Trade: WTO DG appears focused on "Plan B" declarations at MC12 (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
Amidst the unlikely prospects for conclud ing decisions on several major issues at the upcoming World Trade Organization' s 12th ministerial conference (MC12), the WTO Director-General, Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, appears to be working quietly on some "Plan B" declarations on issues such as a package of measures for graduating least-developed countri es and on food security, said people familiar with the development.

Labour: Call to freedom for millions of children trapped in child labour (PRIV)
(IPS, Nairobi)
Children washing clothes in ri vers, begging on the streets, hawking, walking for kilometres in search of water and firewood, their tiny hands competing with older, experienced hands to pick coffee or tea, or as child soldiers are familiar sights in Africa and Asia.

Venezuela: Mining destroys the lives of indigenous people (PRIV)
(IPS, Caracas)
The voracious search for gold in southern Venezuela, practised by thousands of illegal miners under the prot ection of various armed groups, represents the greatest threat today to the lives of indigenous peoples, their habitat and their cultures, according to their organizations and human rights defenders.