WTO : DG convenes TNC meeting to break "grid-locked" Doha farm talks (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
The World Trade Organization's Director-General, Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in her mandated role as chair of the Doha Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), is convening a formal TNC meeting on 10 October seemingly to compel members to agree on "a way forward in the agriculture negotiations, which are grid-locked" and on the "appointment of facilitators", despite continued concerns over the allegedly biased outcome s delivered by facilitators in the recent past, said people familiar with the development.

Afghanistan : HRC strongly condemns discrimination against women & girls (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Penang)
The United Nations Human Rights Council has continued to condemn "in the strongest possible terms" all violations and a buses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law committed in Afghanistan, including those involving summary or extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention, torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and enforced disappearance.

UN : $17.5 million response plan launched to address deadly floods in Nepal (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Penang)
The United Nations and its humanitarian part ners on 8 October launched a $17.5 million floods response plan for Nepal in the wake of the deadly floods and landslides that struck the country ten days ago, a ccording to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).