TRADE: WTO Biotech Ruling Reveals Special Interests, Say Critics

A World Trade Organisation decision that called European safety bans on genetically modified food illegal under its global trade rules could usher in a new phase of potentially hazardous "Frankenfoods" worldwide and further erosion of local protections, say environmental and advocacy groups.

TRADE: US Seeks Wide-Ranging Deal With South Korea

U.S. business lobby groups reacted enthusiastically to news Thursday that the United States and South Korea would start trade talks to remove barriers to firms doing business in both countries, and called for a deal that would expand U.S. exports.

FINANCE: Audit Finds World Bank Partly to Blame for Abuses

An investigation into a World Bank-backed mine in Africa has found that the Bank needs to more rigorously screen its operations and monitor the Australian company that allegedly provided logistical support to an army offensive that took the lives of dozens of civilians.

FINANCE: Groups Question World Bank’s Role in Troubled Mine

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, who has sought to cast himself as a champion of transparency, is facing accusations that his office is suppressing a report on a Bank-backed mining project in Africa that allegedly contributed to the deaths of dozens of people.

FINANCE: Donors Threaten Aid Cut After Hamas Win

International donors whose funds sustained the Palestinian Authority for much of its life, and who are now alarmed at the win of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, could cut off their aid, effectively threatening to bankrupt the future Hamas-led authority.

TRADE: Davos “Mini-Ministerial” Called Undemocratic

International advocacy groups are rallying against an elite trade meeting at a Swiss ski resort that they say will ignore the interests of most member countries of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

TRADE: Oman Pact Boosts US Agenda in the Middle East

The George W. Bush administration is pushing a spate of free trade agreements with its allies in the Middle East that mostly lack input from marginalised local communities or civil society groups.

DEVELOPMENT: Groups Worried About New US Aid Czar

The United States has unveiled a new plan for how it spends foreign aid dollars that links U.S. security to democracy and development overseas.

TRADE: Delays Hit US-Central America Pact

The growing unpopularity of a free trade model marketed by Washington and U.S. pressure on Central American countries to further open up their markets have delayed the implementation of a trade pact with those nations, watchdog groups say.

DEVELOPMENT: China, India Urged to Shun Western-Style Waste

The rising economic powers of India and China, and their appetite for raw materials, could pose the "gravest threats" to the world's ecological health if they fail to follow a conservation-based development model, warn two studies released here.

CHAD: Failed Oil Pact Casts Pall on Similar Projects

The World Bank's decision to suspend loans to Chad after the country said it would divert revenues from an oil project intended to alleviate poverty is a symbolic gesture that dodges meaningful action by the Bank in similar mining, oil and gas projects, watchdog groups say.

FINANCE: US Lawmakers Call Nigerian Debt “Odious”

Anti-debt campaigners and some U.S. lawmakers are joining forces to call on the George W. Bush administration to return debt arrears owed by Nigeria and to let the African nation spend the funds on health and education through a World Bank-sponsored fund.

FINANCE: Chad Dilutes Oil-For-Development Pledge

Tension is rising between the World Bank and the African nation of Chad, one of the world's poorest countries, over the latter's decision to seize funds from a controversial Bank-funded oil pipeline and not spend the money on social sectors.

RIGHTS: UN Agency Blamed for Sudanese Refugee Deaths

Arab and Middle East civil society groups are accusing a United Nations agency of collaborating with Egyptian police in action which caused the deaths of at least 25 Sudanese refugees in a downtown Cairo park on Friday.

RIGHTS: UN Agency Blamed for Sudanese Refugee Deaths

Arab and Middle East civil society groups are accusing a United Nations agency of collaborating with Egyptian police in action which caused the deaths of at least 25 Sudanese refugees in a downtown Cairo park on Friday.

FINANCE: IMF Debt Relief Welcomed as “First Step”

Nineteen of the world's poorest nations will get debt relief worth 3.3 billion dollars by early next year under a programme announced by wealthy nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Wednesday.

WTO-SPECIAL: Subsidies Concession Largely Symbolic, Groups Say

The final text salvaged from around-the-clock global trade talks here sets a deadline to end farm export subsidies by rich nations, a long-time demand by developing nations, but also binds poorer countries to more dramatically open their markets to multinational corporations.

WTO-SPECIAL: Modest Deal Offered to Poorest Nations

The world's least developed countries were handed a modest development package out of the tough global trade talks winding down here, but the offer is heavily qualified and some doubt that it will even dent the countries' sweeping poverty levels.

WTO-SPECIAL: Draft Text Is a Raw Deal, Activist Warns

World Trade Organisation (WTO) officials released a draft text Saturday of the meeting's final outcome pact, although disagreements among the group's 149 member countries - most sharply between the richest and poorest - could still scuttle the document.

WTO-SPECIAL: Young French Farmers Fight for Subsidies

Noëlle Poisson-Hedouin has been working 16 hours a day since she came here, all for one purpose: to stop delegates from 149 countries meeting at the World Trade Organisation ministerial conference from forcing France to cut its farm subsidies.
      She only has one more day to go to "success".

WTO-SPECIAL: Young French Farmers Fight for Subsidies

Noëlle Poisson-Hedouin has been working 16 hours a day since she came here on Monday, all for one purpose - to stop delegates from 149 countries meeting at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) from forcing France to cut its farm subsidies. She only has one more day to go to "success".