General News

People in Senegal are waiting for the provisional results of the presidential election held on Sunday.

Violence broke out during the campaign as some people protested against the decision of incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade to seek a third term.

United Nations Secretary-General had urged Senegalese leader to refrain from inciting violence in order to ensure peaceful, transparent and credible elections.

The technology company Intel has partnered with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in a joint effort to strengthen the skills of midwives and community health workers.

Intel says the goal is to reduce the number of pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths across the world. The pilot program will start in India, Bangladesh and Ghana, before expanding to other countries.

The company hopes to help train one million frontline health workers by 2015 under the Intel 1Mx15Health project.

A rising tide of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea is threatening peace and development in West Africa.

According to one study, up to $2 billion a year is lost due to attacks on oil tankers operating in the region.

On Monday, the UN Security Council debated the issue of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, the name given to the north-eastern part of the Atlantic Ocean which stretches from Liberia to Gabon.

Dianne Penn reports.

Duration: 2'50"

As the violence continues in Syria, where protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad have been met with force, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva is holding a special debate on Syria on Tuesday.

The debate, at the request of Qatar is going ahead despite objections from Iran which is an observer and not a member of the 47-member Council.

Derrick Mbatha reports.

Duration: 2'54"

Enormous progress has been made in Bangladesh where poisonous arsenic was found in well water across the country, but more still needs to be done to help the people there.

 Both the United Nations and the World Bank have been providing assistance to programmes that identify clean safe water sources.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency has even been using nuclear techniques to identify arsenic in the water, so villagers will know which wells are safe and which are not.

By the end of this year, the United Nations will withdraw its peacekeeping force from Timor-Leste, after having achieved what it was sent there to do, according to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNMIT, Ameerah Haq.

The United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste was established in 2006 to help the country restore stability after a crisis caused by a mutiny in the army.

As the humanitarian and political crisis continues in Syria, representatives from 70 countries have gathered in Tunis for the first meeting of the Friends of Syria group.

They want Syria to allow UN humanitarian access to the country, so that civilians can receive medical and other aid.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent the head of the Department of Political Affairs, Lynn Pascoe to that meeting, as well as representatives from other UN agencies.  Mr. Pascoe says those attending the meeting are hoping to be able to get aid to those in Syria who need it most.

The number of people fleeing conflict in northern Mali continues to grow each week.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) estimates 130,000 people—mostly ethnic Tuareg from rural areas—are now displaced both within the country and in three neighbouring states.

They are escaping renewed clashes between government forces and Tuareg rebels which started in mid-January.

Dianne Penn reports.

Duration: 2'27"

A food crisis is looming over the entire Sahel region in Africa, putting vulnerable families at risk.

Governments in the region have declared a state of emergency. In Niger alone, six million people are affected.

UNICEF and its partners are helping drought affected families purchase food with monthly cash allowances.

Jocelyne Sambira has the story.

Duration: 2'49"