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New York: Normal to above-normal rainfall could return to famine-ravaged southern Somalia over the next three months but there may not yet be much easing of the drought there since the September-to-December rains are a relatively small part of the annual total, the United Nations reported today.

A staff mission led by Brian Aitken visited Colombo August 29 – September 7 to conduct discussions for the seventh review of the Stand-By Arrangement. The team met with government and Central Bank officials, as well as representatives of civil society and the private sector.

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has received a big jolt in her assembly elections campaign following disclosures about her corrupt practices by the WikiLeaks .The revelations have been so damaging that the BSP supreme lost her temper and called the owner Julian Assange a mad man fit to be sent to an asylum.

Three years after the global financial crisis triggered the worst downturn since the 1930s, the world economy has lost the recovery momentum and is edging perilously close to a second recession. Warning bells have been sounded by UN, IMF, World Bank and other institutions with strong calls on the United States and EU, in particular, to take urgent actions both on fiscal consolidation without sacrificing short-term support for growth and jobs, and on the sovereign debt crisis in Eurozone periphery threatening the stability of the decade-old single monetary union.

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee has effectively silenced her critics for some time to come, by torpedoing the proposed Teesta Water Sharing Agreement between India and Bangladesh.

Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have commended Austrian authorities for policies that have supported a swift recovery and laid the foundations for a sustained expansion. Nonetheless, in view of the still fragile global outlook and heightened vulnerabilities in the euro area, Directors agreed that important challenges remain. Reducing the debt burden, bolstering financial stability, and enacting structural reforms to boost long-term growth should top the policy agenda for the period ahead.

New Delhi: The multilateral trading system of the future will have to address a number of global challenges, including “the blurring of the edges between trade policy and others such as exchange rate policies, climate change policies, food security policies or energy policies”. However, the more pressing challenge is to advance the Doha Round “to find the political courage and the pragmatic steps which will lead our Members to have an honest negotiation”, said Pascal Lamy, Director-General of WTO, today in his speech to CUTS (Consumer Unity & Trust Society) here.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Mr. Robert York visited Kinshasa August 24-September 3, 2011 to assess progress and discuss policies with the authorities in the context of the fourth review of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement.

New York: Economic recovery in developed economies may grind to a halt because of weak domestic demand and the replacement of stimulus packages with fiscal austerity measures as governments try to regain the confidence of the financial markets, according to a United Nations report unveiled today.

New York: Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders today held the first of two meetings this week devoted to property issues, among the thorniest in the ongoing United Nations-sponsored talks to reunify the Mediterranean island that has been split for almost 50 years.