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Burma's normally defiant authorities have in recent weeks been welcoming their domestic and international critics for candid discussions. They have also slightly loosened their iron-clad grip on the media, leading observers to speculate on whether authorities could be softening their hard-line position. Analysts and rights activists have welcomed the moves but have dismissed suggestions that it represents any substantive change.

With the nation facing the specter of a renewed recession and Washington virtually paralyzed by partisan gridlock, President Obama sought to turn the screws on Republican lawmakers in his much anticipated speech Thursday to a joint session of Congress.

World food prices remained virtually unchanged during the month of August, with only slight increases observed in the prices of cereals and meat, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported today.

The cost of maize meal-based porridge provided by aid agencies has been going up.

Ambassador Augustine Mahiga, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Somalia

The annual joint conference of the United Nations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) concluded today in Bonn, Germany, with calls for civil society to encourage people to realize that their local concerns were connected to the larger global issues.

Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh is facing disaster once more with heavy rains over the past five days, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). “Two million people in 15 [out of 23] districts have been affected,” PDMA Director of Operations Sajjad Haider told IRIN. He also said crops had been devastated.

Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, under secretary for Relations with States met this morning with Helena Keleher, charge d'affaires a.i. of the Embassy of Ireland to the Holy See, and consigned to her the "Holy See's Response to the Irish Government concerning the Cloyne Report".

The United Nations and its diplomatic partners seeking a resolution to the Libyan crisis today urged the Security Council to release assets frozen under United Nations sanctions to the country’s transitional authorities to help them set up a government in the North African nation.