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MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing fresh support to help the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) build up small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a bid to broaden sources of growth in the national economy.

The United Progressive Alliance government has scandalised the public by repeatedly stating before the Supreme Court that it cannot commit itself to providing enough food to the Indian people at affordable prices. Its latest affidavit, filed through the Planning Commission, says that the per capita urban poverty line estimated by an expert committee headed by the late Suresh Tendulkar is Rs 32 a day at current prices; it’s Rs 26 a day for the rural areas. The Central government can at maximum provide subsidised foodgrains to those below this income through the Public Distribution System.

LUCKNOW: The Bharatiya Janata Party is vertically split over the issue of post poll alliance with the BSP in the event of a hung assembly. Though officially the BJP national executive has taken a decision not to have any truck with BSP before or after the polls, sources in the state BJP say that the option for post poll understanding is still not totally closed.

How distant the aftermath of the Congress’s 2009 victory seems today. The party had then passed the 200-seat mark in the Lok Sabha while the BJP had dropped from 138 to 116. Moreover, since the Left had been decimated, it was believed that there would be no further roadblocks in the government’s pursuit of the economic reforms.

New York: Thirty-two women leaders from 16 West African countries are meeting in Senegal today to attend a series of United Nations-backed training sessions aiming to boost the participation of female mediators in peace processes across the region.

New York: Two former government ministers in Rwanda have been convicted by a United Nations war crimes tribunal and each sentenced to 30 years in prison for their roles in the genocide that engulfed the small African nation in 1994.

New York: The legacy of internal fighting in the Republic of the Congo over a decade ago still lingers on, with the fate of those who disappeared remaining a mystery, a United Nations human rights panel said today.

New York: The new United Nations body aimed at reversing the planet’s unprecedented loss of species and ecosystems met today for its first session as the UN environment chief called for the ideas behind it to be converted into action.

New York: A senior United Nations official today urged countries to pursue economic policies that take social considerations into account to ensure that the poor, youth, persons with disability and the elderly do not continue to bear the brunt of fiscal austerity measures and unemployment in the uncertain global economy.

New York: The practice of “land grabbing,” exemplified by biofuel production, large-scale infrastructure projects, carbon-credit mechanisms and speculation, is threatening food security for hundreds of millions of people by imperilling small-scale producers, a United Nations independent expert warned today.