U.S.: 2011 Foreign Aid Cuts Not as Great as Feared

While the State Department's overall 2011 international affairs budget was cut sharply from President Barack Obama's initial request, humanitarian and development groups are expressing some relief at the final result given the current political climate.

U.N. Chief Proposes Budget-Cutting Austerity Drive

Armed with a sharp knife, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is on an austerity drive seeking deep cuts, amounting to about 155 million dollars, in the U.N.'s 2012-2013 budget, which comes into effect next January.

Agencies Grappling With Liberia Refugee Crisis

The yard at Peter Saye's is full: of kids, of cooking pots, of chickens, goats, and piles of belongings. Women carry firewood and stir coals, plait hair and snap at the children scampering around in the dust. There are nearly 100 refugees sheltering here from the violence across the border in Côte d'Ivoire.

U.N. Staff Killed in Afghanistan Quran Protests

Afghan officials say at least 11 people have been killed at a United Nations operational centre in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif when protests over the burning of the Quran by an American preacher turned violent.

Women Turn Spotlight on Haiti’s Silent Rape Epidemic

Some 14 months after Haiti's earthquake, activists say there is an ongoing epidemic of rape and gender-based violence (GBV) in the country's more than 1,000 squalid displaced persons camps, where nearly a million people are still awaiting permanent housing.

LIBERIA-COTE D’IVOIRE: Border Villages Sharing the Little They Have

This Butuo man only knows one phrase in French: Viens manger. Come eat. That's what they said to him years ago, when he was one of hundreds of thousands who fled to Côte d'Ivoire to escape the brutal 14-year civil war in Liberia.

U.N. Body Authorises Military Intervention in Libya

As Libyan leader Muammar el-Gaddafi's fighter planes and helicopters continue to mercilessly pound civilians and rebel groups inside Libya, the U.N.'s most powerful political body voted to militarily intervene in the besieged North African country in an attempt to prevent and neutralise the attacks.

Japan Nuke Disaster Could Be Worse Than Chernobyl

A global nuclear disaster potentially worse than Chernobyl may be under way in Japan as hundreds of tonnes of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel are open to the sky, and may be on fire and emitting radioactive particles into the atmosphere.

BANGLADESH-LIBYA: Garment Industry Pledges to Employ Evacuated Labourers

Bangladesh's garment factories and overseas recruiting agencies have pledged to employ a substantial number of Bangladeshi expatriates returning from politically volatile Libya, following the violent crackdown on opposition forces by Muammar Gaddafi's regime there.

Japan Races to Cool Stricken Reactors

Workers battling to contain the crisis at Japan's quake- stricken Fukushima nuclear plant were briefly moved to a bunker because of a rise in radiation levels, local media have reported.

Aid Agencies Rush to Japan’s Humanitarian Front

Day five of Japan's post-earthquake, post-tsunami life dawned dismally Tuesday, with soaring radiation levels from the Fukushima Daiichi power plants and a relentlessly rising death toll in the four worst-affected prefectures.

U.S. Nuke Plant Safety Questioned in Wake of Japanese Disaster

As Japan continues to battle the threat of nuclear meltdown in the wake of Friday's devastating earthquake, lawmakers, environmental activists and the nuclear industry in the United States are squaring up for a heated contest over the future of atomic energy in this country.

Second Blast at Japan Nuclear Plant

A second explosion has rocked Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex, sending a plume of smoke into the air and touching off fresh concerns of a radioactive leak in the quake and tsunami-hit country.

Q&A: Needing Surgery Shouldn’t Be a Death Sentence

Surgery saves the lives of millions of people around the world, but only a tiny percentage of them live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where a shortage of skills, supplies and infrastructure can turn easily treatable accidents and illnesses into lifelong disabilities and even death.

MAGHREB: For Migrants, Crisis Worsens Economic Situation At Home

The mass exodus of immigrant workers from Libya is aggravating the social and economic situation in the migrants' home nations - from Sudan and Chad in sub-Saharan Africa, to Bangladesh in Asia - according to labour and economic experts.

LIBYA: Aid Groups Struggle with Rising Tide of Refugees

The international community is ramping up efforts to alleviate the growing humanitarian crisis in Libya, which has affected over 200,000 people since the Muammar Gaddafi regime first began a violent crackdown on opposition forces some three weeks ago.

Growing Humanitarian Crisis in Cote D’Ivoire

The U.N. has announced that some 200,000 people have already fled the Abobo neighbourhood, in the north of Abidjan. Each morning for a week now, luggage on their backs, bundles on their heads, the sick riding in wheelbarrows, new borns cradled in their arms, thousands of people have fled Abobo on foot.

LIBYA: Thousands of Foreign Labourers Trapped in Turmoil

As violent unrest continues unabated in Libya, with the potential to descend into what U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called a "protracted civil war" in statements to lawmakers here this week, international rights groups are raising the alarm over the resulting humanitarian crisis and the particularly desperate plight of stranded immigrant labourers.

Pregnancies Don’t Wait for Emergencies to End

When disaster strikes, the initial humanitarian response tends to focus on basic commodities like food and shelter. But as the crisis or conflict drags on, other critical needs often go unmet – such as prenatal care for pregnant women, and emergency contraception for victims of sexual assault.

Great Green Wall to Stop Sahel Desertification

Imagine a green wall - 15 kilometres wide, and up to 8,000 kilometres long - a living green wall of trees and bushes, full of birds and other animals. Imagine it just south of the Sahara, from Djibouti in the Horn of Africa in the east, all the way across the continent to Dakar, Senegal, in the west.

US-SUDAN: Priorities Shift to Mounting Violence in Darfur

As peace negotiations over Sudan's Darfur region come to a close in Doha, Qatar and a number of issues related to last month's referendum remain unresolved, several Washington-based advocacy groups have warned against the pitfalls of losing focus on a comprehensive peace agreement for Darfur.