| |  | |  Maternal health is a priority for UN population chief In a far-ranging interview, Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the UN Population Fund, discusses approaches to sexual, reproductive and maternal health, as well as hot-button issues such as population growth. "The unmet need for voluntary family planning remains appallingly high, considering that 215 million women in developing countries still lacking access," he said. "The gap between this unmet need and the amount of money available for family planning must be bridged, starting with those in most need -- the rural and urban poor, and also young people, upon whom our future rests." Forbes (12/8)     
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|  | "It's a good time to be a global health enthusiast and a film lover. And that's not only because of the release of 'Contagion' -- the critically acclaimed Hollywood blockbuster about infectious disease -- earlier this year. Though 'Contagion' was probably the most high-profile global health film this year, several other global health-focused films were either released in 2011 or featured at film festivals or special screenings." UN Dispatch | |
- UN chief visits Somalia
For the first time in nearly 20 years, a UN secretary-general is visiting Somalia. Ban Ki-moon today pledged to open as early as next month a UN political office in capital, Mogadishu, where government and African Union troops have pushed out Islamist rebels. Reuters (12/9) - UN panel is convened on anti-gay violence
Gay rights activists from the U.S., as well as Africa, Asia and the Middle East, told a UN panel Thursday that gay rights are a human right that must be respected by governments across the world. Homophobic bullying is "a moral outrage, a grave violation of human rights and a public health crisis," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, weeks before the world body is slated to publish a study on discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Boston Globe/The Associated Press (tiered subscription model) (12/8) - India conducts first "caste census" in 80 years
For the first time in 80 years India, in conducting a census according to the Hindu caste system as part of its efforts to engineer development for its underclass through a massive and complex affirmative-action program. The number of groups on the country's official list of "backward classes" has doubled to 2,251 since 1993, making more and more people eligible for various government benefits and job quotas, possibly even in the private sector. The Wall Street Journal (12/9) - Climate "road map" stalls in Durban
The world's three biggest polluters, China, the U.S. and India, were holding back support for a "road map" proposed by the European Union that would deliver the next global climate treaty even as, for the first time ever, developed and developing countries joined together to back such a plan. At least 120 countries -- led by Brazil, Japan, Canada, as well as many African countries -- support the proposal, under which all major polluters would negotiate a new pact in 2015 that would cut emissions after 2020. Bloomberg Businessweek (12/9), The Guardian (London) (12/8) - Carbon market is likely to survive climate talks
Countries might not agree to new targets for cuts of carbon emissions at UN-sponsored climate talks in Durban, South Africa, but the world body's carbon-offset market, the Clean Development Mechanism, is likely to soldier on, according to this article. Bloomberg (12/9) - Innovation is a key driver of warming response
 The race to develop green technologies -- China reportedly invested $54 billion in low carbon energy technology in 2010, and the U.S. invested $34 billion -- is likely to accomplish what negotiators at UN climate talks cannot. "There is an informal green technology race, led by China, that may in the end be even more successful than that formal deal," said Jo Leinen, the lawmaker leading the European Parliament's delegation to the talks in the South African port city of Durban. Reuters (12/9)  | - One-time CIA prison is found in Romania
A joint investigation by The Associated Press and German public television, ARD Panorama, has located a former CIA prison in Romania where some of the agency's most important terrorist suspects were held and where harsh interrogation techniques were employed. The prison -- part of a network of so-called black sites operated by the CIA until 2006 -- is in the basement of a building on a leafy residential street, beside busy railroad tracks, in the capital, Bucharest. The Associated Press (12/8) - CIA drones are under fire as Iranians flaunt downed craft
Human rights groups are preparing legal challenges to the Central Intelligence Agency's drone program in Pakistan, Europe and the U.S. that will accuse the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan of being a co-conspirator in the two deaths, and pressure European governments to explain their roles in providing intelligence that reportedly has been used in drone strikes. Iran displayed images on state television of a downed CIA stealth drone it claimed to have shot down. The Wall Street Journal (12/9)
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The chief climate negotiator for the U.S. appeared Thursday to shift his position on a timetable for future climate talks, endorsing a European Union proposal that would adopt a "road map" culminating by 2015 with a formal treaty to take effect in 2020. 
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