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New York: More than 200,000 people affected by recent fighting in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan state face potentially catastrophic levels of malnutrition and mortality after the Government’s refusal to let aid agencies replenish stocks and deploy personnel, the United Nations warned today.

New York: Philippines today acceded to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC), when it deposed its instrument of ratification at the United Nations in New York.

New York: The recent troubles in northern Kosovo highlight the need for all sides to refrain from unilateral action that could escalate tensions and to resolve underlying issues through dialogue, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today.

New York: Hotels will be able to contribute to climate change mitigation while also increasing their profits under a new United Nations-backed ‘green’ scheme offering an online toolkit to evaluate energy consumption, find renewable sources and improve energy management, thus cutting costs.

New York: The International Criminal Court (ICC) today dismissed an appeal by the Kenyan Government to throw out the cases against six high-ranking national officials, including a deputy prime minister, two ministers and a police chief, for possible crimes against humanity in post-electoral violence more than three years ago.

New York: The United Nations today called on all States to end the “heinous crime” of enforced disappearances which has seen countless people vanish into secret prisons or worse, often never to be seen again, in cases of conflict and internal unrest.

New York: The United Nations voiced “extreme alarm” today at reports of “atrocious human rights violations” in Libya, including mass summary executions apparently carried out by Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi’s forces in the last few days before they lost Tripoli, the capital.

New Delhi: The Indian Defence Minister AK Antony has told all stakeholders of Coastal Security that unless they worked with a unified purpose, there would be no real progress.

No government in India has bent over backwards to please a civil society campaign as much as the Manmohan Singh government, in respect of the Jan Lokpal (ombudsman) Bill, drafted by a small group of people, including Anna Hazare, nominated by an NGO called India against Corruption (IAC). And no single individual’s act has recently attracted as much popular support as Mr Hazare’s fast for passing the Bill on terms dictated by him by an impossibly short deadline. Anna’s suspension of the 12-day fast on August 28 morning following the adoption of the resolution conveying the sense of the house by Parliament on Saturday, is apparently a big victory for this particular civil society group.

Having hustled the government into accepting the Jan Lokpal bill almost in its entirety, except for the inclusion of the higher judiciary and the conduct of MPs in parliament, Anna Hazare has every right to congratulate himself on his famous victory. The enthusiasm caused by his movement has also evidently made him eager to jump back into the fray with fresh demands with the electoral reforms as the starting point. However, notwithstanding the current fervour, especially in the previously politically apathetic middle class, his future path may be more bumpy than what he has experienced so far.