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New York: The United Nations envoy to Côte d’Ivoire today appealed to all actors to do their best to ensure that the upcoming legislative elections are as transparent and inclusive as possible.

New York: The United Nations refugee agency today welcomed a joint declaration by Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and Serbia to expedite the search for solutions for 74,000 remaining refugees from the Balkans conflict of the 1990s.

New Delhi: A strong Japan in the context of China’s recent rise would be in India’s interests, according to a former Indian envoy to Japan.

New York: An independent United Nations human rights expert today voiced concern about the situation of political prisoners on hunger strike in Myanmar and about the health of Buddhist monk U Gambira, who needs urgent medical care.

New York: The brutal crackdown on dissent in Syria continues unabated despite the signing of an Arab League peace plan last week, the United Nations human rights office reported today, adding that the death toll has now surpassed 3,500.

New Delhi: With the US strategy in Afghanistan hitting serious roadblocks with its sharply deteriorating relations with Pakistan, a trilateral mechanism between the US, Australia and India can help prevent the Taliban from regaining control, suggest three prominent global think tanks in joint paper.

LUCKNOW: Former chief minister and leader of Jan Kranti Party Kalyan Singh is also set to damage BJP in 2012 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. Kalyan Singh has rejected all offers to rejoin BJP facing leadership crisis in the state and announced that he would aggressively campaign against BJP and it top leadership. Significantly enough Kalyan Singh had ruled any alliance with BJP or any other party pre, during or post polls.

Ominous stars are eyeing the BJP in the north-western region states. The infighting has deepened the crisis in the party’s Himachal Pradesh and Punjab units where elections are due in 2012 -Punjab in February and Himachal later in the year. In Jammu and Kashmir the BJP stands split which was caused by the revolt of seven of its 11 legislators in April last.

It is a curious coincidence that just as the government has begun addressing the various problems which have been agitating the public mind, the Anna camp has started losing ground in public esteem. While the government has decided to introduce bills debarring people with a criminal background from contesting, ensuring that citizens’ grievances are readily addressed and protecting whistle-blowers, Anna Hazare wants retired judges to probe allegations into its core committee members.

WASHINGTON — Françoise Clottes, World Bank Director for the Caribbean, Giorgio Valentini, World Bank Country Representative for Suriname, and Kirk Ifill, Representative of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, will begin today a three-day visit to Suriname to renew the Bank’s commitment to the country’s development efforts. After 30 years of limited dialogue, Suriname and the World Bank Group are currently working on a gradual re-engagement strategy and exploring how the organization’s global knowledge and expertise can best support the government.