The United Nations World Food Programme on Friday said two relief flights will be sent to Burma on Saturday, just hours after suspending flights due to ”unacceptable restrictions” by the government. Burma has maintained strict limits on foreign involvement in the relief effort, despite calls for it to allow unfettered access to experts.
The five major nuclear-armed powers said on Friday the Non-Proliferation Treaty was under threat and cited Iran’s uranium enrichment campaign in a rare joint call for action to shore up the NPT. Iran says it wants only electricity from enrichment, which can also produce atom bomb fuel if the process is adjusted.
The United Nations Human Rights Council will hold a special session on May 23 to examine how the world’s food crisis is undermining the right to food for millions of people, officials said on Friday. The rights to adequate food and freedom from hunger are enshrined in international law as basic, universal human rights.
Diplomats failed to agree on Friday on a follow-up meeting to an acrimonious 2001 conference on racism after two weeks of difficult negotiations between Western and Islamic countries. The meeting was unable to decide on the venue or duration of a conference to chart progress in the fight against racism since the landmark conference in Durban seven years ago.
Kenya’s food crisis was set to worsen after a fungus wiped out 10% to 20% of its annual rice production, the United Nations said on Friday. The fungus destroyed 5 600ha of rice in the Mwea Irrigation Scheme in Central Province, known as the rice basket of the country, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The United Nations will close its human rights office in Angola after the authorities there withdrew their cooperation, the office of the high commissioner said on Friday. Angola has ordered the office to cease its operations by the end of May after pulling out of talks to establish a formal agreement to regulate the rights body’s work in the country.
The United Nations agency charged with relieving world hunger on Friday made an appeal for $256-million more in funds to cope with sharp rises in food prices. The World Food Programme request came on top of another "extraordinary emergency appeal" of $500-million made by the agency in March to top up its 2008 budget.
The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday unveiled a new partnership with internet giant Google to help track refugees from Iraq to Darfur and raise public awareness of its work. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees launched its new service using the ”Google Earth Outreach” programme.
fireman was found guilty of arson and sentenced to seven-and-a-half years behind bars on Friday after being convicted of starting 20 blazes across northern Switzerland. The 31-year-old farmer even set his own property alight, with total damage from his spree during 2002/04 running to several million Swiss francs (one Swiss franc equals $1).
The United Nations refugee agency on Friday launched a fresh appeal for ,3-million to help more than 2,5-million displaced people in the Sudanese region of Darfur. ”The funds will be used to help 2,5-million displaced Darfurians”, UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesperson Ron Redmond said.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) is concerned that rival armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are recruiting child soldiers again. Julien Harneis, a representative of Unicef, said more child soldiers have been recruited in the two eastern Kivu provinces in the last two months after a post-ceasefire lull.
Climate change is now officially a human rights issue, as the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday passed a resolution on the subject, recognising that the world’s poor are particularly vulnerable. The council also gave the green light for a study into the impact of climate change on human rights.
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) ousted a record number of cybersquatters from websites with domain names referring to trademarked companies, foundations and celebrities in 2007. Wipo, a United Nations agency based in Geneva, received 2 156 complaints alleging ”abusive registration of trademarks on the internet” last year.
Attacks on four villages in West Darfur in January and February by the Sudanese armed forces amounted to a ”deliberate” military strategy. The attacks resulted in at least 115 deaths, according to a report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN African Union Mission in Darfur.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Canadian jurist Louise Arbour, said on Friday she will step down when her current term in office expires on June 30. ”It is very much for personal reasons. I’m not prepared to make this commitment for another four years,” said Arbour in Geneva.
Colombia said on Tuesday that Farc rebels had been planning to make a ”dirty bomb” with radioactive material, threatening the entire Latin American region. The charges by Vice-President Francisco Santos marked a dramatic turn in a regional crisis that has seen Venezuela and Ecuador cut diplomatic ties with Colombia.
No image available
/ 26 February 2008
The European Union is concerned about competing with China for access to resources and markets in Africa, which partly explains its drive to hook African states into economic partnership agreements (EPAs). According to South Africa’s deputy minister of trade, the EU is afraid that it will lose its foothold on the African continent
No image available
/ 19 February 2008
The United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday it had withdrawn a team caring for refugees from the Chad/Darfur border after aerial bombing. Seven refugees from Darfur crossed the border into Chad on Monday night, carrying with them a 55-year-old woman who had lost both her legs during an alleged bombardment.
No image available
/ 14 February 2008
Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius has asked world sport’s highest court to overturn a ruling that he is ineligible to compete in the Olympics. The International Association of Athletics Federations ruled last month that the South African cannot participate in the Beijing Games because his prosthetics give him a clear competitive advantage.
No image available
/ 12 February 2008
Rape and sexual violence against children and women are spreading in conflict zones in Africa like an epidemic, the United Nations children’s agency Unicef said on Tuesday. Rape was particularly prevalent in countries suffering both conflicts and natural disasters.
No image available
/ 12 February 2008
Russia and China have proposed a new treaty to ban the use of weapons in space, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a conference on disarmament in Geneva on Tuesday. ”Without preventing an arms race in space, international security will be wanting,” Lavrov told the conference.
No image available
/ 23 January 2008
Rudolph R Spruengli, heir to a Swiss chocolate empire and head of the world-renowned Lindt & Spruengli business for more than two decades, has died at the age of 88, his company said. Spruengli was born into the Lindt & Spruengli chocolate dynasty in 1920 and spent his entire working life with the family firm.
No image available
/ 18 January 2008
Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan will go to Kenya on Tuesday to help mediate in the country’s violent political crisis, the UN said on Friday. A statement said that Annan, who had called off a planned trip last Tuesday after contracting flu, ”is making a good recovery”.
No image available
/ 16 January 2008
Forget retail therapy for some relief from that winter cold — a study by Swiss scientists revealed on Wednesday that the flu virus can nestle and survive on banknotes for more than two weeks. Scientists from Geneva’s University Hospital were asked by a Swiss bank to carry out the study.
No image available
/ 15 January 2008
The United Nations on Tuesday warned of the worsening situation in flood-affected parts of Southern Africa as more rain was expected in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi over the next 24 hours. In Geneva, the UN Children’s Fund launched an emergency appeal for almost ,5-million for Malawi, where more than a million people face food shortages.
No image available
/ 18 December 2007
More than 1 400 would-be migrants, mostly Somalis and Ethiopians, have drowned off Yemen this year trying to cross the Gulf of Aden on rickety boats run by brutal smugglers. About 28 300 people leaving northern Somalia, mainly Somalis and Ethiopians, have made it to Yemen’s shores on 300 boats this year.
No image available
/ 12 December 2007
The airline industry body IATA slashed its forecast for industry profits in 2008 on Wednesday, warning that the spiralling cost of fuel and the impact of the credit crunch would reverse expected growth. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reduced its forecast for 2008 industry profits by one third to -billion.
No image available
/ 12 December 2007
The fate of the United Nations human rights investigator for Sudan, who has reported war crimes in Darfur, hangs in the balance this week as African and Islamic countries seek to end her mandate. African and Islamic countries told the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday that conditions in Darfur had improved.
No image available
/ 4 December 2007
The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday warned that renewed fighting between government troops and rebels in eastern Chad has limited its access to refugee camps amid a heightened sense of insecurity. The fighting has not sparked any exodus but has ratcheted up tensions and worries among vulnerable sections of society, the UN said.
No image available
/ 22 November 2007
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday that 164 people have died from Rift Valley Fever in Sudan, more than half as many again as the latest figure given by the Sudanese government. The WHO called on local media, community and religious leaders to ensure people know what measures to take to reduce the risk of infection.
No image available
/ 21 November 2007
More than three-quarters of Aids-related deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa — and South Africa is now officially the country with the highest prevalence of HIV in the world. The South African government currently estimates about 5,5-million of the country’s 48-million people are living with the disease.
No image available
/ 17 November 2007
Sudan added to the international row over Zoe’s Ark on Friday, accusing Paris of having furnished visas to the French charity to fly 103 children out of Chad, before the Chadian authorities intervened. Sudan’s humanitarian aid commissioner Mohamed Abdel Rahman Hassabo also accused the United Nations agencies working in the region