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New York: The United Nations today appealed to the world community to make up a huge shortfall in this year’s nearly half-billion-dollar programme to clean up mines and other remnants of war, which claim thousands of victims annually long after the conflicts that spawned them have ended.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the second review of Iraq’s economic performance under a program supported by a Stand-By Arrangement (SBA). Completion of the second review makes an additional SDR 297.1 million (about US$471.1 million) available for disbursement, bringing the total resources currently purchased by Iraq under the SBA to SDR 1.069 billion (about US$1.7 billion).

New Delhi: The Directorate of Film Festivals, a Media Unit under Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt. of India has set in motion the process for inviting entries for the 58th National Film Awards for 2010. The awards (Swarna Kamal & Rajat Kamal) will be presented in three Sections---Feature Films, Non Feature Films and Best Writing on Cinema. The notification to this effect along with the detailed regulations has been put on the Directorate’s website.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh made a statement in both the houses in parliament on 'Cash for Vote' wiki expose and said that he did not authorised any one to bribe. This is what he said in Lok Sabha today:

Inflation concerns currently outweigh growth for China’s leaders, even as its twelfth five-year plan gets under way this year with a modest target and greater emphasis on quality of growth that is “healthy and sustainable”, creates better jobs and improves human wellbeing. Unlike India’s obsession with 9 per cent “inclusive growth”, with the elevated inflation eclipsed, Premier Wen Jiabao in a work report to the National People’s Congress said stabilizing consumer prices at around 4 per cent would be top priority this year. Overall social stability is the prime concern at present.

It has always posed to be a big challenge before the judiciary to bring law offenders to justice when such persons enjoy strong political patronage and a kind of unwritten administrative immunity or backing. To prove such law offenders guilty is even a bigger challenge in the face of a non-cooperative administration deliberately making light of such cases under instruction from the political masters.

Recent reforms will still be insufficient to cover increased pension costs in the future, despite increases in retirement ages in half of OECD countries, according to a new OECD report.

New York: Thirty-three countries will participate next week in the Caribbean region’s first full-scale tsunami warning exercise as part of United Nations-backed efforts to test and strengthen the region’s defences against such disasters.

New York: The United Nations human rights chief today voiced alarm over the escalation of violence by security forces in Bahrain, particularly the reported takeover of hospitals and medical centres in the country, which she said was shocking and a blatant violation of international law.

New York: The Security Council today effectively authorized the use of force in Libya to protect civilians from attack, specifically in the eastern city of Benghazi, which Colonel Muammar Al-Qadhafi has reportedly said he will storm tonight to end a revolt against his regime.