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New York: Fifteen of the world's least developed countries (LDCs), meeting at a high-level United Nations forum, today called for a greater voice in international financial structures and priority for resources to mitigate climate change.

New York: A United Nations independent human rights expert today voiced concern over the deaths of homeless people in India's capital from a cold wave, underscoring the need for adequate shelter to protect them from harsh weather.

NPT and CTBT are back on center-stage. First, US President Obama's renewed commitment to the NPT during his Nobel acceptance speech, and now the Japanese Prime Minister's quest for India to join the CTBT, stare this country in the face. It becomes necessary for India to clarify its standpoint on the two nuclear treaties.

The world economy is not yet officially out of recession, and the ongoing fragile recovery at the start of 2010 offers little encouragement for policy-makers in better-looking emerging economies of Asia to embark on 'exit' strategies, especially the fiscal support that has sustained subdued growth in the region.

Asia is leading the world in recovery from the global economic crisis and, in the coming years, the region's continued dynamism can give it an even greater role, said IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, speaking at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong. “Now is the time for Asia to contribute even more to the shaping of the post-crisis global economic landscape,” he said. “Potentially, this is a historic moment for Asia. A moment of transformation.”

New York: A United Nations independent human rights expert countered the notion that counter-terrorism needs must always outweigh the right to privacy, calling for a new framework to ensure that infringements on privacy are necessary, proportionate and adequately regulated.

New York: While violence and poverty are widely thought to be the major challenges confronting Afghanistan, nearly 60 per cent of the population said corruption is their biggest concern, according to a new United Nations report, which states that Afghans paid $2.5 billion in bribes over the past 12 months.

New York: The global financial crisis threatens to deprive millions of children in the world's poorest countries of an education, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, with a knock-on effect on future economic growth, poverty reduction and progress in health and other areas, according to a United Nations report.

New York: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced optimism that 2010 will be a “historic year” for progress on disarmament and non-proliferation goals, vowing to press ahead with efforts to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction.

New Delhi: Application of transgenic technology in agriculture has become a controversial issue in India. Though the regulator, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has approved commercialization of the country's first genetically modified (GM) food crop, Bt Brinjal, the Union minister for environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh has withheld the approval and has decided to seek public view on “this sensitive issue.”