World Politics News

YANGON, Myanmar - The United Nations said Friday that severe restrictions by Myanmar's military junta have left aid agencies largely in the dark about the extent of survivors' suffering, two weeks after a killer cyclone left up to 2.5 million people destitute.

ANKARA (AFP) - Queen Elizabeth II on Friday wrapped up a four-day state visit to Turkey that aimed to stress Britain's support for the mainly Muslim country's EU membership prospects.

LIMA (Reuters) - Political differences loomed over a summit of European and Latin American leaders in Peru on Friday, threatening to undermine their efforts to fight poverty and global warming.

UNITED NATIONS - The world economy is "teetering on the brink" of a severe downturn and is expected to grow only 1.8 percent in 2008, the United Nations said in its mid-year economic projections Thursday.

LIMA (AFP) - Lingering disputes and personality clashes were expected to add friction to a Latin America-European Union summit in Peru Friday that is aimed at addressing climate change and poverty.

UNITED NATIONS - The Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Thursday calling for a U.N. political presence in conflict-wracked Somalia for the first time in years and setting conditions for the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - The United Nations said Thursday it had evacuated 250 civilian staff from the town of Abyei following three days of clashes in the oil-rich region between Sudan's army and former southern rebels.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Thursday that opens the door to a stronger U.N. presence in Somalia and possible deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in the lawless Horn of Africa country.

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations wants to send its top emergency relief coordinator to Myanmar — if he can get a visa from the ruling military junta.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's growing clout as a major oil producer should help persuade the European Union to deepen its trade to the country, Trade Minister David Emerson said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is considering allowing Japan to sell imported US rice on the global market, blocked by their bilateral agreement under the WTO, in an effort to curb soaring prices, a US trade official told AFP Thursday.

KHARTOUM (AFP) - The UN said on Thursday it had airlifted more than 250 civilian staff from Sudan's flashpoint town of Abyei, where thousands of Sudanese are believed to have fled clashes in the contested oil region.

BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia (AFP) - EU and US officials launched a second stage of talks Thursday aimed at improving transatlantic air travel, with the US team warning they could drag on into the next decade.

LIMA, Peru - European and Latin American leaders gathering for their fifth summit in a decade this week plan to tackle climate change, high food prices and poverty.

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government said on Thursday its cyclone relief effort was moving along swiftly even as foreign powers warned of starvation and disease among up to 2.5 million people left destitute by the storm.

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. peacekeeping chief warned Wednesday of an alarming increase in violence in Darfur that has spread to the Sudanese capital and could escalate further.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - China has been slow in meeting commitments it made when joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) more than six years ago, according to a US Congress-commissioned report Wednesday.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - The United Nations is investigating allegations that its peacekeepers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo committed sexual abuses, which aid workers said involved paying children for sex.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Japan was urged by friends and critics in the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday to abolish the death penalty and take concrete steps to settle the long-standing issue of wartime "comfort women."

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Wednesday condemned the resumption of judicial executions in the United States and said abolishing capital punishment was fundamental to protecting human dignity and furthering human rights.

UNITED NATIONS - Two natural disasters in tightly controlled Asian nations this month have produced two very different responses: Myanmar's very slow reaction to Cyclone Nargis and China's speedy response to a killer earthquake.

CANBERRA, Australia - Australia's new government won praise from the United Nations and human rights groups Wednesday for offering refugees permanent sanctuary rather than temporary visas.

YANGON (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon Wednesday called an emergency meeting on Myanmar's aid crisis, as the junta refused to open up to a full-scale relief effort despite grave fears for two million survivors.

BELGRADE (AFP) - Serbia's pro-Europeans and the socialists of late president Slobodan Milosevic are "very close" to agreeing on a government after last weekend's elections, the daily Blic reported Wednesday.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday strongly condemned an attack by Darfur rebels against Sudan's capital, but warned Khartoum not to retaliate against civilians.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States proposed a deal on Tuesday to sweep away a global "spider's web" of airline ownership rules, taking the EU by surprise as it seeks a transatlantic deal for its airlines to buy their U.S. rivals.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana says officials must use all diplomatic means to convince Myanmar's military leaders to let in more emergency aid to cyclone victims.

GENEVA - China must address a widening gap between its rich and poor if Beijing wants a "harmonious society," the World Trade Organization will report in a trade review of the Asian nation, according to a copy obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon called Monday for global leadership against the global food crisis as a United Nations task force met for the first time to design an action plan to curb soaring prices.