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EVEN before the economic crisis pushed the ranks of the world's hungry to a record 1 billion, declining aid and investment in agriculture had been steadily increasing.

The number of undernourished people for more than a decade, a UN food agency said on Wednesday.

Unless these trends are reversed, ambitious goals set by the international community to slash the number of hungry people by 2015 will not be met, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned in a report.

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Residents are being urged to "Stand Up and Take Action" against the world's problems this weekend. Millions of people across the globe are set to show their support for the fight against hunger and poverty as part of the United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC), which highlights one particular UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) each year.

In the UAE and across the world, the campaign will this year focus on MDG number one — eradicating extreme hunger and poverty. A series of local events has been organised with the aim of pressuring local authorities and non-government organisations into taking action.

Last year, 140,000 UAE residents "Stood Up to Take Action" along with 116 million people across the world in support of MDG number seven - a sustainable environment.   Branded "Mission Green Earth", the campaign featured hundreds of local institutions pledging various environmental initiatives. The inaugural campaign in 2007 saw 97,000 people taking part across the UAE.

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With six years to go before the deadline for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Philippines continues to lag behind on its targets to reduce poverty by year 2015, and the series of natural disasters further threatens development efforts.

The MDGs are eight time-bound goals aimed at significantly reducing, if not completely eradicating, extreme poverty by 2015. Of these goals, the Philippines lags behind its targets on eliminating poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, reducing maternal deaths, and combating HIV and AIDS.

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Of the four Indians to win the Nobel Prize in science, only one, C V Raman, was awarded for research work done in his own country. Hargobind Khurana, S Chandrashekhar and our newest entrant to the exclusive Nobel Prize club, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, have all been honoured for research at foreign institutions. Asked whether.

The type of breakthrough he made on decoding cell proteins would have been possible if he had remained in India, Ramakrishnan acknowledged that research in India was lagging behind by some 20 years. His colleagues in India had to fly to Japan for getting X-ray sources. He advocated a long term policy, if we wanted to produce quality research in India.

Some years back, there was an interesting letter in ‘Currrent Science’ by a science professor and researcher from Punjab, H S Virk, which put in perspective the rapid decline of cutting edge scientific research in our country. Using the Science Citation Index of the Institute for Scientific Information, Virk cited a survey which placed India in 8th place in the top 20 countries undertaking scientific research in the 1980s. In the 1990s, we were down to the 12th position, and today India is no longer in the list of the top 20.

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A firestorm of criticism has erupted since Friday's "postponement" of the United Nations Human Rights Council's (UNHRC) vote.

On the Goldstone report, which accused Israel of committing war crimes during its winter invasion of the Gaza Strip.

The postponement was at the behest of the Ramallah Palestinian Authority's (PA) ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi. Palestinians globally and across the political spectrum have rightfully been outraged.

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Sindh Senior Minister for Education and Literacy Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq has said that it is imperative to spread education in order to eradicate poverty and illiteracy from society. He was speaking in a seminar held at local hotel to celebrate the World Teachers’ Day, here on Monday. He said the government is taking steps to ensure better facilities to teachers including allowances, medical, residential and recreational facilities and steps for a better future of their children.

Provincial Minister said that teachers have always been respected in our is termed a noble profession, as all Prophets themselves were teachers of mankind. He said it is on the government priority to revive a due social status for teachers.

He said all teachers in the province would be provided with all basic facilities including good salaries and allowances, he added. He said that we face shortage of teachers in schools and colleges in rural areas; however, now comparatively more teachers are willingness to serve in these areas. “I request to all educators and educational institutions to come forth and promote education in rural areas, which would be greatly helpful for country’s prosperity and development.”

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A child living on a remote Southern farm may be at a higher risk of poverty than counterparts in the city, as schools struggle to develop new opportunities and factories shut down what few jobs are available, according to a new report.

The brief by the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute found rural children in several Southern states fell into poverty at a faster rate than urban children in 2008.

The report examined population numbers released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau, which showed the South remains home to many of the nation's poor children.

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Rocco Tricarico, executive director of the New Britain Human Resources Agency, described the findings as “catastrophic.” “When you look at the statistics that we have been able to compile, it’s pretty scary,” Tricarico said Wednesday. “What it means is that more people are falling into poverty than are climbing out of poverty.”

Tricarico said the major concern was the increase in childhood poverty. “Children that are born into poverty have less than a 5 percent chance of moving out of poverty,” he said. With the establishment of the Child Poverty Council in 2004, the state became the first in the nation to set a goal of reducing by half the number of people in poverty by 2014. However, instead of reversing the number, it continues to grow.

Connecticut Voices for Children, a research-based think tank, is suggesting the number falling below the poverty level may increase in the third quarter of 2009 given that the state experienced its worst unemployment levels since 1977.

“Connecticut needs a comprehensive plan to reverse these trends for our families and rebuild our economy,” said Jamey Bell, executive director of the think tank. Tricarico said the goal of reducing poverty is admirable, but without a commitment of money, time and effort, “the goal is slipping away.”

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Despite a decrease in poverty among city children, nearly one in five Baltimore residents were living below federal poverty levels in 2008, according to Census Bureau data released Tuesday. Census Bureau data showed that 19 percent of Baltimore's population lived in poverty last year, putting Maryland's most populous city well above the national rate of 13 percent.

The city data are in line with figures from 2007, but a 3 percent decrease in the number of city children living in poverty last year left local analysts searching for answers to what they call a statistical anomaly amid a sagging economy and the rise of unemployment in the area. One in four Baltimore children below the age of 18 were living in poverty, the Census Bureau data show, down from 28 percent in 2007. The figures have a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

"You would have thought, given the increase in joblessness in '08, that poverty among children would have increased," said Anirban Basu, chief executive of the Baltimore economic consulting firm Sage Policy Group Inc. "Obviously this is good news, but it is unclear why poverty would have fallen during the worst recession in the post-World War II era."

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Tulsa County residents whose income in 2008 was below the poverty level declined from 16.2 percent of the population in 2006 to 13.8 percent in 2008, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

Statewide, an estimated 15.9 percent of the population was living in poverty in 2008, compared to a 17 percent poverty rate in 2006.

The latest census figures indicate "some progress" was made in terms of fewer families in poverty, said David Blatt, policy director for the Oklahoma Policy Institute.

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