Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Photo: UN

Sources: “Major Salvaging Needed for LDC IV in Istanbul”, by Anwarul k. Chowdhury: http://bit.ly/iUGLfA

More than forty heads of government and high officers representing 48 countries with a population of 880 million people. A week of discussion. One official meeting and three parallel forums arranged for civil society, the business sector and the parlamentarians. But the week-long fourth Conference on the Least Developed Countries (UNLDC IV) that will begin this Monday in Istanbul “does not promising at all”, according to Bangladeshi ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former UN Under-Secretary-General.

Espace associatif

Source: “Le Matin”, Moroccan newspaper

The main francophone Moroccan newspaper, Le Matin, expressed its support to the consultation process launched by the Associative Space, focal group of Social Watch in that country, towards the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (“Río + 20”), to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012, the same as the long remembered 1992 Earth Summit. Furthermore, the process reflects the current approach of Social Watch to sustainable development issues, on which its next annual report will be focused. 

Photo: Deb Ransom, Canada government

A recent report coordinated by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) highlights the sharp decrease in support for women’s issues under the Stephen Harper government, whose Conservative Party's won its first legislative majority since 1988 on Monday, assuring his re-election.

Bahraini Ministers reporting to the press. (Photo: BNA)

The Bahraini Military Public Prosecution is accusing 24 doctors and 23 nurses, paramedics and administrators who attended victims of the security forces “for their involvement in the recent deplorable unrest”, said the Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowment Minister, Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al-Khalifa, on Tuesday.

Gustave Assah

Africa lacks adequate development monitoring and reporting mechanisms, as is shown in the “imbalance” between the usual indexes and the reality, warned the Civic Commission for Africa (C-CfA), representative regional coalition of civil society organisations, at the third TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development) Ministerial Follow-Up Meeting, which was held this Sunday and Monday in Senegal.