Overseas news archive

10.07.2006 The US has said that even if its request for a five-year extension to the deadline for completing destruction of its chemical weapons stockpile - the world's second largest - is granted, the new deadline cannot be met completely.

10.07.2006 European Parliament president Josep Borrell has been urged to raise the cases of three imprisoned Chinese cyber-dissidents during a seven-day visit to China, in order to demonstrate that a resolution about online free expression will be followed up by concrete action.

09.07.2006 The problems of 20-30 million pastoralists in the Horn of Africa will be discussed at a regional gathering in Ethiopia on 11-18 July.

07.07.2006 Organic food sales increased 30 per cent last year to almost £1.6 billion, the Soil Association announced today.

07.07.2006 Elderly and mentally ill prisoners are among those waiting decades on Japan's death row - only to be executed without warning and in secret, says an Amnesty report.

07.07.2006 President Nursultan Nazarbayev has signed legislation that further restricts press freedom in Kazakhstan.

07.07.2006 Replacing a third of the gasoline burned in US vehicles with ethanol produced from inedible plant fibre is now an attainable goal thanks to advances in biotechnology, the US Department of Energy said today.

07.07.2006 A European Parliament resolution names and criticises Internet companies that cooperate with repressive regimes and welcomes a draft US law designed to regulate the activities of such companies.

07.07.2006 The British government's anti-terrorist strategy violates basic human rights, curtails civil liberties and is counter-productive, claims a report by the Islamic Human Rights Commission.

06.07.2006 High street names such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Connex and Caterpillar are implicated in Israeli war crimes against Palestinians, claims a new report on corporate complicity in the occupation of Palestine.

06.07.2006 Vladimir Putin's promise to review implementation of Russian legislation on NGOs must be more than public relations for the G8, Amnesty International chief Irene Khan said after a meeting between international NGOs and the Russian leader this week.

06.07.2006 China, the world's main producer of traditional and herbal medicines, has launched an international project to modernise the sector.

06.07.2006 Customs officers in Taiwan have seized more than two metric tonnes of illegal elephant ivory on ships travelling from Tanzania to The Philippines.

06.07.2006 People living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries who are in urgent need of an improved version of the drug lopinavir/ritonavir continue to be denied access to it by its sole manufacturer, says a medical humanitarian organisation.

06.07.2006 A report released today uncovers the the disturbing extent of corporate tax avoidance and evasion and warns that governments will face a major public funding crisis unless they pull out of the race to lower corporate taxes.

05.07.2006 A quarter of Western aid – $20bn a year – funds expensive and often ineffective Western consultants, research and training, says a report published today.

05.07.2006 The easing of the total blockage of the Gaza Strip by the Israel Defence Forces has averted - for now - a possible humanitarian catastrophe, said a UN spokesman, but he warned that the situation remains serious, with supplies still not getting through and inadequate sanitation portending a health crisis.

05.07.2006 A quarter of aid – $20 billion a year – funds expensive and often ineffective Western consultants, research and training, says a report out today.

05.07.2006 Bluefin tuna stocks in the East Atlantic and Mediterranean are being stripped bare by illegal and unscrupulous fishing, warns a new report.

05.07.2006 President Yoweri Museveni has announced that Uganda will grant total amnesty to Joseph Kony despite his indictment by the International Criminal Court if he responds positively to the Southern Sudan mediated talks and abandons terrorism.