World Social Forum ends in Brazil

September 30th, 2009 Honduras sets 10-day deadline on embassy standoffTEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras is giving Brazil 10 days to decide what to do with ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who has been inside the Brazilian Embassy since sneaking back into the country last week. The government in charge since a June 28 coup that deposed Zelaya says it will take unspecified "additional measures" if Brazil does not define his status.

September 23rd, 2009 Brazil's president defends Iran's nuclear programNEW YORK — Brazil's president said Wednesday that Iran is entitled to the same rights as any other country to use nuclear energy for peaceful ends. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Wednesday that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assured him in meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly that his country's nuclear program was intended solely for peaceful purposes and that he had no reason to doubt him.

September 7th, 2009 Washington, Sept 7 (IBNS) US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton greeted Brazil on its 187th Independence Day. “On behalf of the people of the United States, I extend warm wishes and congratulations to the people of Brazil as they celebrate 187 years of independence.

August 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Senior Congress MP P.C. Chacko will represent Indian parliament in the Steering Committee of Parliamentary Conference on World Trade Organisation (WTO).

June 18th, 2009 Report: Boy in custody battle wants Brazil, not NJBRASILIA, Brazil — A transcript says a 9-year-old boy at the center of an international custody battle has told his psychologist he wants to stay with his stepfamily in Brazil rather than return to New Jersey with his biological father. Lawyers for the Brazilian family seeking custody of Sean Goldman on Wednesday released the transcript of a psychologist's interview with him.

June 4th, 2009 Lawmaker seeks Brazil sanctions over custody caseTRENTON, N.J. — A U.S. congressman is pushing to suspend certain trade preferences with Brazil until a boy at the center of a custody dispute there is returned to his father in New Jersey.

June 2nd, 2009 NJ man arrives in Brazil to reclaim custody of sonNEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey father has arrived in Brazil with the goal of bringing his son back to the United States.

April 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Prime Minister's special envoy on climate change issues, Shyam Saran, will lead the Indian delegation to a preparatory meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate here April 27-28. The preparatory sessions will support a Major Economies Forum leaders' meeting hosted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in LaMaddalena, Italy, in July 2009.

March 23rd, 2009 ISTANBUL - Environmental activists expressed criticism Sunday with the end result of the World Water Forum, decrying a lack of binding protocols to safeguard the world's freshwater supplies. Ministers and delegation heads closed the fifth forum, an event held every three years, with promises to do more for the protection of water supplies.

March 18th, 2009 NEW YORK - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said he would urge the G20 countries to reform the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that he believes was partly responsible for the current global crisis. The heads of state of G20 will meet in London next month to discuss the global economic crisis and various other issues.

March 17th, 2009 ANKARA - At least 17 people were taken into custody in protests as the fifth World Water Forum got under way in the Turkish city of Istanbul Monday morning, the Anadolu news agency reported. Police used tear gas to try and break up a group of around 150 people who attempted to march to the congress venue of the forum on the Golden Horn, near the Bosporus Straits.

March 17th, 2009 ANKARA - Two environmental activists were deported from Turkey Tuesday for protesting at the opening of the World Water Forum in Istanbul Monday, a spokesman for a group in which they are members said. Ann-Kathrin Schneider of Germany and Payal Parekh of the US - both members of the non-governmental organization International Rivers' - were taken into custody Monday morning after unfurling a banner reading 'No risky Dams' and shouting slogans just as the week-long water forum was about to start.

March 16th, 2009 ISTANBUL - The fifth World Water Forum kicked off Monday in Turkey's largest city of Istanbul, aimed to facilitate solutions to the world's water problems and promote cooperation. The future of vital water resources 'does not only rest on technological progress, but also and mostly on political commitments', World Water Council president Loic Fauchon said during the opening ceremony.

February 21st, 2009 NEW YORK - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday social justice is denied to too many people around the world as the UN celebrated its first World Day of Social Justice. 'Tragically, social justice still remains an elusive dream for an appallingly large portion of humanity,' Ban said in a message.

January 27th, 2009 RIO DE JANEIRO - Over 100,000 people from 150 countries have gathered at the ninth session of the World Social Forum (WSF) being held in Belem, Para state, in Brazil's Amazon rainforest region. The forum, which will be on till Feb 1, is an annual meeting to discuss the world's social and political order.