Trade : WTO hits CHF 4.8 million surplus, despite DG's call for budget hike (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
Despite repeated calls for hiking the Worl d Trade Organization's budget during 2022 and 2023, the WTO Director-General, Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on 29 April admitted that "the organization will ha ve a budgetary surplus of CHF 4.8 million (close to USD 5 million)" for 2023, an increase that prompted her to seek "stepping up our recruitment to hire the very best staff."

UN : "Pact for the Future" must respond to Global South's expectations - G77 (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Penang)
The "Pact for the Future", the "action-orien ted" outcome document that is expected to be endorsed by countries at the upcomi ng Summit of the Future in New York this September, must respond to the expectations of the Global South.

UN : Conflict driving record levels of displacement, hunger in eastern DRC (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Penang)
The United Nations Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) has warned that escalating conflict is driving record leve ls of gender-based violence, displacement and hunger in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).