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New York: Iceland deserves credit for eliminating barriers to same-sex marriage, which will become legal in the Nordic country this weekend, the United Nations human rights chief says.

New York: The United Nations agriculture agency is implementing nine projects worth nearly $18 million in Niger in support of farmers and pastoralists who are facing an alarming food crisis as a result of the prolonged drought in the Sahel region of West Africa.

New York: Major cocoa exporting and importing countries have gathered in Geneva for a United Nations-hosted meeting to finalize the details of a new agreement designed to make trade in the commodity fairer and sustainable.

New York: Afghanistan, the world's leading producer of opium and hashish, is seeing an increasing number of its own citizens taking drugs, according to a new United Nations report, which found that around one million people - eight per cent of the population - suffer from addiction.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed its first review of the Comoros' economic performance under a program supported by the Extended Credit Facility (ECF). Completion of the first review allows the disbursement of an amount equivalent to SDR 1.5575 million (about US$2.30 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 5.785 million (about US$8.54 million).

Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have observed that, although the [Global Financial] crisis had started in advanced economies, it had a pronounced impact on many emerging market countries, reflecting contagion and spillover effects across countries and economic sectors. Along with improved fundamentals in many of these countries and appropriate use of available policy space, coordinated measures to stimulate growth in advanced economies and the availability of large international financial support, including from the Fund, have helped emerging markets cope with the crisis and paved the way for recovery.

Stage is all set for the first World Classical Tamil Conference in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. The five day literary-cultural event starting from 23rd of this month is the biggest such gathering in the history of modern Tamil Nadu. President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil will inaugurate the literary-cultural extravaganza in the presence of the world torch bearers of Tamil language and the Tamil Culture that include Dr.M. Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

KOLKATA: It seems New Delhi adopts one policy to maintain public order in North Bengal, and another policy for the North East.

Politics, especially electoral, has the uncanny habit of kicking up new controversies besides fuelling the ongoing ones. Punjab where the Assembly poll is due in less than two years is witnessing such a scenario. The ruling Akali-BJP leadership has started vociferously voicing demands which not only have far-reaching implications for the state's crippled economy but have also fueled controversies over centre-state and inter-state relations.

The certain political compulsions at the fag end of the 20th century India had prompted the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to take a new path towards Rural India. On the insistence of some well-intentioned planners, the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee agreed to the plan, which was christened as Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). It was rightly felt that we couldn't uplift the rural India without connecting the villages with all weathered roads in the absence of which village people were greatly suffering on account of non-access or untimely access to health, education, transport and many other essential facilities.