The number of subscribers has surged nearly 25 per cent annually for the past eight years. Mobile penetration stood at only 12 per cent in 2000, growing to reach over 60 per cent by the end of 2008.

Rapidly developing economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China are driving the growth in the number of cellular subscribers, with these nations alone accounting for over 1.3 billion of them by the end of 2008.

“The fact that 4 billion subscribers have been registered worldwide indicates that it is technically feasible to connect the world to the benefits of ICT [information and communication technology] and that it is a visible business opportunity,” ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré <"http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2008/29.html">said in New York at a high-level event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets agreed upon by world leaders in 2000.

Source: UN

According to the UN mission, known as MONUC, heavy fighting took place today between DRC armed forces (FARDC) and the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) near the town of Sake, located some 20 kilometres from Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

MONUC tried, unsuccessfully, to obtain a ceasefire between the parties, all the while stressing the impact of the fighting on civilians, particularly the tens of thousands of displaced that are already living in camps in the area.

Recent fighting in the eastern part of the vast African nation has been some of the worst in more than a year and a violation of the Actes d’engagement signed by the parties in January.

Earlier this week, the Government approved global disengagement plans provided for in the Actes as prepared by MONUC.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the Government’s acceptance of the plan and urged it to work closely with MONUC to ensure its timely implementation.

In a statement issued yesterday by his spokesperson, Ban also called on the CNDP and all other armed groups “to accept and urgently implement” the disengagement plan without further delay.

In a statement, Ban expressed his “heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of this appalling attack, as well as to the Government and people of Pakistan.”

“No cause can justify the indiscriminate targeting of civilians,” Ban said.

“It seeks to ensure that modern biotechnology is developed and applied in an environmentally sound manner, thus enabling humankind to derive maximum benefits while minimizing the potential risks to the environment and human health,” Mr. Ban said in a message marking the occasion.

The pact, which he characterized as one of the world’s key environmental agreements, also seeks to make the transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms safer.

The Secretary-General congratulated the 147 Parties to the instrument, calling on those nations who have yet to ratify or accede to the treaty to do so quickly. (Ed.: The U.S. is not a party to the ban.)

“The Protocol was a major step forward in international efforts towards sustainable development,” he said, adding that it will also play a crucial role in implementing Agenda 21, adopted in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

The Protocol is a supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

In May, over 2,000 people from nearly 150 countries gathered in Bonn, Germany, agreeing to work towards legally binding rules for liability and redress for potential damage caused by the movements of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Source: UN

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Rising food prices have led to an expansion of land used for agriculture in the two countries, with an increase of 2.4 million hectares to 33.8 million hectares of soil sown with wheat, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In Russia alone, aggregate grain area – wheat, course grains and rice – is forecast at nearly 46 million hectares for the 2008 harvest, which is 2.6 million more than in 2007.

“This clearly shows that higher prices can be an opportunity for the farming community,” said Charles Riemenschneider, Director of FAO’s Investment Centre, at the opening of the two-day meeting in Paris on agricultural developments in the region.

Earlier this year FAO and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) highlighted that as much as 13 million hectares of unused farmland lay idle in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – 12 of the 15 former Soviet republics.

According to FAO figures, this land is already being exploited, with an aggregate production of wheat in the European CIS countries set to rise to more than 73 million tonnes in 2008, some 13 per cent more than the successful harvest of 2007.

“In March we discussed opportunities for enhancing agricultural output, and we can see from these figures that benefits are already materializing that could make a real difference on world markets,” said Mr. Riemenschneider.

“Both countries [Russia and Ukraine] have significant exportable cereal surpluses, but more long-term investment is needed to ensure that this supply response is sustainable,” he added at the meeting, which was sponsored by FAO, EBRD and the World Bank.

Source: UN

The projections contained in the 2008 edition of Energy, Electricity and Nuclear Power Estimates for the Period to 2030, published by the Vienna-based IAEA, reflect major expansion plans under way in countries like China and India, and new policies and interest in nuclear power emerging in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States.

The report, produced every year since 1981, contains both high and low projections. The lower end assumes that all nuclear capacity currently under construction or in the development pipeline gets constructed and current policies, such as phase-outs, remain unchanged.

The high projection is based on government and corporate announcements about longer-term plans for nuclear investments, as well as potential new national policies, such as responses to new global environmental agreements to combat climate change.

“The IAEA’s higher projection is in step with an anticipated level of 3.2 per cent annual growth in global power generation,” said Hans-Holger Rogner, Head of the IAEA’s Nuclear Energy Planning and Economic Studies Section.

“In the low projection, overall global electricity annual growth is 1.9 per cent and nuclear power’s share is projected to drop to about 12.5 per cent by 2030,” he added.

Mr. Rogner attributed the expected rise in nuclear growth to rising costs of natural gas and coal. In addition, new environmental constraints such as entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol and the European carbon trading scheme mean there is now a real financial benefit to avoiding greenhouse gas emissions, adding to the appeal of low-carbon electricity generation, including nuclear power and renewables.

Aspects of nuclear power, from uranium mining to reactor construction and waste disposal, emit only 3 to 24 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour – about the same as wind and hydro power, and well below coal, oil and natural gas, he noted.

Source: UN