21/05/2012 – Today, civil protection intervention teams from seven Western Balkan countries are arriving near Zagreb in Croatia to take part in a four-day exercise simulating a large scale flooding. The teams from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo(*) will be participating side by side with their EU colleagues and trainers from Slovenia, Germany, Sweden and Luxembourg.
(Geneva, 17 April 2012) Under the Convention on Cluster Munitions victim assistance is not optional: all States Parties must provide physical and psychological rehabilitation and ensure the full social and economic inclusion of victims of the devastating effects of cluster bombs.
4 April 2012 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today highlighted the work of United Nations mine action personnel around the world in preventing landmines and unexploded ordnance from causing harm long after conflicts have ended, and transforming danger zones into productive land.
Peace agreements brought the last Balkan conflict to an end more than two decades ago, but they didn't resolve ethnic tensions, which are rising to the surface again.
Gender equality is central to meeting the needs of the worlds poorest and most vulnerable people – men and women alike – concludes a new ACT Alliance report launched to mark International Women’s Day on March 8.
“Clapping with Both Hands: 15 Studies of Good Practice in Promoting Gender Equality” celebrates innovative ACT programmes championed by brave women and men in 13 countries – from Guatemala to Indonesia, Mozambique to Nepal – that have enhanced the voice of women in workplaces, government and society at large.
Aportará 35.000 euros al fondo global de 187.000 euros
Cáritas. 5 de marzo de 2012.- Cáritas Española ha decidido aportar 35.000 euros al fondo global de 187.155 euros solicitados por las Cáritas de los Balcanes para hacer frente a las graves consecuencias de la severa ola de frío polar que afectó semanas atrás a toda la región de los Balcanes y que ha dejado aisladas a cientos de miles de personas, sin acceso a alimentos ni servicios básicos. Miles de familias se enfrentan grandes dificultades para asegurar unas condiciones de vida adecuadas en sus hogares.
BUDAPEST, February 10, 2012 (AFP) - Hungary closed the Danube to river traffic Friday due to thick ice, bringing shipping to a near standstill on Europe's busiest waterway, as the continent's cold snap death toll passed 540.
"Shipping was ordered stopped overnight Thursday to Friday because of conditions created by icing along the Hungarian part of the river," Istvan Lang, who heads the national technical supervisory body OMIT said.
"All ships still underway must immediately head for the closest harbour," Lang, quoted by MTI news agency, said.
February 7th 2012, Budapest - The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has increased its emergency support and operations across Europe as temperatures remain in double digits below freezing across much of the continent.
A total of 576,000 Swiss francs (477,300 Euro, 625,000 USD) is being disbursed from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund to help national Red Cross Red Crescent societies bring direct relief to some 50,000 of Europe’s most at-risk. More allocations are expected in the coming hours and days.
CHF 129,185 CHF has been allocated from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the Red Cross of Albania in delivering immediate assistance to some 1,000 families (5,000 beneficiaries). Unearmarked funds to repay DREF are encouraged.
The plight of thousands of people continues in Europe where forecasters say that icy conditions are unlikely to improve before the end of this week. In the last 11 days, several Red Cross societies have been in a race against time to reduce the impact of the extreme cold. Estimates so far suggest 389 have died, and official sources say the winter has been the most brutal in decades.
After unusually mild weather in December 2011 and early January 2012 almost all over Europe, the weather situation changed abruptly in the middle of January. An incursion of cold polar air, coming from northern Russia at the south flank of an extensive high pressure area brought extremely low temperatures over large parts of Europe and also some considerable snowfall especially over various parts of the continent.
Budapest, Tirana, Vilnius, 7 February 2012: The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and national partners sent letters to Albanian and Lithuanian authorities expressing grave concerns over the forced evictions of Romani individuals during extreme weather conditions.
As harsh winter conditions continue to choke many parts of Eastern Europe, World Vision is responding to keep vulnerable children and families safe in poverty-affected communities where it serves. World Vision Romania operates in seven counties across the country, five of which are heavily affected by the snow and freezing temperatures.
SOFIA, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Heavy snowfall and strong winds across eastern Europe cut off hundreds of villages on Tuesday and rescue teams struggled to evacuate people in southern Bulgaria where rain and melting snow caused a dam wall to break, flooding an entire village.
A river dike also broke under intense water pressure near Kapitan Andreevo at the border with Turkey, officials said.
BUCHAREST, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Nine Romanian children were taken into care after a baby died in an unheated house, joining at least 189 others killed by a Siberian front which strengthened its hold over Eastern Europe on Friday and spread further west.
Soum Rithy spent two years of his youth being beaten and tortured in a Khmer Rouge jail between 1977 and 1979, after Pol Pot’s cadres mistook him for a soldier in the previous government. He saw his father die of disease exacerbated by the lack of modern medicine under the ultra-Maoist regime, while two brothers starved to death. His third brother, the youngest, had his throat cut by Khmer Rouge soldiers after he was caught stealing a papaya.
