Overseas news archive

31.10.2006 The most comprehensive review ever carried out on the economics of climate change warns that global warming could inflict worldwide disruption as great as that caused by the two World Wars and the Great Depression. But there is still time to avoid the worst impacts, it says.

31.10.2006 A patent dispute over naming rights has pitted Starbucks--until now known for its industry leadership in supporting coffee-growing regions around the world--against Ethiopian farmers.

31.10.2006 After failing to win outright victory in the first round of voting, Brazil's president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was re-elected decisively Sunday, saying that after the elections "there are no adversaries; the adversary now is social injustice."

31.10.2006 Refugees International is taking advantage of the global spotlight on the Congo to highlight the humanitarian issues facing the country as it concludes its most democratic elections since independence.

31.10.2006 Chile's president Michelle Bachelet has presented a comprehensive new initiative to promote national equality by ensuring access to early childhood education for all, providing subsidies to the poorest families, and more.
From: Chilean Government

31.10.2006 Brad Will was shot in the torso Friday while documenting a paramilitary assault on the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca. The Independent Media Center remembered Will as "part of this movement of independent journalists who go where the corporate media do not or stay long after they are gone."

31.10.2006 Africa will cease to be an urban continent by 2030; Asia by 2040. The UN is now field-testing mechanisms to provide mortgages for the poor to help quash the growth of slums.

27.10.2006 The majority of the world's governments agreed Thursday to begin work on an Arms Trade Treaty to prevent international weapons transfers that fuel conflict, poverty, and serious human rights violations.

27.10.2006 Radio experts and communicators working on community radio have urged the World Congress on Communication for Development to give community radio its rightful place as a development tool in the communications debate.

27.10.2006 From Bolivia to the United States, Nigeria, and beyond, publics are challenging the notion that corporations can control the most basic resource needed to sustain life.

27.10.2006 WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (OneWorld) - NATO military operations in Afghanistan have come under renewed humanitarian scrutiny following new revelations that civilians have been killed.

27.10.2006 As many as 4,000 Mahamid Arabs living in southeast Niger since the 1980s or before will be forced to return to Chad, the government said Tuesday, citing ethnic tensions that developed over increasingly scarce resources.

27.10.2006 While fighting the Taliban to build a safe Afghanistan for its people, NATO must be more careful to ensure civilians are not caught up in its operations and compensate those who are killed, said an organization defending non-combatants in conflict zones.
From: The Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)

27.10.2006 Responding to a flood of complaints from migrant workers worldwide, the United Nations is investigating a rash of human rights violations, including abusive working conditions, non-payment of wages, arbitrary detentions, and collective illegal deportations.

27.10.2006 UNITED NATIONS, Oct 25 (OneWorld) - Nobel peace prizewinners have joined hands with major human rights groups in urging nations to back U.N. moves to ink a treaty that would curb the illicit trade in small weapons.

27.10.2006 The New Jersey Supreme Court’s ruling to extend the full rights of marriage to same-sex couples is a victory for human rights and equality, said Human Rights Watch Wednesday, reminding lawmakers, who must now take the next step in codifying the policy, that "separate is never equal."
From: Human Rights Watch

26.10.2006 ROME, Oct 25 (OneWorld) - Anti-poverty advocates and communications experts are meeting in Rome this week to examine how communications strategies can best promote global economic and social progress.

26.10.2006 This year's Press Freedom Index, released Tuesday by an international watchdog group, highlights the continued erosion of media freedoms in the United States, France, and Japan, while countries like Bolivia and Ghana continued to rise in the ranks.
From: Reporters Without Borders

26.10.2006 Desperate that he couldn’t find the resources for the Nukak to return to their land, the tribe's leader Mao-be has killed himself, reports a group that defends indigenous rights worldwide.

26.10.2006 Turkey has received a strong message from the European Union: trade union rights are on the same list regarding Turkey's commitments as freedom of expression, human rights, women’s rights, minorities' rights, and the right to practice one's own religion.