Global Partnerships

31.01.2006 International agency Oxfam has said that rich countries must change their attitude to world trade negotiations and show leadership to deliver reforms that lift people out of poverty. It wants the EU and US to stop making excuses for not reforming agricultural trade rules and to end their unreasonable demands for developing countries to open industry and services markets.

31.01.2006 The global community should intensify its efforts to protect the planet's threatened oceans and endangered coastal areas and communities, agreed environmental experts and senior officials gathered at a global conference in Paris hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

30.01.2006 Afghanistan will get firm assurances of international help in London this week and in return it will promise to push on with reforms and tackle corruption and its huge illegal drug trade. A two-day international meeting in London, beginning on Tuesday, is to launch a five-year blue print on development, peace and how best to confront the continuing attacks by government opponents in the impoverished country.

25.01.2006 With CIA missiles firing on Pakistani homes, and reports surfacing that the Taliban have taken over large tracts of the country's tribal zone, analysts of the war on terror here say Pakistan's military strategy is in need of a paradigm shift. Intelligence remains too weak, and even pitched battles flexing the military's muscle have shown little effect against an enemy that remains largely unknown, they say.

25.01.2006 Indian participation in the first two phases of the polycentric World Social Forum (WSF), which wound down in the Malian capital of Bamako on Monday and opened in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 24, is mainly from the WSF Indian Working Committee (IWC). Still hundreds of Indian students and grassroots activists from the women's, peasants' and trade union movements are preparing to travel to Karachi.

23.01.2006 Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is expected to visit India in the third week of March at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh. The talks are expected to cover the entire range of bilateral, regional and international issues.

20.01.2006 In another milestone in India-Pakistan relations, the first bus from Lahore to Amritsar arrived at the Wagah border on Friday. There were 39 passengers on board the bus connecting the two Punjabs. Among those on the bus were renowned Pakistani folk singer Reshma's seven-member troupe and three Indians who had gone to Lahore to watch the first Pakistan-India Test.

20.01.2006 A refined criteria regarding the future status of Afghans living in Pakistan is now under consideration, a new report by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said. The report comes after a census conducted in March 2005 revealed entirely different reasons for Afghans wishing to stay in the country than those of a refugee.

18.01.2006 The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture – sometimes called the ‘seed treaty’ – was adopted by UN Food and Agriculture (FAO) member states in 2001 and came into force in 2004. Governments that signed on are now working out implementation details. Far from its roots in the struggle to assert farmers’ rights as a counterforce to breeders’ rights, the Treaty has ended up being mainly about granting new privileges to industry. It will give seed companies free access to most of the world’s public genebanks without any obligation to share their own materials in return.

18.01.2006 After being grounded for three days, the UN on Wednesday resumed airborne relief operation in Pakistan's earthquake-hit areas where people are braving a cold snap in the harsh Himalayan winter.