Overseas news archive

30.06.2005 Friends of the Earth applauds the US House of Representatives for voting to prohibit the US Export-Import Bank from financing nuclear power projects in China.

30.06.2005 With wrangling over its membership resolved, Iraq’s constitutional committee is forging ahead with drafting a new basic law.

29.06.2005 The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will fund selected scientists to come up with innovative ways to tackle diseases critically affecting developing countries, like TB and malaria.

28.06.2005 Jarawan tribes people from the Andaman Islands are in danger of being wiped out by Indian invaders while the government fails to act on laws to protect them.

27.06.2005 Families left destitute by the Asian tsunami six months ago are still struggling to survive and are competing with businesses and landowners for relief money, reveals Oxfam.

24.06.2005 The Dutch National Youth Council is looking for young participants for a seminar in The Hague coinciding with the G8 summit. Young people from all over Europe will enjoy an opportunity to speak their minds on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the main theme of the event.
From: Nationale Jeugdraad

23.06.2005 The most senior powerbrokers in the US have taken exception to Amnesty International's annual report which condemns the use of detention centres. President Bush says that they are there to protect America. Amnesty says that Guantánamo is a stain on America’s reputation.

22.06.2005 A report commissioned by the Department for International Development highlights how the global fish stock crisis is particularly damaging to developing countries. Lacking institutional resources to combat illegal fishing, governments are unable to protect coastal communities from loss of their livelihood.

22.06.2005 Uzbekistan's reputation for the use of torture will be reinforced by reports emerging of the treatment of people arrested after the Andijan uprising on May 23. Evidence of forced confessions will add to concern about the fate of refugees seeking protection in Kyrgyzstan.

21.06.2005 Is it fair that Iraq has to spend its oil revenues in settlement of debt and reparations to countries which themselves were happy to do business with Saddam Hussein? Protesters have started a 15 day fast in Geneva where the UN Compensation Commission will make its ruling.

21.06.2005 The international diamond certification scheme known as the Kimberley Process is due for review next year. Campaigners say that participating countries are not fulfilling their reporting obligations and that diamonds continue to fund conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Cote D'Ivoire.

21.06.2005 The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has published military spending figures for 2003. Total world expenditure is increasing much faster than the global economy and is approximately ten times the equivalent figure for aid for developing countries.

20.06.2005 Former US President Bill Clinton says in the Financial Times today that the Guantánamo Bay detention centre should be "closed down or cleaned up". Amnesty is concerned about reports that Halliburton has been awarded a contract to extend the facility.

20.06.2005 An online forum continues this week as part of preparations for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November. The issues under debate include Africa and the Millennium Development Goals. Individuals are encouraged to participate.

17.06.2005 14 past winners of the Nobel Peace Prize have expressed their solidarity with fellow laureate Aung San Suu Kyi whose 60th birthday is on Sunday. Their message to the people of Burma is that democracy will prevail but only with stronger resolve of the international community in general and ASEAN countries in particular.

17.06.2005 A public meeting due to be held in Yerevan today may be the last chance for environmentalists to persuade the Armenian government to abandon plans to build a road through one of the country’s few surviving forests. OneWorld Volunteer Editor Onnik Krikorian reports that the NGO community is united in its opposition.

16.06.2005 Bill Clinton cannot resist a little controversial politics, even in his ambassadorial role as UN envoy for tsunami relief. During his visit to Aceh, the former US president suggested that this may be the time to resume sales of military equipment to Indonesia.

16.06.2005 It's not only the US that absorbs an inequitable share of global resources. Europe has 7% of the world's population but consumes 17% of available natural resources. A new WWF report points out that the deficit is covered by importing assets of developing countries.

16.06.2005 There is little sign of "best practice" in the proposed construction of a gas pipeline in North Mayo by a consortium led by Shell. Campaigners have drawn up a long list of grievances.

15.06.2005 President Putin told Tony Blair that the G8 should consider countries of the former Soviet Union just as much in need as Africa. Unconcerned for diplomatic niceties, Kazakstan is introducing laws to curtail foreign NGOs, apparently convinced that recent revolutions in Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine were financed by global pro-democracy organisations.