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One year after the Lehman Brothers collapse on Wall Street (September 15, 2008), triggering the worst financial crisis and recession since the 1930s, the outlook for the world economy is still misty amid uncertainties about the pace of emerging recovery, which would remain jobless at least till 2010. Though the world growth and trade volume are projected to shrink by 2.5 per cent and 10 per cent in 2009 respectively, a rebound is widely assumed to be occurring in the second half of the year. The pointers cited include some leading European economies coming out of recession in the second uarter, progress toward financial sector stabilisation, and revival of manufacturing in select economies (including USA) and exports in certain others such as Germany.

New York: The United Nations emergency humanitarian relief wing today warned of an outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea rife in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa that is threatening to continue its spread across other regions of the country.

New York: Despite significant Government efforts, children in Colombia continue to be killed, maimed, tortured, raped, recruited and abducted in the long-running conflict, mainly by illegal armed groups, a new United Nations report warns, calling on all parties to abide by their international obligations.

New York: The economy of the occupied Palestinian territory faces unprecedented challenges from coping with Israeli closures to the loss of natural resources, the United Nations said in a new report, calling for an economic strategy that marks a bold departure from the norm.

New York, Sep 8 2009 2:10PM
From the struggles of Colombia's indigenous people to the countless civilians displaced by violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) to United Nations efforts to crack down on the trafficking of arms, drugs and humans through ports, the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) has unveiled its latest list of stories it believes deserve greater global attention.

New York: The number of people hit by deadly floods across West Africa has now topped 600,000, and the heavy rains have also destroyed crops and infrastructure in a region already hard hit by poverty, the United Nations humanitarian arm has reported.

New York: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged the international community to step up efforts to slash the “staggering” number of people worldwide unable to read and write, in a message marking International Literacy Day.

The report released by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has held the predominance of excessively deregulated purely financial activities over real productive activities as responsible for the current global financial and economic crisis. It says that this crisis “was not a bolt from the blue”, it was predictable.

The Congress's dynastic tradition has two contradictory aspects. Even as it encourages the practice of partymen rooting for the children of politicians to succeed their parents in high posts, the sense of loyalty to the First Family prevents such demands from getting out of hand.

The strife and bloodletting in the Bharatiya Janata Party has turned out to be far more prolonged, violent and self-destructive than the party's most inveterate critics, including this writer, had expected. Not a day passes without senior BJP leaders calling their colleagues names which would embarrass street-level thugs.