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Business, Economics, Education, Entrepreneurs,
Environment, Science and Technology
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World Bank Press Review
UN Responds To Record Number Of Emergencies In The Americas In 2007
African Nations Try To Improve Air Safety
Aid Losing To Hunger In Darfur, UN Reports
India APEC Membership May Be Years Away - Director
Indonesian President calls for more trees in wake of landslides.
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UN Responds To Record Number Of Emergencies In The Americas In 2007.
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"The UN sent a record number of disaster assessment teams to emergencies in the Americas in 2007, offering a potential glimpse at the future of climate change, UN humanitarian officials said Wednesday.
Nine of the 14 teams dispatched this year by the UN went to Central and South America, the highest number in history, including the first ever to Mexico, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)...
This year, UN teams were sent to Mexico, Uruguay and Bolivia twice to deal with severe floods. Teams were also dispatched to the Dominican Republic following Tropical Storm Noel, Honduras after Hurricane Felix, Belize and Jamaica after Hurricane Dean, and Peru following an earthquake in August, OCHA said.
The five other UN teams went to Madagascar, Pakistan, and Ghana in response to floods, the Solomon Islands following an earthquake and tsunami in April, and Laos to help the country's disaster preparedness efforts, OCHA said. ..." [The Associated Press/Factiva]
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African Nations Try To Improve Air Safety.
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"African countries grappling with dangerous airplanes and lax aviation rules are banding together to improve air safety. Passengers flying in Africa are roughly 75 times more likely to die in a crash than fliers in North America. ...
As a result, several African countries are cooperating to boost their aviation industries. Kenya and four neighbors are establishing a common aviation-oversight body. In a separate initiative, seven West African countries are pooling scarce air-regulation resources through the Banjul Accord Group. Three other groups of nations in central and southern Africa are following these leads and starting to coordinate aviation oversight. ...
Aviation specialists from the UN, World Bank, the US and the EU are endorsing the cooperative approach and providing funding, training and model texts of aviation regulations that meet global standards. ...The reward for safer aviation isn't only protecting lives. African states are banking on big economic returns through commerce, tourism and foreign investment. ...
African officials say they have learned from past failures. ...Kenya is one of five countries contributing technical and flight-operations staff to East Africa's new Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency. Each partner will pay fees to handle specific tasks performed by the agency. Officials' hope this can help offset the exodus of trained inspectors and other aviation experts from Africa. ..." [The Wall Street Journal/Factiva]
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Aid Losing To Hunger In Darfur, UN Reports.
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"Child malnutrition rates have increased sharply in Darfur, even though it is home to the world's largest aid operation, according to a new UN report.
The report showed that 16.1 percent of children affected by the conflict in Darfur...are acutely malnourished, compared with 12.9 percent last year. For the first time since 2004, the malnutrition rate, a gauge of the population's overall distress, has crossed what UN officials consider to be the emergency threshold. ...Malnutrition was highest among young children, between 6 months and 29 months old, and in the North Darfur state, which is sparsely populated and very dry.
But the report was not all bad news. It highlighted improvements in access to clean water and more people using latrines. And the rate of severe malnutrition - the worst cases - remained the same as last year at 1.9 percent. [The International Herald Tribune]
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India APEC Membership May Be Years Away - Director.
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"India is increasingly important to Asia and the Pacific, but its membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)...is likely to still be years away, APEC's Executive Director said on Wednesday. ...
'You cannot talk about trade in Asia-Pacific if you do not talk about India,' Juan Capunay... told Reuters in an interview at the group's Singapore headquarters. While Indian membership would be 'convenient' for APEC, it 'will have to negotiate membership according to World Trade Organization regulations' and gain consensus support from existing members, a process that would likely take several years and also depend on Doha global trade talks, Capunay said. ...
APEC does not intend to approve any new members until 2010, with membership becoming effective the next year. ...Any new Asian member should be matched with one from Latin America, he said.... adding that the consensus among Peru and some other nations was to admit Colombia. ...
APEC is not just about lowering trade barriers, Capunay said. It exists to push sustainable development as well, and under Peru's leadership he wants to do more in social areas such as education and to aid small and medium enterprises. ..." [Reuters/Factiva]
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Indonesian President calls for more trees in wake of landslides.
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"The Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, urged the mass planting of trees throughout Indonesia as rescuers yesterday dug with their hands through mud for survivors...Dr Yudhoyono called on organisations and regional governments to plant trees in unplanted areas to prevent disasters such as flash floods and landslides and to "save the earth from global warming"." [Sydney Morning Herald]
"Rescuers pulled corpses from the mud in villages devastated by landslides and floods in western Indonesia, as wailing relatives watched in horror Thursday. At least 87 were killed or feared dead and tens of thousands forced from their homes, an official said. Days of torrential rain sent mud crashing down into villages in hilly districts of Java island, and 24 hours later authorities were still struggling to get backhoes and diggers past blocked roads." [Associated Press]
"Environmental groups renewed calls for the Indonesian Government to improve its record on protecting the environment. Farah Sofa, deputy director of Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) said Dr Yudhoyono should impose a moratorium on logging, order the rehabilitation and ecological recovery of water catchment areas and ensure that vulnerable areas such as mountainous slopes near populated areas are protected. Walhi says that 3.8 million hectares of forest is cleared in Indonesia each year, six times the rate of forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon. "If substantive action is not taken Indonesia will continue to be hit by disasters," Mrs Sofa said." [The Age]
However, "In Central Java, officials insisted deforestation was not to blame."The hills are unstable and vulnerable to landslides anyway," said district disaster management centre head Mubadi." [Agence France Presse]
"Greg Clough from the Jakarta-based Centre for International Forestry Research said the scientific community was divided on the question of whether deforestation leads to floods that cause landslides. "There is no simple explanation," Mr Clough said. "Blaming upland farmers for massive downstream flooding can cause unnecessary suffering through policies that restrict their livelihoods."" [The Age]
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Also In This Edition; Briefly Noted...
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The International Energy Agency has started work on a new study to be published next year that will rework its long-term projections for global oil reserves. [The Financial Times (UK)]
The World Bank has recommended Nigerian Osun State University (UNIOSUN) multi-campus experiment as a model to be studied and recommended for adoption in other African countries. [This Day/All Africa/Factiva]
China promised Wednesday to develop renewable energy for its fast-growing economy but warned that coal consumption will grow dramatically and avoided embracing binding limits on its greenhouse gas emissions. [The Associated Press/Factiva]
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda aims to improve ties during a trip to China beginning on Thursday. The focus is expected to be on economic and environmental cooperation, including transfers of Japan's waste-cutting, energy-saving and low-pollution technology, during Fukuda's four-day trip. [Reuters/Factiva]
Japan will propose talks on steps to ensure water supplies and basic sanitation in developing countries at the upcoming G8 summit to be hosted by the country, government officials said Wednesday. [Jiji Press (Japan)/Factiva]
Singapore-based businesses in Estonia will no longer be double taxed following the ratification of the Singapore-Estonia avoidance of double-taxation agreement on Thursday. The agreement, which was signed at last year's International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meeting held in Singapore, specifies the taxing rights of Singapore and Estonia on all types of income earned from January 1 2008. [TODAY (Singapore)/Factiva]
The Joint Review Mission of the World Bank will visit Karnataka next month to review the implementation of the Bank-aided Technical Education Quality Improvement Project. Officials of the Technical Education Department told The Hindu that the Bank's team would evaluate the execution of the project for three days from January 28. [The Hindu/Factiva]
The worldwide Initial Public Offering (IPO) activity raised a record capital of $255 billion till November in 2007, including $8.3 billion on the Indian bourses, according to data compiled by international consultancy firm Ernst and Young. India was the fifth largest market in terms of number of IPOs and seventh largest in terms of the proceeds for the year, E&Y said. [Press Trust of India]
Serbia on Wednesday adopted its 2008 budget with a deficit equal to 0.5 percent of GDP and keeps state spending high despite central bank and International Monetary Fund's advice for a tighter fiscal stance. The $12 billion budget, 9.9 percent higher than in 2007, was backed by 132 deputies in the 250-seat parliament. [Reuters/Factiva]
Poor households in Morocco are better off in larger urban and/or prosperous communities that offer more opportunities and services, according to the main findings of a study conducted by a Moroccan research team and published on the website of the World Bank. The ability of households to diversify income sources depends largely on the range of economic opportunities in their community, and this appears to be related to the size of communities, as well as to relatively better infrastructure and services according to the study. [Liberation (Morocco)/Factiva]
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