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MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide $72 million in further assistance to Nepal for an ongoing program aimed at helping poor and isolated rural communities access credit and financial services.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing Sri Lanka with financial assistance to rehabilitate roads in the conflict-affected northern region, which will help spur inclusive growth and new economic opportunities in one of the poorest regions in the country.

New Delhi: To review the impact of various initiatives taken for the development of the handlooms sector and the welfare of weavers as also various schemes being implemented for the preservation of their unique weaving skills, a two day meeting of the State Directors of Handlooms & Textiles concluded here yesterday.

A wrong has been righted. Thanks to the intervention and insistence of Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, Burn Standard and Braithwaite & Co, part of a sick public sector holding company called Bharat Bhari Udyog Nigam Limited (BBUNL), have been brought under the Department of Railways, their largest single customer. Significantly, Mamata's proposal was cleared by the union cabinet barely a week after her party's sweeping victory in West Bengal municipal elections, including Calcutta Corporation, against both the rival Left Front and Congress. Expectedly, she had her way without any opposition to the proposal from cabinet colleagues.

KOLKATA: Within two months of initiation of Operation Green Hunt on June 18, 2009 - no matter whether the union minister of home affairs P Chidambaram gave it a different nomenclature- the union home secretary G K Pillai rechristened it as Lalgarh Laboratory. 'Lalgarh is the laboratory for us and this will be reflected in what we are going to do in other Naxal-infested areas like Chhattisgarh.

New York: United Nations officials have stressed the need to look after the world's drylands, which are home to more than one billion poor people and where efforts to achieve key development targets face particular challenges.

New York: Top United Nations officials have underscored the urgency of combating organized crime, which a new report has found is gaining in global reach and posing a greater threat to peace, development and even national sovereignty.

New York: Some 400,000 people have been uprooted by the violence that began in Kyrgyzstan last week, the United Nations refugee agency said, citing figures provided by governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the ground.

New York: Governments, employers and workers meeting at the annual conference of the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) have adopted a new international standard on HIV and AIDS - the first international human rights instrument to focus specifically on the pandemic as a workplace issue.

New York: Development models that focus attention on the poor while expanding job opportunities, increased government spending on social services and aid flows from affluent nations are all successful strategies for alleviating global poverty, the United Nations says.