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New York: The efforts of Central African nations to consolidate peace and further development are being thwarted by weapons trafficking, top United Nations officials has warned, calling on Member States to do all they can to eradicate this scourge.

African countries are set to receive a boost in their ability to follow WTO work on food safety and animal and plant health — and to trade more effectively — following a 17-18 March 2010 decision to accept three regional organizations from the continent as observers in the WTO committee dealing with these issues.

New York: Lives can be saved and the destruction of property minimized when natural disasters strike if governments invest adequate resources in disaster risk reduction measures, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said.

In the face of strong headwinds, the Albanian economy has weathered the global crisis fairly well so far. Despite severe economic downturns and confidence shocks in much of Europe and other advanced economies, and associated drops in Albanian exports and remittances, Albanian GDP is estimated to have registered some 3 percent growth in 2009. Moreover, confidence in the financial sector has returned, as evidenced by the resumption of deposit growth. Meanwhile inflation expectations have remained well-contained and both remittances and exports begun to recover.

New York: The progress made over the past decade in lifting the world's most vulnerable nations out of poverty has been undermined since the global recession began, according to a senior United Nations official, who urged rich countries not to renege on their commitments to support the poorest of the poor.

New York: The United Nations-supported diplomatic group promoting peace in the Middle East has called on the Israeli and Palestinian sides to resume negotiations as soon as possible with the aim of reaching a settlement within two years.

Director-General of WTO, Pascal Lamy, in his speech during the 20th anniversary celebration of Costa Rica's participation in the multilateral trading system on 18 March 2010 in San José, said that “the Doha Round is not an island in a sea of alternative opportunities — failure on Doha would spill over into other present and future cooperation efforts, and not only in the trade policy domain. In our joined-up world, countries simply cannot go their own way and disregard the costs of neglecting international cooperation.”

The Ugandan economy is at an important juncture. Cautious macroeconomic management has spared Uganda from the worst effects of the global financial crisis, but persistent structural rigidities-including pervasive weaknesses in public financial administration—have constrained efforts to raise investment and growth. Looking forward, the prospect of substantial petroleum revenue offers a unique opportunity to raise growth and eliminate poverty, but it also poses important challenges for Ugandan policymakers.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) today signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Transport Institute (KOTI) to focus on low-carbon green growth in the transport sector.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - One of the first international meetings to focus on climate finance since the Copenhagen summit last December ended with plans in place to mobilize some US$40 billion for country-led low carbon growth.