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Dear Friends, I write to let you know that I have decided not to attend the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates on 23rd-25th April, 2012, in Chicago, USA – writes Mairead Maguire of Peace People, Northern Ireland, rejecting the US State Department, NATO and the Chicago Agenda. “I do not agree with many of the policies of the US State Department.”

Provisional results from 16 April 2012 elections gave former armed forces chief 60 per cent of the ballots counted. Thus, Taur Matan Ruak looks set to replace Jose Ramos-Horta as East Timor’s president. Provisional results give runoff election rival Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres only a slim chance of winning the largely ceremonial post for his Fretilin Party.

On the anniversary of the nation’s founder’s birth, Kim Jong-un gave his first public speech since taking office. Thousands of military and civilians attended the ceremony in Pyongyang to mark the country’s centenary. This was the North Korean’s new leader first major public speech and he called for a push to “final victory”.

Dr Volker Jung, President, Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau, welcomes the co-operation between his church and the Green Crescent organisation and says that it is part of Evangelical understanding of the Christian faith that Protestants should be open to others. Pressenza retells his Internet posted story – copyright © Qantara.de 2012.

A senior UN official has strongly condemned the reported acts of sexual violence committed against Malian women and girls amid renewed fighting. Allegations include “abductions, public rapes and subjecting women and girls to acts of sexual violence in front of family members”.

Geneva-The world, in particular rich industrialized countries, is apparently unwilling to save the lives of 15 million human beings affected by the drought and conflict-related crisis in the Sahel region, with about 1.5 million are children who face the prospect of severe acute malnutrition.

Geneva, 7 April – Within the next five years, for the first time in history, the population of people aged 65 and older will outnumber children under the age of five. The World Health Organization (WHO) also informs that in the middle of the last century there were 14 million people in the world aged 80 years or older.

Editor’s Note: This story was written for New America Media as the first in a series of columns by Dr. Sanjay Basu called A Doctor’s Word, exploring the impact of the recession on health care for poor people. It appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Insight and on SFGate.com, media from where Pressenza obtained it.

A “durable solution” has yet to be found to the displacement of communities affected by nuclear testing more than sixty years ago in the Marshall Islands, a UN independent expert warned.

In 2050, world energy demand will be 80% higher; urban air pollution is set to become the top environmental cause of mortality worldwide; global biodiversity is projected to decline by a further 10%; global water demand will increase by some 55%, and 2.3 billion more people than today –over 40% of the global population – will be living in river basins under severe water stress.