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New York: A senior United Nations human rights official today urged Nepal to quickly enact the draft laws that will establish a commission to probe enforced disappearances in the Asian country and create a mechanism to seek the truth about conflict-related abuses and facilitate national reconciliation.

New York: South Asia continues to have the largest concentrations of poor rural populations despite the fact that the wider Asia-Pacific region has made major strides in combating poverty, a United Nations agency said today, stressing that agriculture is key to poverty alleviation.

New York: Neither party to the dispute over Western Sahara has taken steps to date that would suggest a readiness to move to an acceptable compromise, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a new report in which he recommends measures to help advance progress in the United Nations-backed negotiations.

New York: The recent power plant accident in Japan, like the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago, calls for “deep reflection” on the future of nuclear energy, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, as he outlined a five-step plan to enhance nuclear safety.

New Delhi: Annual Plan of Goa for the year 2011-12 was approved in a meeting, here today, between the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia and the Chief Minister of Goa, Shri Digambar Kamat, here, today. The Annual Plan size was agreed at Rs 3,320 crore.

Briefing about the trade performance for the financial year 2010-11, here today, Shri Anand Sharma, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry said that “We have received the export figures for this fiscal and it is indeed heartening to see that our exports for the year ending March 2011 touched US$ 245.9 billion registering a growth of 37.5%”.

New Delhi: The country will have normal monsoon this year. Releasing Long Range Forecast for coming June to September period, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal said, “ The rainfall for the country as a whole is most likely to be Normal i.e. 96-104% of Long Period Average (LPA). There is very low probability for season rainfall to be deficient (below 90% of LPA) or excess (above 110% of LPA). Quantitatively, monsoon season rainfall is likely to be 98% of the LPA with a model error of + 5%. The LPA of the season rainfall over the country as a whole for the period 1951-2000 is 89 cm.”

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is extending financial assistance to help Armenia upgrade its urban transport services to improve living conditions and bolster economic opportunities in 12 of the country's major and secondary cities.

New Delhi: Cooperative Ministers of States and Union Territories are meeting here tomorrow to discuss ways to ensure autonomy and democratic functioning in cooperative institutions. Shri Sharad Pawar, Union Agriculture and Food Processing Minister, will inaugurate the National Conference of Cooperative Ministers.

The world economy while gaining growth remains fragile, with the financial system still unstable, continuing surge in oil and commodity prices, volatile capital flows, and high food price-driven generalized inflation across developing Asia, posing risks especially to its fast-growing major economies like China and India.