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New York: The United Nations envoy tasked with mediating talks between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in the dispute over the latter’s name today wrapped up two days of discussions in New York with representatives from both sides.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the second review of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) economic performance under a three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement. The completion of the review enables the disbursement of SDR 49.493 million (about US$77 million), which would bring total disbursements under the program to SDR 148.479 million (about US$232 million).

New York: Strong growth from China, the Republic of Korea and Japan has helped to boost the number of patent applications filed worldwide last year, following the drop witnessed in 2009, the United Nations agency tasked with promoting the protection of intellectual property said today.

New York: With earthquakes, heat waves, floods and snowstorms affecting 208 million people, killing nearly 300,000, and costing $110 billion in losses last year alone, the General Assembly today debated mitigation steps such as building safer schools, hospitals and cities to reduce the terrible toll.

The Negotiating Group on Rules, on 4 February 2011, started its review of the WTO transparency mechanism for regional trade agreements (RTAs) by considering two proposals: one from the United States for the consideration of all RTAs in a single WTO Committee, and one from Ecuador for procedural adjustments to the mechanism.

Bengaluru: The US Administration is playing an unprecedented role in one of the world’s premier and Asia’s biggest aerospace exhibition, Aero India-2011 which got off to a flying start here at Yelahanka Air Force Stadium on Wednesday.

New Delhi: Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences said that rational and sustainable utilization of natural resources and their protection from toxic releases is vital for sustainable socio-economic development. Speaking at the International Conference on “Recent Trends in Developing Bioremediation Strategies for Hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) & other Chlorinated Contaminants” here today, he said, “Currently around 30,000 industries in India generate hazardous waste of the order of 6 Million Tonnes per annum.'

New Delhi: The second phase of Census 2011, the enumeration process, got underway today in all the States and would continue till February 28, 2011. In the Capital, President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, Vice-President Shri M.Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh were enumerated. During this phase, 2.7 million enumerators and supervisors will visit house to house for counting purposes. Revisional round for enumeration will be held from March 1-5, 2011.

New Delhi: Chiria iron ore mines of SAIL in the Saranda forest in Paschimi Singhbhum district of Jharkhand gets forest clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests today. The approval is subjected to the usual 13 specific conditions governing forest clearance like those relating to compensatory afforestation and Net Present Value. Forest clearances had been given to SAIL earlier in July 1998 and October 1998 for two leases in Chiria itself.

New Delhi: India is likely to produce 232.07 million tonnes of foodgrains during 2010-11 compared to 218.11 million tonnes last year. This is only marginally below the record production of 234.47 million tonnes of foodgrains in 2008-09. We are likely to achieve record production of wheat (81.47 million tonnes), pulses (16.51 million tonnes) and cotton (339.27 lakh bales of 170 kg. each) this year.