Overseas news archive

21.03.2006 More support for the Global Plan to Stop TB will be urged at a UK conference in London this week - the eve of World Stop TB Day.

21.03.2006 Global extinctions are occurring 1,000 times faster than in the past and an unprecedented global effort is required to stop the trend, the Convention on Biological Diversity warns in a new report.
* Africa needs technical help to enact GM rules
* GM soybean fuels human rights row in Paraguay

20.03.2006 Fairtrade Fortnight 2006 revealed that sales of products with the FAIRTRADE Mark are now running at £200 million a year, with 301 producer groups selling to the UK market.

20.03.2006 Saving pandas, gorillas or tigers is not just about stopping an endangered species from going extinct, but also about reducing poverty and improving the lives of local communities, according to a new report.

20.03.2006 Nine million children in Africa will be spending Mother’s Day this year without the love and support of their mother – because they have lost her to AIDS, says a new report that calls for a re-targetting of aid.

20.03.2006 Coca-Cola’s dominance of the global soft drinks market has come at huge cost to local communities, the environment and its own workforce, according to a report published today.

18.03.2006 The International Criminal Court's arrest of Thomas Lubanga on a charge of conscripting and enlisting children and using them in hostilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo sends an important message that the use of children in armed conflict will not be tolerated, the UN Children's Fund said.

18.03.2006 A renewed his call for a powerful UN agency devoted to women has been made by the UN Envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa, Stephen Lewis, who asks how the world can justify its lack of urgency in combatting the vulnerability of women and orphans.

17.03.2006 In the wake of a legal challenge and subsequent internal review, Britain's Export Credits Guarantee Department said it would reintroduce key anti-corruption measures that it weakened in 2004 following heavy industry lobbying.
* BAE ordered to name payment agents

17.03.2006 Israel's obstruction of a civil society conference on the Palestinian elections has been condemned by two prominent Palestinian Legislative Council members.

17.03.2006 UN arms embargoes are systematically violated and must be urgently strengthened if they are to stop weapons fuelling human rights abuses, according to a report presented to the UN Security Council.
* Peace laureates and activists call on governments to champion control of the arms trade

17.03.2006 Repatriation of some of the hundreds of thousands of Sudanese who have fled the 20-year civil war was suspended after two gunmen attacked a UN refugee agency compound, killing a local guard and critically wounding an international staff member and another guard.
* Darfur crisis and proxy Sudan and Chad war will destabilise a swathe of Africa
* Darfur funding crisis threatens children's health and protection
* Christian Aid condemns closure of humanitarian office in west Darfur

17.03.2006 Asia’s 600 million poor people could escape poverty in a decade, according to two World Bank economists.

17.03.2006 Bangladesh will immunize 18 million children three times in the next three months following the re-emergence of the polio virus after an absence of the disease for more than five years.
* MSF launches massive measles vaccination campaign for 550,000 children

17.03.2006 The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition has used the appointment of Achim Steiner as new head of the UN Environment Programme to call for an immediate UN moratorium on high seas bottom trawling, described by Steiner as "an act of insanity".

17.03.2006 The Sudan Social Development Organisation has been forced to close its office in west Darfur, under as-yet unsigned legislation covering the activities of NGOs.

17.03.2006 The latest draft of Cambodia's law on peaceful demonstrations would make it impossible for people to exercise their rights to demonstrate and express their opinions, according to a leading Asian rights group.

17.03.2006 Phuntsog Nyidrol, one of the Tibetan "singing nun" protesters in Drapchi prison, has reached the US after being allowed to leave China.

16.03.2006 Governments have made water artificially scarce, according to a book published to coincide with the Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City, 16-22 March.
* Water Forum
* Thirst for justice
* Water: A Crisis of Governance

16.03.2006 Widespread use of anti-HIV drugs in developing countries could increase the number of infected people, according to a new study.
* Access denied to new HIV/AIDS medicines and patients