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New York: A new international body aimed at reversing the unprecedented loss of species and ecosystems vital to life on Earth due to human activity has passed its final hurdle with approval by the United Nations General Assembly.

WASHINGTON – The World Bank (WB) Board of Directors approved three projects for Argentina totaling US$1.061 billion. Both Great North projects, Water and Infrastructure, will generate opportunities for all to access water and sanitation services, as well as better road infrastructure, to promote integration and foster the competitiveness of this region of the country.

New Delhi: An Agreement on enhancement of cooperation in Oil & Gas sector between India and the Russian Federation was signed on 21.12.2010 by Mr. Sergei Ivanovich Shmatko, Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation and Mr. Murli Deora Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India in the presence of the Prime Minister of India and President of the Russian Federation.

New Delhi: The Governor General of New Zealand, Sir Anand Satyanand will be the Chief Guest of forthcoming 9th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD)-2011. Addressing a press conference, here today, the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, Shri Vayalar said that more than 1300 delegates of overseas Indian community across the world are expected to participate in the PBD-2011.

New Delhi: A Contract for Preliminary Design of the Indo-Russian Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft was signed between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi here today. The Project involves design and development of a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft that will have advanced features such as stealth, supercruise, ultra-maneuvrability, highly integrated avionics suite, enhanced situational awareness, internal carriage of weapons and Network Centric Warfare capabilities.

New Delhi: The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) yesterday successfully conducted the flight test of Lakshya-2, the Pilotless Target Aircraft (PTA), at very low altitudes.

New Delhi: Over 4.16 lakhs (4,16,061) Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) of over 5.60 lakhs (5,60,571) have so far been self certified for adherence to the standards prescribed by International Commission for non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). Of these, 4,01,470 self certificates had been submitted to the Telecom Engineering and Resource Monitoring (TERM) Cells of the Department of Telecommunications by November 15, 2010, the extended deadline set by the Ministry of Communications and IT.

The Ministry of Minority Affairs further sharpened its focused approach in 2010 to issues related to the Minorities and to play a pivotal role in the overall policy, planning, coordination, evaluation and review of the regulatory and development programmes for the benefit of the Minority communities. In this endeavour the Ministry has been greatly helped by a quantum jump in its budget allocation by the Union Government for the Financial Year 2010-11 as Plan allocation for the Ministry has been increased from Rs. 1,740 crore in 2009-10 to Rs. 2,600 crore.

Some international treaties and agreements are so incurably ineffectual, unequal or otherwise flawed that the world would be better off without them. The Copenhagen Accord signed last year was one such. A collusive arrangement between the United States and BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, China), later signed by 20-odd states, the Accord reversed some major gains made in the negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. These include assigning greater responsibility to the industrialised Northern countries than the developing South in combating climate change, defining time-bound quantitative targets for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and mandating North-to-South transfers of finance and technology.

The reason for this supposed neglect of principles or, in other words, a preference for opportunistic practices, is Sonia’s fear of the Congress losing its majority. Having been successful in 2004 in leading the party to an unexpected victory by reaching out to leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ramvilas Paswan, she apparently dreads the consequences of losing power.