Overseas news archive

20.07.2006 Grants worth $287 million have been awarded by the Gates Foundation in the hope of speeding up the pace of HIV vaccine development.

19.07.2006 The Earth is on the verge of “a major biodiversity crisis,” 19 top scientists and policy experts warned as they called for a new global coordinating mechanism to provide a united scientific voice to inform government decision-making internationally.

19.07.2006 NEW YORK, Jul 18 (OneWorld) - Leaders of the world's industrial nations have drawn fire from international civil society groups after they embraced an energy plan that favors continued reliance on oil and other fossil fuels with no hint of any solid steps to deal with the impending threat of climate change.

19.07.2006 A UN appeal for funds to tackle the effects of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon will be launched next week.

19.07.2006 A petition with thousands has been handed in a bid to stop destructive inland navigation development along the Danube River.

19.07.2006 “What was written in the Darfur Peace Agreement is just paperwork,” says a local leader of the Masalit tribe in Gereida, south Darfur. “After the signing, attacks have increased.” An international humanitarian organisation demands action, as Donors pledge to boost African force.

19.07.2006 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal are holding an indefinite protest in Kathmandu to push for talks with Bhutan’s government.

19.07.2006 The Global Online Freedom Act which is currently under debate in the US House of Representatives will prevent Internet sector companies helping authoritarian governments, particularly China, from cracking down on freedom of expression, 14 human rights organisations said in a statement.

19.07.2006 About 100 demonstrators were arrested in Nepal yesterday for protesting against the government's failure to provide former bonded labourers with food, shelter, land, employment and education as required by law.

19.07.2006 Unless the international community acts soon to resolve mounting tensions in Kirkuk, the result could well be yet another violent communal conflict in Iraq, risking full-scale civil war and possibly outside military intervention, warns a new report.

18.07.2006 Some of the 8,000 foreign combatants that remain in DR Congo after its devastating civil war represent a menace to civilians but do not seriously threaten a successful outcome for the 30 July elections, according to a UN official.

18.07.2006 UNAIDS has set up a commission to study the disease and its impacts on development in Asia and the Pacific.

18.07.2006 The G8 Summit in Moscow "has quashed the expectations of the world’s poor and the millions campaigning with them", putting the promises made at Gleneagles at risk, says a leading children's charity.
* Trade relegated to the second division

18.07.2006 Killings of women in Guatemala have risen for the fourth consecutive year as the government fails to effectively investigate and punish those responsible, according to a report published today.

18.07.2006 The Federal Court of Australia has granted Humane Society International permission to proceed with a lawsuit against the Japanese company that hunts whales in the Australian Whale Sanctuary adjacent to Antarctica.

18.07.2006 The immediate release of Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Israel, Walid Al-Omari, who was detained today in northern Israel shortly after reporting live on the cross-border clashes with Lebanon, has been demanded by an international media watchdog.

18.07.2006 The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka's decision to halt inquiries into disappearances unless the government orders it to continue comes under fire from an Asian rights group.

18.07.2006 A call for urgent action to end the violence and suffering in Darfur was made today by a group of leading aid agencies, which warned that the African Union Force there was chronically underfunded and unable to do its job.
+ Pledging conference must commit to increasing protection of civilians in Darfur

17.07.2006 The G8 can take a year off, but poverty doesn't, said Moussa Faye, director of ActionAid Senegal, as the St. Petersburg summit closed without making urgently needed progress on Africa, health or education.
+ 'G8 ignored the world's most critical crisis'

17.07.2006 Women in Ghana have launched a campaign against domestic violence in support of a parliamentary bill on the issue.