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New York: In an effort to harness the rapid developments in mobile telecommunications services to enhance broadband access, countries in Asia and the Pacific agreed today at a United Nations-backed meeting to set up a framework for regional connectivity.

New York: The International Criminal Court (ICC) today received a donation from the United Kingdom for a fund to help relocate witnesses who may be at risk in Kenya, where the Court’s prosecutor is investigating the 2007-2008 post-election violence.

New York: A Security Council working group today reported significant progress on the release and reintegration of thousands of Nepalese child soldiers who fought in the decade-long civil war between the then-royalist government and Maoist insurgents.

New York: Mozambique has eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus, according to a United Nations-backed health survey.

New York: Governments need to pay more attention to the worsening problem of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Europe, representatives attending a United Nations-convened conference said today, calling for measures that reduce risk factors that expose people to these illnesses.

New York: The United Nations refugee agency today welcomed an agreement reached between Croatia and Serbia to resolve their mutual refugee and return issues, and called on the two nations to ensure that it is translated into concrete action.

New York: The amount of water available per person in Africa is declining and only 26 of the continent's 53 countries are currently on track to reduce by half the number of people without sustainable access to clean drinking water by 2015, according to a survey by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released today.

It is time that cash-rich Indian companies look for acquisitions of more strategic assets abroad. Of late, several front ranking Indian companies, led by the Tata group, have been acquiring corporate assets in various parts of the world. But, the Indian corporate sector, despite the limited resources it has at its disposal, is not using its full potential to buy strategic assets outside the country. Time is ripe for Indian companies to take advantage of recession and lower stock prices in the developed world to acquire and build strategic assets in countries such as Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, the USA, Russia, China, South Africa, Australia, Chile, Zimbabwe and Vietnam.

November has been a cruel month for the Congress-led UPA Government, its upright Prime Minister, and for the Congress organization itself, whatever the efforts made at damage control in the wake of the 2G spectrum scandal leading to the resignation of Mr A Raja (DMK) who held the Telecommunications portfolio. 2010 has turned out to be notorious for successive scams and while both the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress President Ms. Sonia Gandhi acted with firmness against those allegedly involved, the Government’s prestige has suffered immeasurably.

New York: Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), particularly methamphetamine, commonly known as ecstasy, are the drugs most widely abused in East and South-East Asia and have displaced the use of traditional narcotics such as heroin, opium and cannabis, according to a United Nations report released today.