CONFLICT-ISRAEL: Arabs Persist in Request for UN Inquiry

Arab nations insist that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights call a special inquiry into abuses reportedly committed by Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian territories, even while the summit of heads of state at Sharm el- Sheikh, Egypt, reached a similar decision Tuesday.

AGRICULTURE: Cairns Leaders Launch European Offensive

The rural entrepreneurs of the Cairns Group member countries are joining their governments to form an anti- protectionist bloc, fighting for agricultural liberalisation in the talks underway at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

RIGHTS-ISRAEL: Arabs Ask UN for International Inquiry

The Arab states are pressing for the special session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to establish an international inquiry to sort out who is responsible for the violence occurring in the Palestinian territories and spreading throughout Israel.

RIGHTS-MIDDLE EAST: UN to Debate Outbreak of Palestinian-Israeli Violence

The explosion of violence in the Palestinian territories, which has meant at least 90 deaths in the last 12 days, will be the subject of debate in a Special Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

HEALTH: European Court Ruling Undercuts Anti-Smoking Efforts

The European Court of Justice ruling that overturns a European law banning tobacco advertising has cast a shadow on World Health Organisation (WHO) efforts to establish a framework convention to fight tobacco addiction.

RIGHTS: Geneva Protesters Denounce Repression in Prague

Swiss activists occupied International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters here Thursday to protest the abuses committed against the demonstrators who were arrested in Prague during last week's meeting of international financiers.

TRADE: Concentration Requires Regulation, Says UNCTAD

The boom in cross-border mergers and acquisitions that marks the current world economy harkens back to the process that radically transformed the industrial structure of the United States in the late 1800s, says a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report published Tuesday.

DEVELOPMENT: For Foreign Investors, Everything Has Its Price

The flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the role of transnational corporations in the globalisation process are advancing in size and scope, says the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in a report released Tuesday.

POLITICS-IRAQ/KUWAIT: UN Grants Huge Payout to Oil Company

The United Nations Compensation Commission has awarded reparations totalling 15.9 billion dollars to a Kuwaiti oil company for losses suffered as a result of Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the largest award granted by the Geneva-based commission since it was created nine years ago.

TRADE-ECUADOR: Bananas at Centre of New Claims against Europe

Ecuador, the world's leading banana producer, threatened to take new legal action against the European Union (EU) for its restrictive policy on the import and marketing this fruit, but this time with the added warning that it would seek financial reparations.

TRADE: Liberalisation Perseveres Without Multilateral Talks

The process of trade liberalisation and opening of markets forges ahead even though multilateral negotiations on the matter have been at a standstill since the failed World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference in late 1999.

DEVELOPMENT: The Era of Cheap Energy is Over, Says UNCTAD Chief

The rising price of oil, nearly four-fold in the last 20 months, marks the end of an era of extremely cheap energy, ventures the secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Rubens Ricupero.

HEALTH: World Polio Vaccine Supply is HIV-Free, Says WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) assures the poliomyelitis vaccines currently being used around the world are free of the virus that causes AIDS.

DISARMAMENT: UN Conference Minimises Import of US Missile Stance

The irreconcilable differences between the world's nuclear powers, for the third consecutive year, have frustrated the work of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, which was not able to establish an agenda of activities during this year's period of sessions now drawing to a close.

ENVIRONMENT: New Talks on Climate Change in the Works

An international conference on the mechanisms needed to reduce greenhouse gases, which cause global warming, is set to begin next week in the French city of Lyon, and the industrialised North will be the principal target of debate.

/MILLENNIUM SUMMIT/DEVELOPMENT: South Centre Rebukes Annan Report

An inter-governmental organisation of developing countries has denounced the Millennium Summit report by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, saying its analyses and prescriptions are too broadly attuned to the dominant views and interests of the industrialised North.

/MILLENNIUM SUMMIT/LABOUR: UN Initiative Takes Aim at Youth Unemployment

Today's younger generations face mounting challenges as high unemployment rates and an expanding informal labour sector paint gloomy portrait of the future, especially in the nations of the developing South.

RIGHTS: UN Steps up Fight to Defend Gypsy Rights

Discrimination against gypsies persists throughout Europe, thus governments must take steps to protect this minority against racial violence and to help improve their standard of living, say two United Nations human rights forums.

HEALTH: Malaria-Carrying Mosquitoes Travel by Airplane

Malaria, a mosquito-transmitted disease that afflicts the human populations of Africa and other developing regions, is also found near airports in industrialised countries as the disease-carrying insects find their way aboard commercial aircraft.

RIGHTS: Debate on Economic Sanctions Entangles UN Commission

Efforts made to limit the powers of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Human Rights have not produced the effects desired by some, and instead have led to resolutions critical of economic embargoes, prompting an angry reaction from the United States.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Globalisation’s Unfinished Business

A report commissioned by the United Nations emphasises that the time has come to establish guidelines for the human rights obligations of the primary agents behind the globalisation process.