Overseas news archive

21.01.2007 A worldwide campaign for Decent Work was launched today in Nairobi at the World Social Forum by the Decent Work Alliance and with the help of Wangari Maathai, Kenya's 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

19.01.2007 Almost 90 MEPs today pledged their support for a complete end to experiments on primates across Europe, and the campaign has received a major boost with the backing of leading EU statesmen.

19.01.2007 An OECD (industrialised countries' grouping) working group has again expressed "serious concerns" over the British government's decision to halt bribery investigation into a multi-billion-dollar defence contract with Saudi Arabia, and said it will study the UK response and discuss the issue in March.
+ Britain censured over decision to drop BAE Saudi corruption inquiry

19.01.2007 The enforced resignation of the managing editor of a Casablanca-based weekly "confirms a significant decline in the level of press freedom in Morocco", according to a leading international journalists' protection group.
+ Prominent Moroccan publisher resigns in bid to save weekly

19.01.2007 An international trades union organisation has condemned the killing of at least three people and the wounding and arrest of many others when Guinea's security forces opened fire on a peaceful demonstration in support of a general strike.

19.01.2007 Measles deaths have fallen 60 per cent worldwide since 1999, thanks largely to an unprecedented decline in deaths in Africa, according to the UN.

19.01.2007 Reported cases of syphilis in China increased from 194 in 1985 to over 113,000 in 2005, according to an article in The Lancet and investigators believe improved surveillance would show an even higher increase.

19.01.2007 World leaders should not to rush into reviving world trade talks when they meet at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on 24-28 January, Friends of the Earth warned today.

18.01.2007 Repeated military attacks in Darfur, arbitrary bombing of villages and the targeting of aid workers threaten to permanently disrupt the fragile lifeline ensuring the survival of millions of people, the UN warned yesterday.

18.01.2007 Some of the work of the IMF, the World Bank and the UN should be brought together, the British Chancellor, Gordon Brown, said in a speech in India yesterday. He suggested that the Bank should have a focus on energy security and environmental care.

17.01.2007 Coffee lovers the world over are unknowingly drinking coffee grown illegally inside one of the world’s most important national parks for tigers, elephants and rhinos, says a leading wildlife conservation group.

17.01.2007 A coalition of anti-coup groups says it intends to stage street protests against the military junta in Thailand this week.
+ OneWorld Guide to Thailand

16.01.2007 More than 34,450 Iraqi civilians were killed and 36,685 injured last year, a UN report said today.
The Iraq Body Count website puts the civilian death toll since the invasion at between 53,832 and 59,447.
+ UN clashes with Iraq on civilian death toll

16.01.2007 Billions of dollars of reconstruction aid are spent without accountability to its intended beneficiaries, according to studies unveiled today by Tiri, a new NGO dedicated to raising levels of integrity around the world, and local organisations in eight post-war countries.

16.01.2007 The executions of Saddam Hussein's half-brother and the former head of Iraq's revolutionary court were condemned by Amnesty today as a further lost opportunity for Iraqis to properly hold to account those responsible for past crimes.

16.01.2007 After a day of clashes between security forces and protestors in Conakry, union leaders yesterday evening presented Guinean President Lansana Conte with an ultimatum to either reform his government or face mass nationwide demonstrations.

16.01.2007 A new programme has been started to protect some of the world’s most bizarre and unusual animals, many of which are being completely ignored by current international conservation efforts.

16.01.2007 A group of 40 Bushmen have managed to return to their homes in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve, despite a heavy police presence and attempts to persuade them to stay in the relocation camps.

16.01.2007 The most important marine locations in the UK in urgent need of protection have been indentified for the first time.

15.01.2007 A meeting organised the Conservative Party today will hear how tokenistic policy and consumer responses to concerns about 'food miles' could undermine the social and economic development of African countries.