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Executive Directors concurred that the impact of the global financial crisis on Syria has been relatively moderate. Preliminary data for 2009 indicate that non-oil growth decelerated as lower growth in most sectors was only partially offset by a moderate recovery in agriculture. Inflation declined sharply, reflecting trends in the global prices of basic commodities.

The Senegalese economy should begin a gradual rebound this year after two years of slower than usual growth resulting from both external and domestic shocks. Real GDP growth, which averaged about 2 percent in 2008 and 2009, is expected to pick up to close to 3½ percent. However, the outlook remains uncertain, with risks that the global recovery will be more hesitant than expected, the threat of renewed problems in the energy sector, and financing constraints that limit the government's fiscal room for maneuver. Annual inflation, which has been negative for more than six months, is expected to gradually return to about 2 percent.

New York: The rate of deforestation has slowed over the last 10 years, but each year an area roughly the size of Costa Rica is still destroyed, according to a comprehensive forest review by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

New York: Slavery and slavery-like practices still continue in many parts of the world, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned calling for renewed international commitment to ensure that all forms of slavery are finally eradicated.

It is one thing to be a yoga guru and another to head a political party. Baba Ramdev, who has just launched his new political outfit “Bharat Swabhiman Party” may discover this very soon. Millions of his disciples wonder whether his political venture will succeed while political parties prophesy that he will vanish soon.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Local currency bond markets in emerging East Asia expanded 16.5% in 2009, with $4.4 trillion in paper outstanding at the end of December, and should continue to grow in 2010, according to the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) quarterly Asia Bond Monitor.

New York: Unemployment rates are artificially low in Asia and the Pacific because many people hold jobs in the informal sector, according to a United Nations report that provides a comparison of economic, social and environmental trends in the region.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the first review of Bosnia and Herzegovina's economic performance under a program supported by a 36-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA). The completion of the review enables the immediate disbursement of an amount equivalent to SDR 121.75 million (about € 138.4 million or US$ 184.6 million), bringing total disbursements under the program to an amount equivalent to SDR 304.38 million (about € 345.9 million or US$ 461.4 million).

New York: The first decade of the new millennium was the warmest on record, the United Nations weather monitoring agency has announced.

New York: Gorillas could disappear from large parts of the Greater Congo Basin in central Africa by the mid-2020s unless urgent action is taken to safeguard their habitats and counter poaching, a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and INTERPOL has warned.