| |  | |  Host Brazil eyes global consensus at Rio+20 Rich and poor countries must unite at the upcoming Rio+20 conference to promote sustainable development in an effort not only to protect the environment, but the global economy, said Andre Correa do Lago, chief negotiator for Brazil. While the summit will primarily attract leaders of government and business, he said, "the average citizen [should] realize that all the options of consumers have an impact on sustainable development ... the cars they buy, the trip they make, how they heat water in their homes." Google/Agence France-Presse (4/11)     
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|  | "Syrian troops shelled and raided opposition strongholds nationwide on Tuesday, activists said, prompting an urgent appeal by international envoy Kofi Annan to the Syrian regime to halt violence and give his truce plan a chance. The main Syrian opposition group estimated that some 1,000 people have been killed in regime attacks in the week leading up to Tuesday's withdrawal deadline. Tuesday's fighting claimed the lives of at least 29 civilians and 11 regime soldiers, activists said." UN Dispatch | |
- Rwandan genocide remembered, mourned at UN
Top United Nations diplomats on Wednesday gathered to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the 100 days of genocide in Rwanda during which more than 500,000 minority Tutsis, and some members of the Hutu majority, were killed by Hutu extremists. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said that the world body's failure to intervene inflicted "an enormous blow to its credibility and effectiveness," especially since the UN was established in the wake of another genocide, the Holocaust. Five white candles were lit in memory of the Rwandan dead following a minute of silence. The Washington Post/The Associated Press (4/11) - Sudan border clashes intensify, alarming UN
 Concern was growing that fighting over oilfields along disputed border regions between Sudan and South Sudan, most notably the town of Heglig, could reignite outright war. Sudan broke off peace talks on Wednesday, and earlier today reportedly bombed a strategic bridge outside the major South Sudanese town of Beintu, close to a United Nations compound. BBC (4/11), Al-Jazeera (4/12), The Wall Street Journal (4/11) - Bangladeshi women lead development
Over the past two years some 25,000 women across Bangladesh have become micro-entrepreneurs -- fishing, making compost, trading firewood -- through a development project financed by the European Union and the UN Development Program aimed at reducing poverty, illiteracy and infant mortality while raising life expectancy and slowing population growth. The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (4/9) - Communal cookstove transforming Kenyan slum
An award-winning cookstove devised by local artisans in Nairobi, Kenya, and financed by the UN Environment Program is helping rid the sprawling Kibera slum of trash while reducing the need for charcoal and firewood. "Given the high cost of fuel wood, and the fact that trees are increasingly scarce, it would mean a sustainable source of fuel on the threshold of every low-income community on Earth," said Jim Archer, head of the architectural firm, Planning Systems Services Ltd. AlertNet (4/10) - Thousands of Uzbek women secretly sterilized
Evidence gathered by the BBC shows that, for at least the past two years, the government of Uzbekistan has been ordering physicians to secretly sterilize tens of thousands of women, often without their knowledge. "Every year we are presented with a plan. Every doctor is told how many women we are expected to give contraception to, how many women are to be sterilized," said a gynecologist from the capital, Tashkent. "There is a quota. My quota is four women a month." BBC (4/11) - Major damage "highly likely" from Arctic drilling
Companies should think carefully about the consequences of their projected $100 billion in investment in oil projects in the Arctic, as the likely damage to the environment -- not one, but several highly sensitive ecosystems -- is huge, warns the world's biggest insurer, Lloyd's of London, the first major business to raise its voice over what it calls "a unique and hard-to-manage risk." The Guardian (London) (4/11) - Tenuous truce reportedly takes hold in Syria
A UN-brokered ceasefire appeared to be holding early Thursday in Syria. Still, reports of sporadic army attacks on civilians were being reported across the country as negotiations stalled over deployment of UN observers to monitor compliance with the six-point peace plan put forth by UN-African Union envoy, Kofi Annan. BBC (4/12), Google/The Associated Press (4/12) - UN, African armies mobilize to track down Kony
The United Nations is teaming up with central African armies to intensify patrols of areas affected by the Lord's Resistance Army in an effort to capture its leader, Joseph Kony, and allow an estimated 465,000 displaced persons -- some 347,000 of whom are in the Orientale province of the Democratic Republic of Congo -- to return home. Villagers across the region are struggling with the emotional and physical scars of nearly three decades of abuses by the militia. The Washington Post (4/11), AllAfrica Global Media/The New Vision (4/12), BBC (4/9)
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