World Health Assembly (Photo: WHO)

Sources: AP, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, TWN. 

The Sixty-fourth World Health Assembly will discuss this Thursday in Geneva, for the fifth time, the destruction of the remaining smallpox virus samples that U.S. and Russia keep alive arguing they will be necessary in case of a breakout or a "bioterrorist attack". The Third World Network  is lobbying for the destruction, while Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that "the chance of an outbreak is reasonably low,  but not zero".

Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League

A hundred civil society organisations from 17 arab countries condemned this Sunday, in an open letter to the Arab League and to the heads of government of the region, the killing of over 800 peaceful demonstrators and the arrest of 9,000 in 16 Syrian cities since the 15th. March. The also urged the League "to show consistent [...] leadership in dealing with the situation in Syria".

Plenary of UNLDC-IV (Photo: UN)

Sources: Inside reporting - IPS

The LDC Civil Society Forum Istanbul Declaration

The Fourth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV) finished this week in Istanbul with the approval of a plan of action that “has no teeth and appears to have left the people living in the LDCs in a worse position than before”, said Arjun Karki, international coordinator of LDC Watch and spokesperson of the Civil Society Forum of the meeting. 

Source: The Star

The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP, a national focal point of Social Watch) revealed that Malaysian households are spending about half of their income to pay off their debts, reported journalist Josephine Jalleh in a report published by The Star daily journal.

Arjun Karki in front of the plenary. (Photo: LDC Watch)

Source: LDC Watch

The fact “that poor and marginalised people in LDCs have gained little from the past decade” is a “bitter reality” that made the civil society work on its “own programmes for action beyond” the United Nations Fourth Conference on Least Developed Contries (UNLDC-IV), said Arjun Karki, international coordinator of LDC Watch.