Trade: WTO touts trade liberalization & globalization amid criticism (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
The World Trade Organization's director-general, Ms Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, on 9 September touted trade's "transformative role in reducing poverty and creating shared prosperity - c ontrary to the currently fashionable notion that trade, and institutions like the W TO, have not been good for poverty or for poor countries, and are creating a more un equal world."

UN: "Human rights are our mainstay against unbridled power" (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Penang)
"It seems to me we are at a fork in the roa d. We can either continue on our current path - a treacherous "new normal" - and sleepwalk into a dystopian future. Or we can wake up and turn things around for the better, for humanity and the planet," according to the United Nations H igh Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Volker Turk.

Afghanistan: Advance human rights or spiral deeper into failure, says Turk (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Penang)
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Volker Turk, has called on Afghanistan to deliver on the hopes and right s of its people, and to uphold the equality of women and men.