Overseas news archive

20.06.2006 After nearly two decades of conflict between the government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, 90-95 per cent of the population of northern Uganda now live in overcrowded camps for displaced people, according to an international medical group.

19.06.2006 A review of UK international development policy to be presented in London on Tuesday will describe the UK as a "model" in the evolving world of development cooperation, but will say that new approaches are needed to deal with higher levels of aid and new international challenges.

19.06.2006 Protests will take place around the world on Monday - Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's 61st birthday, when she will have spent a total of 10 years and 238 days in detention.

19.06.2006 About 30 per cent of people surveyed in Brazil, Britain, Canada, Guatemala, India and South Africa have been the victim of gun crime or know someone who has been a victim in the last five years.

19.06.2006 An appeal for funds to prepare for bird flu and reduce the risk of a human influenza pandemic has meet with a dismal response, says the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

19.06.2006 On day one of the new UN human rights council's work, activists fear it has got off on the wrong foot because its members include countries with poor rights records, including Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China, Cuba, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.
* 'This must mark a turning point in the treatment of children'

19.06.2006 Pro-whaling countries finally obtained a narrow majority in favour of increased whaling and against conservation at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission.
* Reports from the Greenpeace team

18.06.2006 Millions of poor urban Africans face a growing crisis over their living conditions unless rich and developing nations take urgent steps to tackle the problem, a development charity has warned ahead of the opening of the World Urban Forum in Vancouver on Monday.

17.06.2006 Swift and wide-ranging actions are needed to conserve the world’s marine environment amid fears that exploitation of the deep seas and open oceans is rapidly passing the point of no return.

17.06.2006 Pro-whaling nations led by Japan failed to gain a majority at the International Whaling Commission in St Kitts and Nevis, but environmental group Greenpeace said it would return to the Southern Ocean this year to oppose the continued ‘"scientific hunt".

17.06.2006 The Nepalese government and Maoist rebels agree to form a six-member committee led by former Supreme Court judge to draft an interim constitution.
* Highlights of the 8-point agreement
* PM, Maoist chief sit together

16.06.2006 The national academies of the G8 countries and Brazil, China, India and South Africa have called on the forthcoming G8 summit in Russia to lead the way for better global disease surveillance and more energy research.

16.06.2006 By agreeing to stringent new controls on the proliferation of small arms that have fuelled years of conflict, west Africa has shown itself to be a global leader in the fight to stop the illegal weapons trade, an international development charity said today.

16.06.2006 The Guatemalan government has been urged to enact the pending Adoption Law in order to protect thousands of children from being turned into "a lucrative export business".

16.06.2006 The new head of the United Nations Environment Programme, Achim Steiner, took up office yesterday with a call to all nations to put the environment at the heart of economic policies rather than treating them as opposing ideas.

16.06.2006 Palau has presented a new proposal to the UN for a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling - "the most destructive and indiscriminate fishing practice known to mankind, for just a few fish destined for niche markets."

16.06.2006 Two members of the US House of Representatives yesterday led the way in giving voice to what they describe as the growing majority of more than 60 per cent of the American people who believe that it was a costly mistake for Washington to go to war in Iraq and who want to pull troops out.

16.06.2006 As the Nepalese government and Maoists held talks to find a peaceful end to the Maoist insurgency, a report estimated that 13,190 people had been killed in the decade-long insurgency.

16.06.2006 US President George Bush has designated the waters of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a national monument - the largest single conservation in the US and, at 240,000 square miles, the world's largest protected marine area.

16.06.2006 Yahoo! comes out as worst offender in censorship tests on Chinese versions of Internet search engines carried out by a leading media freedom group.