View Articles

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - More than 100 energy regulators from around the world attended a conference at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) today aimed at strengthening regulatory frameworks to help countries in the Asia and Pacific region boost energy efficiency and develop renewable energy resources.

New York: Delegates have gathered at United Nations Headquarters in New York to explore ways of improving the implementation of a global treaty aimed at protecting oceans and the resources they hold from a range of threats, including pollution, climate change, illegal fishing and crimes.

Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have noted that Benin's economy has been hit by the global crisis, leading to sharply lower growth and a large overall fiscal deficit in 2009. Directors also pointed to the adverse impact on Benin's economic performance of the large expansion in the public wage bill and uneven progress on structural reforms. Looking ahead, the key challenges are to contain the impact of the crisis in the short run, while reducing fiscal and external imbalances and boosting sustainable growth and poverty reduction over the medium term. Directors encouraged the authorities to build the necessary support among key stakeholders to ensure successful implementation of their reform program, particularly in the critical fiscal and structural areas.

New York: Nearly 40 chief executive officers representing companies from across the world became the first group of business leaders to endorse a United Nations-led initiative to empower women by promoting gender equality in corporate workplaces, markets and communities.

New York: An estimated 70,000 Afghan refugees have returned to their homeland so far this year, an indication that an increasing number of those who fled have confidence that they can live in the country despite the prevailing security and socio-economic challenges, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have noted that the global financial crisis has affected Chad mainly through the decline in oil prices, which caused a large deterioration in the balance of payments and the fiscal position. At the same time, GDP contracted as a result of a large drop in agricultural production. While agricultural output is expected to recover, there is an impending food shortage that needs to be addressed urgently. Over the medium term, the trend decline in oil resources will require significant fiscal policy adjustment.

New York: Iceland deserves credit for eliminating barriers to same-sex marriage, which will become legal in the Nordic country this weekend, the United Nations human rights chief says.

New York: The United Nations agriculture agency is implementing nine projects worth nearly $18 million in Niger in support of farmers and pastoralists who are facing an alarming food crisis as a result of the prolonged drought in the Sahel region of West Africa.

New York: Major cocoa exporting and importing countries have gathered in Geneva for a United Nations-hosted meeting to finalize the details of a new agreement designed to make trade in the commodity fairer and sustainable.

New York: Afghanistan, the world's leading producer of opium and hashish, is seeing an increasing number of its own citizens taking drugs, according to a new United Nations report, which found that around one million people - eight per cent of the population - suffer from addiction.