News headlines in March 2011

As forces loyal to Ivorian President-elect Alassane Ouattara closed in on Abidjan Thursday, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called for the incumbent president, Laurent Gbabgo, to immediately step down.

A new report by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released Thursday found progress in combating HIV/AIDS worldwide to be promising, yet inadequate to meet the needs of the 33.3 million people estimated to be living with HIV in 2009.

Bahrain is considering slashing or putting on hold levies on businesses to help them cope with the deteriorating economy, with losses topping an estimated 500 million dollars since the beginning of unrest here in February.

In a rare and timely collaboration, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) teamed up with the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to produce a report on the urgent need for developing nations to pour effort and resources into their so-called creative economies.

French economist Esther Duflo thinks poverty can be alleviated or even eradicated with the right policies. All it takes is for politicians to 'translate research into action,' implementing programmes that have been shown to work.

Governments, environmentalists and private companies have just under four years to establish joint management of 43 protected areas on Argentina’s Atlantic coast, one of the world’s most productive and best preserved biomes.

The Israeli government has warned the U.N. Security Council and the EU that it will resort to unilateral countermeasures if the international community recognises Palestine as an independent state at the General Assembly session next September.

While Swaziland struggles to alleviate its fiscal crisis with foreign aid because of its World Bank classification as a lower middle-income country, the government has increased the budget for King Mswati III, Africa’s last remaining absolute monarch and one of the richest royals in the world.

As authorities struggle to control dangerous radioactive material spilling from the quake ravaged Fukushima nuclear power reactors, a more difficult question has begun to unsettle Japan - is the country’s post-war prosperity as invincible as was believed till now?

The annual Critical Observatory Social Forum discussed the need for new spaces of dialogue, debate and participation in Cuba, including the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and decentralisation to empower local communities.