A UN report shows Brazil is winning, and exporting, its anti-austerity policies, writes Hans Zomer

Improvements in lifespans, education, and incomes are slowing due to natural disasters, misguided government policies, and worsening inequality in a world where the 85 richest people have as much wealth as the 3.5bn poorest, the UN said in its annual human development report.

AROUND the world, persistent unemployment, skill mismatches, and retirement frameworks have become central to fiscal policy — and to the often fierce political debates that surround it.

A car laden with explosives rammed through two gates and blew up at the United Nations’ offices in Nigeria’s capital Abuja today, killing at least 16 people and shattering part of the concrete structure.

At least 16 people have died in a car bomb attack on the United Nations’ offices in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja.

From the dusty rock mounds lining the streets to a National Palace which looks like it is vomiting concrete from its core, rubble is a ubiquitous reminder of Haiti’s devastating earthquake.

The UN chief said 16 UN personnel were confirmed dead in the earthquake that shook Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, with 100-150 UN workers still unaccounted for, including the mission chief and his deputy.

NORWAY takes the number one spot in the annual United Nations human development index released yesterday but China has made the biggest strides in improving the well-being of its citizens.

Zimbabwe has declared a national emergency over its cholera epidemic and the collapse of its health system as a result of its economic crisis.

A project to wean the Galapagos Islands off fossil fuels, which includes three giant wind turbines on one of the World Heritage site islands, was officially launched today.

An al-Qaida-linked group said it carried out the Algerian truck bombings that killed at least 26 people in carefully timed blasts that drew swift international condemnation.

The United Nations is to audit all its operations in North Korea, where the US claims that money from at least one UN programme could be ending up illegally in the hands of the communist regime.

About one quarter of World Bank development programmes may be at risk because of climate change, the organisation warned at an environmental summit.

Racing against a deadline, negotiators completed the draft of the first United Nations convention to protect the rights of the world’s disabled people early today.

Ireland is to contribute over €40m the United Nations for vital development work, it was confirmed today.

THE UN yesterday lent its support to a project which aims to ship inexpensive, hand-cranked laptops to school-aged children worldwide.

Oil-rich Norway has abolished a more than 100-year-old vagrancy law, making it legal to beg for money in the streets.

THOSE working with the poor and the disabled were not at all surprised that a UN report labelled wealthy Ireland as one of the most unequal countries in the developed world. They see the inequality every day.

CONFUSION surrounded Bill Clinton’s cancellation of part of his trip to the tsunami-hit Maldives last night, with some officials blaming bad weather and others exhaustion.

A US congressional committee has drafted a Bill that threatens to withhold tens of millions of pounds from the United Nations unless the world body launches wide-ranging reforms, possibly setting the stage for a funding battle like the one that plunged the UN into financial crisis a decade ago.

Russia’s population dropped by nearly 800,000 last year, the Russian statistics agency said, as the country continued a trend that some demographers have labelled a population crisis.

After months of criticism, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan decided that UN refugee chief Ruud Lubbers had to go because of the growing controversy over allegations that the former Dutch prime minister had sexually harassed female staffers.

Ministers from dozens of nations debated rival plans for a southern Asia tsunami warning system today, as the United Nations called on countries to make good on pledges of aid to sustain the massive relief effort for last month’s disaster.

HAITI has signed an agreement with the UN and Organisation of American States to set up elections next year.

President Robert Mugabe’s government accused UN officials of ”spreading lies” about Zimbabwe today, deepening a rift between the country and the world body.

UNITED NATIONS Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday said a significant UN role in Iraq would bring international legitimacy to any new Iraqi government.

NORWAY is facing a surge in asylum seekers, often because a short stay at a refugee centre in what the UN calls the world’s best place to live beats living back home.

The international community was today discussing plans for the recovery and rebuilding of Afghanistan, which the United Nations likens to the five-year reconstruction of war-ravaged Mozambique that cost $6.5bn (£4bn).