"Africa could suffer greater effects from global warming than previously feared, the United Nations said yesterday, with the risk of widespread coastal flooding, substantial loss of animal habitat and lower cereal yields all likely in coming decades.
In a report published on the eve of a key climate change conference opening in Nairobi today, environmentalists gave warning that the continent needed help in dealing with a problem created by the industrialised world." Full story
Read more about the UN's climate conference here
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Yesterday the Carter Center announced that the run-off Presidential election held on October 29, 2006, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was "extremely orderly and peaceful" and "very well executed." This is a remarkable piece of good news for the inhabitants of this war torn country and those of the entire region, which has been destabilized for more than a decade due to almost non-stop cross-border clashes. And it is an example of one of the myriad ways in which the United Nations is fostering peace and prosperity around the world.
After over forty rounds of voting, neither Guatemala nor Venezuela will join the Security Council. Rather, Latin American member states have nominated Panama as a compromise candidate.
"Condemning the recent militia attacks in Sudan's strife-torn West Darfur region that killed scores of civilians, reportedly including young children, and forced thousands more to flee, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on all sides to respect humanitarian law and appealed to the Government to prevent such violence.
"The Secretary-General condemns the large-scale militia attacks in the Jebel Moon area... on 29 and 30 October. The attacks on eight civilian settlements, including a camp harbouring some 3,500 internally displaced persons, caused scores of civilian deaths and forced thousands to flee the area," Mr. Annan said in a statement attributable to his spokesman." More
"The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to shift power from Ivory Coast's president to its prime minister to guide the volatile West African nation to long-delayed elections within a year." More
NYT: "Venezuela and Guatemala agreed Wednesday to withdraw from their race for a seat on the United Nations Security Council and to support Panama as a candidate."
It's not often that a story in Sports Illustrated can have a direct impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in sub-Saharan Africa. But with an 815 word column in April, writer Rick Reilly kicked off a grassroots campaign to do just that.
"North Korea said Wednesday that it was returning to nuclear disarmament talks to get access to its frozen overseas bank accounts, a vital source of hard currency.... In Washington, Bush cautiously welcomed Tuesday's deal and thanked the Chinese for brokering it. But he said the agreement would not sidetrack U.S. efforts to enforce sanctions adopted by the U.N. Security Council to punish Pyongyang for the nuclear test. Those measures ban the North's weapons trade and other items such as luxury goods." More