Overseas news archive

29.07.2005 The European Union has again demonstrated that the interests of European big business are its top priority in current international talks, development campaigners charged.

29.07.2005 Issues of vital importance for developing countries are being sidelined at World Trade Organisation talks in Geneva, warned Oxfam, jeopardising hopes of helping lift millions out of poverty.

29.07.2005 Around 170,000 small arms are being used by former military personnel and criminal gangs to commit grave human rights abuses as Haiti prepares for elections.

28.07.2005 The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq has appealed for help in fighting a proposed constitutional provision it says would give religious clerics the authority to sanction violations of their rights, including denial of freedom of movement and travel, inheritance, and child custody.

28.07.2005 Twenty-four hours after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s special envoy on human settlements called for an immediate end to demolitions and evictions in Zimbabwe, thousands of people on a settlement 20 kilometres from the capital watched helplessly as bulldozers destroyed their homes for the second time in a month.

28.07.2005 In 50 days time, world leaders have the opportunity to prevent food crises like Niger ever happening again by setting up a UN emergency fund, says Oxfam.

28.07.2005 The International Criminal Court should prosecute the perpetrators and collaborators of the current war against Iraq and the related international crimes arising from occupation, the unofficial World Tribunal on Iraq has demanded.

26.07.2005 Afghanistan has seen a dramatic surge in violence in recent months with nearly daily reports of clashes and bloodshed. But opinion is divided on whether this is the last gasp of the Taleban or the start of a new aggressive phase of warfare.

25.07.2005 Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen has failed to crackdown on illegal loggers and to reveal his links to the timber trade, says campaign group Global Witness.

22.07.2005 In a landmark case that coincided with a visit by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to London, a British jury convicted a former Afghan warlord of crimes committed in Afghanistan during the country’s civil war in the early 1990s.

22.07.2005 The second major phase of Afghanistan’s child soldier demobilisation and reintegration campaign got underway in the west of the country this week, with 3,500 children likely to benefit in the next three months.

22.07.2005 "There is late and there is too late. We are now racing so that our relief is not too late for Niger's children", a leading children's charity has warned, joining the growing criticisms of the poor international response to the west African country's food crisis.

21.07.2005 An agreement under which the UK will be able to deport Jordanian nationals on the understanding that they will not be tortured or ill-treated is not worth the paper it is written on, warned Amnesty International.

21.07.2005 At least 13 Yemenis were killed in protests against fuel price increases that came as part of an economic reform programme promoted by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

21.07.2005 With more than three million people, including almost a million children, facing starvation in Niger, Oxfam today launched a £1 million appeal for the West African food crisis.

20.07.2005 Millions of people are facing food shortages in several west African countries following a devastating locust invasion last year and localised drought.

20.07.2005 Survival International has rebutted allegations by the De Beers corporation in their continuing war of words over claims that diamonds are at the heart of human rights abuses against the Bushmen in the Kalahari.

19.07.2005 Thirteen more governments added their support for the legally binding treaty, which bans arms deals that fuel human rights abuse and conflict, at a UN meeting in New York last week.

18.07.2005 Chinese researchers say they have invented a cheap and eco-friendly way to keep city-dwellers warm in winter and cool in summer — using untreated sewage.

18.07.2005 Conflict between militia groups and government forces in east Sri Lanka during the past week are putting reconstruction efforts at risk, say Christian Aid.