Overseas news archive

02/05/2007 Ten years after international guidelines were established to stamp out the recruitment and use of child soldiers, under-age fighters are still actively being recruited in at least 13 countries, says a children's charity.

02/05/2007 The UN Population Fund renewed its call today for intensified global efforts to save the 3 million girls who still face the risk of female genital mutilation or cutting every year.

02/02/2007 It is not clear that the Bush Administration's proposed reform of the 2002 Farm Bill as a first step toward unlocking the paralysis in multilateral trade negotiations will significantly reduce export dumping or signify a meaningful shift in the US position at the WTO, a leading development group warned.

02/02/2007 The Thai government must lift the Emergency Decree which is in force over the southern provinces and which effectively legalises torture, according to an Asian rights group.

02/01/2007 An increasing number of bloggers and cyber-dissidents are in jail, with China, Vietnam, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Iran the worst offenders for imprisoning online government critics, according to an annual press freedom survey.

02/01/2007 A call has been made for the immediate release of Karim Amer, the first Egyptian blogger to be tried for writing blogs criticising Egypt's al-Azhar religious authorities, President Husni Mubarak and Islam.

02/01/2007 A promising trial of a drug aimed at preventing HIV transmission in women has been abandoned prematurely because of a high number of infections, a move described as a "disappointing and unexpected setback in the search for a safe and effective microbicide".