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KINGSTON, Jamaica - Nursing shortages across the English-speaking Caribbean limit access and quality of health services and affect the region's competiveness, says a new World Bank report.

New York: The well-being of nearly one billion migrant workers is made worse by poor access to health care, poverty and exploitative work conditions, according to the United Nations health agency which kicked off a conference on the issue in Madrid.

New York: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has awarded $2.1 million for 84 media development projects from around the world, ranging from producing programmes in indigenous languages in Mexico to training journalists in Kazakhstan and Cambodia.

New York: Landslides triggered by torrential rainfall in eastern Uganda have claimed at least 80 lives, with over 300 others listed as missing, the United Nations humanitarian arm has reported.

New York: The official overseeing negotiations on reforming the United Nations Security Council says that Member States will contribute by Friday to a text that will focus the next round of discussions and could help wrap up a process that has been ongoing for 17 years.

New York: More than a decade after world leaders agreed to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women, their empowerment remains a necessary element in attaining development targets, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said.

New York: Security sector reform remains the most crucial element to ensuring stability in Guinea-Bissau, according to a new United Nations report, which calls on the international community to support the country's efforts towards this goal.

The Azerbaijani economy has withstood the impact of the global financial crisis well, but has not been immune to it. Overall GDP grew at an impressive 9.3 percent during 2009, but non-oil GDP growth fell from 16 percent in 2008 to 3 percent in 2009. The most direct impact of the crisis was through a large drop in the price of oil and lower external demand, which caused fiscal and export revenues to fall by nearly 30 percent. In addition, commercial banks cut back their loans to the private sector because of lower access to foreign financing, and a number of state-owned enterprises experienced refinancing difficulties. As international commodity prices fell, average annual inflation dropped dramatically from more than 20 percent in 2008 to 1.4 percent in 2009.

New York: Following a request for additional information from the International Criminal Court (ICC) earlier this month, its Prosecutor today named the 20 people he says are most responsible for the deadly post-election ethnic violence which swept Kenya in December 2007 and January 2008.

New York: Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world in developing renewable energy projects with initiatives aimed at producing clean and 'green' energy remaining largely under-exploited, warned a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).