UNCTAD XII : Supachai pledges UNCTAD as voice of developing countries (PRIV)
(Martin Khor, Accra)
UNCTAD XII closed on 25 April on a rather upbeat note with the adoption of a brief political Accra Declaration and a detailed Accra Accord, which gives policy analysis on four sub-themes and directions for the work of UNCTAD in these areas for the next four years.

Trade : Rules Group takes up elements of fisheries subsidies disciplines (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Geneva)
An informal meeting of the WTO Negotiating Group on Rules on 24-25 April heard amongst others a proposal by Canada allowing members - both developed and developing alike - to support small-scale fishing, as well as a joint proposal by India and Indonesia that stressed the need for effective special and differential treatment for developing countries.

Health : Malaria campaigns ramp up focus on bed nets (PRIV)
(IPS, New York)
With a million people a year still dying from malaria, the United Nations is leading a new campaign to provide universal coverage of essential malaria control measures - particularly bed nets - in Africa by the end of 2010.

Agriculture : What is really causing "agflation"? (PRIV)
(IPS, Rio de Janeiro)
The old laws of the marketplace are no longer working. Food prices have been rising for six years because of surging demand, and increased production is not restoring the balance as it used to in the past. In fact, prices have been going up even faster over the last year.

Europe : Subsidies feeding food scarcity (PRIV)
(IPS, Berlin)
European subsidies for agriculture are contributing to rapidly rising food prices and the destruction of small-scale farming in the South, experts say.

Pakistan : New government needs aid, leeway to address terror front (PRIV)
(IPS, Washington)
With the intelligence community and Congressional investigators warning that the greatest threat to the United States is developing in the tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, appeals for the George W. Bush administration to reassess its "global war on terror" and Pakistan's place in it are growing.