fraud had taken place during Iraq's 15 December parliamentary elections.

30.12.2005 Donors have put on hold $375 million in budget support to the Ethiopian government because of a crackdown on opposition supporters, according to development officials, who said the money would be diverted to other programmes in the country.

29.12.2005 International donors may freeze $375m in aid to Ethiopia following its recent crackdown on the main opposition party and the independent press, according to reports quoting "Western diplomats".

29.12.2005 Fighting across Sudan’s western Darfur provinces has swelled the number of internally displaced people by thousands, says the UN Mission in Sudan.

29.12.2005 Renewed fighting between opposition militias and government forces supported by UN peacekeeping troops has displaced at least 10,000 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

29.12.2005 Amendments to a controversial bill on NGOs have not significantly changed its likely negative impact on Russian human rights groups and may still result in the closure of affiliate offices of foreign rights organisations, a leading rights agency warns.

29.12.2005 After the failure of the end-of-year rains, the lives and livelihoods of thousands of nomadic cattle farmers are at stake in north-east Kenya.

28.12.2005 United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has welcomed the French Parliament’s adoption of a levy on airline tickets to help developing countries and urged others to follow their example.

28.12.2005 A plan to send children living in relief camps to schools in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province was put on hold this week, as the children were still too traumatised to enter any building with a solid roof overhead.

28.12.2005 Fears for the ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and secessionist rebels increased after at least 11 soldiers were killed when they drove over a landmine, allegedly planted by the Tamil Tigers.

27.12.2005 The European Commission has approved a series of humanitarian aid decisions for Africa worth €165 million, with the bulk allocated to ongoing crises in Burundi (€17m), Chad (€13.5m), Comoros (€600,000), Democratic Republic of Congo (€38m), Ivory Coast (€5.2m), Liberia (€16.4m), Madagascar (€500,000), Sudan (€48m), Tanzania (€11.5m) and Uganda (€15m).
* OneWorld's Guide to aid

27.12.2005 Reconstruction in Iran's south-eastern city of Bam is still underway, despite construction of thousands of permanent shelters for survivors of the devastating earthquake that levelled the city exactly two years ago.

26.12.2005 The pace of reconstruction varies one year after the Indian Ocean tsunami: Unicef UK reports, for example, that Children in Indonesia are recovering at a slower pace than other children. But throughout the affected region, people are struggling to piece their shattered lives together again. OneWorld UK Partners report how they have harnessed the public's generosity in the wake of the disaster and helped the first 12 months' reconstruction effort:
* Hundreds of thousands of children on the way to recovery
* How the money has been used
* Memorial ceremonies throughout the region
* We have helped 500,000 people
* Into action
* ‘Reconstruction Plus’
* Life after the tsunami
* War on Want
* Helping women
* World Development Movement
* A priest visits Thailand
* Homeless International's appeal, update and report
* Practical responses

Research and information:
* Natural Disasters Portal looks at the use of cash instead of aid, pro-poor tourism and the economic implications of disasters
* Forced Migration Review
* Eldis
* Global Issues
* ID21
* People and the Planet
* Sarah White returns to Sri Lanka, where she escaped unharmed from the tsunami, to see how people are coping

Exhibition
* 'Making Waves' - photos by Sri Lankan children

The OneWorld network
* OneWorld South Asia
* OneWorld.net tsunami stories

25.12.2005 Breaking a damaging diplomatic deadlock, the General Assembly adopted a $3.79 billion budget for 2006-2007 while limiting first-year expenditures by the Secretary-General, who welcomed the compromise with a pledge for further reform.

23.12.2005 Fish stocks are at risk of collapse after ministers at a EU Fisheries Council meeting yet again ignored dire warnings from marine scientists, a leading environmental organisation warned.

23.12.2005 After two international court decisions targeting Uganda and growing diplomatic pressure, President Musevni steps up the rhetoric against foreign "interference".