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New York: The deadly lead pollution crisis in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara due to backyard gold digging is far from over, with hundreds of lives already lost and thousands of people at risk, a United Nations investigative team warned today.

New York: Eleven new sites of outstanding panoramic beauty and scientific importance, from subterranean rivers in China to Ice-Age-shaped landscapes in Finland, have been added to the United Nations-backed Global Network of National Geoparks.

New York: “Without sufficient numbers of well-trained and professionally motivated teachers, we risk falling short of the promise made 10 years ago at the World Education Forum to the world's children and youth [of education for all by 2015], because teachers are at the heart of the education system,” the heads of four major UN agencies said.

New York: With less than two months remaining before the next United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún, a senior world body official called on nations to accelerate efforts to find common ground to reach a concrete outcome at the Mexico meeting.

NEW DELHI: In a move aimed at ensuring greater accountability of the higher judiciary and making it more transparent, the union cabinet this evening cleared the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill to be brought in the winter session of Parliament.

KOLKATA: North-East India has a vast and untapped potential of hydro-power, estimated at 35,000 MW. For decades, it had been a constant grievance of the people of the area that the government was doing nothing to tap it which could usher in prosperity to this backward region. But the people have since grown wise. Now that the first steps are being taken to harness this power, strong opposition is growing, from Arunachal Pradesh in the north to Mizoram in the south, to the construction of mega dams. In Sikkim also there is a demand for scrapping the Lethang hydel project coming up at Yuksam.

An elaborate charade has begun with the rolling out of the first Aadhaar unique identity (UID) numbers in a tribal district of Maharashtra by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi. At its core is the pretence that giving a unique 12-digit number to each underprivileged citizen will achieve what hundreds of welfare schemes, and numerous efforts to control corruption, have failed to accomplish: namely, pilferage-free delivery of services to the poor.

There are two unhappy persons in India today. One is Mani Shankar Aiyar, who was called a “half-Maoist” by the BJP members in parliament. And the other is Arundhati Roy, who can be described as a full Maoist if her consistent stand in favour of the extreme Left insurrectionists is taken into account.

Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have commended the authorities for their strong and determined program implementation and readiness to adapt policies as warranted. This helped Iceland overcome a deep financial and economic crisis. Growth is expected to begin to rebound, although uncertainties remain, including from the global outlook and the private debt overhang. To better secure the ongoing recovery, Directors encouraged the authorities to develop a strategy to unlock investment and to reach consensus with social partners on wage settlements. Continued steadfast implementation of the program will be crucial.

One country in Europe with which India can have greater economic and strategic cooperation is Germany. India's largest trading partner in Europe is Germany and Germany ranked 8th in the share of the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) to India in the period April 2000 to June 2010 amounting to $2.84 billion.