WTO’s future in doubt after India blocks trade deal
The future of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been thrown into doubt after eleventh-hour attempts to salvage a global trade deal collapsed.
Talks broke down after India’s refusal to back a deal unless it included concessions allowing developing countries freedom to subsidise and stockpile food.
An agreement on the deal, centred on loosening global customs rules, had been reached in Bali in December, with a deadline of midnight on Thursday to ratify it. But it was scuppered after the WTO’s 160 members failed to reach agreement over India’s demands.
Landslide buries Indian village; at least 25 dead
Rescue workers and desperate villagers dug through deep mud, rocks and the debris of shattered homes Thursday after a massive landslide buried a remote village in western India, killing at least 25 people and trapping more than 150, authorities said.
Two days of torrential rains triggered the landslide early Wednesday, but national rescue personnel could not reach the stricken area in Pune district of Maharashtra state for several hours because of bad communications, dangerous roads and debris.
Rain was still hampering th...
Rain was still hampering th...
Israeli soldier of Indian origin dies in combat
Thousands of people took part in the funeral of a 27-year-old Israeli soldier of Indian origin, killed after being hit by a mortar shell near the Gaza Strip border while Israel was holding fire under a U.N.-brokered humanitarian truce.
Barak Refael Degorker, killed on Saturday night, was laid to rest Monday in a military cemetery in his hometown of Gan Yavne.
The bereaved family – parents Ora and Moshe, two younger brothers and a sister – were inconsolable at their loss. They spoke about a “ki...
The bereaved family – parents Ora and Moshe, two younger brothers and a sister – were inconsolable at their loss. They spoke about a “ki...
Gaza assault to control Palestinian gas, avert Israeli energy crisis
Yesterday, Israeli defence minister and former Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon announced that Operation Protective Edge marks the beginning of a protracted assault on Hamas. The operation “won’t end in just a few days,” he said, adding that “we are preparing to expand the operation by all means standing at our disposal so as to continue striking Hamas.”
This morning, he said:
“We continue with strikes that draw a very heavy price from Hamas. We are destroying weapons, terror infrastructures, command and control systems, Hamas institutions, regime buildings, the houses of terrorists, and killing terrorists of various ranks of command… The campaign against Hamas will expand in the coming days, and the price the organization will pay will be very heavy.”
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India tops in South Asia’s human trafficking: UN official
India has emerged as the top destination for human trafficking in South Asia, a top UN official has said.
South Asia representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Cristina Albertine, said that a majority of the victims are from Bangladesh and Nepal.
“India is a top destination for human trafficking in South Asia. People are trafficked from Nepal, the Gulf, Bangladesh and so on.” Albertine told IANS in an interview at the UNODC office.
Albertine said that there is no exact figure o...
Albertine said that there is no exact figure o...
Brazil condemns Israel pulling out ambassador from Tel Aviv
In a statement on Wednesday, Brazil condemned what it said was a “disproportionate use of force” by Israel in its Gaza Strip offensive by pulling out its ambassador from Tel Aviv for “consultation.” The country is the second country to recall its ambassador from Israel; Ecuador did so earlier in the week.
At first, the official reaction from Israel appeared sanguine. “Brazil is a friend, but we think its position is not balanced,” Israel’s general consul in São Paulo, Yoel Barnea, said according to the Wall Street Journal, adding that Israel should have a right to defend itself from the thousands of missiles being fired at it by Hamas and other Palestinian groups.
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