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WASHINGTON - The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors has approved an International Development Association (IDA) grant of US$22.8 million (about FCFA11.3 billion) to finance a Health System Performance Project (HSPP) in the Republic of Benin.

Our telecom companies, notorious for constantly making and changing tariff plans and so-called concessional offers and also sharing subscribers' personal data with all kinds of marketing companies for undisclosed fees, are robbing not only the ignorant public but also the government. The latest special audit reports of some of the telecom companies suggest that the industry may have robbed the government of close to Rs. 1,000 crore by way of fudging or misreporting their revenue income. What is more the industry has even challenged the authority the government to engage the services of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) to review the audited accounts of the telecommunications companies.

For months now, the DMK supremo and Chief Minister Mr M Karunanidhi has been working his mind on how to perpetuate DMK rule in Tamil Nadu for the long term, having raised the status of his second son Mr M K Stalin as Deputy Chief Minister, establishing a line of succession, and voicing his decision to retire at a moment of his choosing during 2010. He has successfully run a minority Government since 2006, dismissing any idea of power-sharing with the Congress, which has faithfully backed the Karunanidhi regime without let or hindrance, swallowing its pride.

New York: A United Nations-backed pilot programme that supplies electric generators to rural women farmers in Burkina Faso, freeing them from lengthy chores so that they can devote more time to education, childcare and health care, is to be adopted on a national scale.

New York: The world is consuming too much energy and materials to sustain itself and the global community must summon the political will to tackle a whole raft of challenges, from mineral extraction to waste recycling to the more than 200 toxic chemicals entering the blood of foetuses, the head of a United Nations commission has warned.

New York: The head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today appealed for greater attention to be focused on the food security situation in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly one third of the population is hungry.

New York: Three million newborns and hundreds of thousands of women die each year because they lack access to maternity health services and skilled midwifery care, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said on the occasion of International Day of the Midwife.

New York: Governments in Asia and the Pacific should raise spending on social programmes to sustain the region's robust economic recovery and ensure that the benefits of the revived growth trickle down to people most affected by the global financial crisis, according to a United Nations report.

The current budget session has shown the growing friction between the Congress and its allies. Reeling under the IPL scam or the telecom scam or the telephone tapping controversy, it is the Manmohan Singh government, which is facing the flak.

New York: Some 5 million children in Zimbabwe will receive urgently needed protection from a growing spread of measles thanks to $5.6 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).