The new HDI figures, launched today in Mexico City by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), combines measures of life expectancy, literacy, school enrollment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. This year 187 countries and territories were measured.

Norway retained its top position from last year, ahead of Australia and the US, while the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland and Japan round out the top 10, in that order.

However, when the HDI is adjusted for internal inequalities in health, education and income, the standings of some countries fall significantly. The US falls from 3 to 16 and the Republic of Korea descends from 12 to 28. By contrast, Sweden rises from the seventh to the fourth spot.

“National averages hide large variation in human experiences, and wide disparities remain within countries of both the North and the South,” the report says.

The report, entitled The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World, emphasizes the unprecedented growth of developing countries, which is propelling millions out of poverty and reshaping the global system.

According to the report, leading economies in the South such as China, India and Brazil will be the main drivers of economic growth and societal change for the first time in centuries. This growth, however, is not limited to these three countries, and the report spotlights more than 40 other countries that have made greater human development gains in recent decades than what was predicted.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and their partners are providing assistance in the Tillabery region in the country’s south-west, where more than 40 per cent of houses and huts have disappeared in the flash floods.

Addressing a media briefing in Geneva, a spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Jens Laerke, said that thousands of people have sought refuge in school buildings close to their flooded homes.

The effect of the floods has increased since last year, when Government authorities estimated that 485,000 people were affected at this time of the year. In addition to the displacement of thousands, the floods have also led to the deaths of 81 people.

At the same briefing, a WFP spokesperson said that food assistance was being offered to those fleeing the floods and support was being offered to other agencies to transport aid.

Last week, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) had warned that floods in Western Africa, including Niger, would worsen the current cholera emergency in the region as they create the conditions required for the disease to spread further and faster.

The disease – transmission of which is exacerbated by poor sanitation and hygiene practices – is spreading fast in western Niger, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as along the Congo River, affecting people in the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“Urgent action needs to be taken in critical areas to help stop the spread of this disease,” said the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Luis Sambo. “Governments need to declare an emergency early so as to benefit from the necessary technical and other support of partners. Just as crucial are better surveillance and cross-border collaboration between health authorities.”

Cholera is an acute intestinal infection caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with the bacterium known as vibrio cholerae. The disease has a short incubation period and produces a toxin that causes continuous watery diarrhoea, a condition that can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if treatment is not administered promptly. Vomiting also occurs in most patients.

In a news release, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that 55,289 cases of cholera have been reported just this year in 15 countries in the region, which have led to 1,109 deaths.

The disease, whose transmission is exacerbated by poor sanitation and hygiene practices, is spreading fast in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as along the Congo River, affecting people in the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and western Niger.

Exceptionally heavy rains have contributed to its spread, as they flood shanty towns in urban centres, leaving many without access to latrines or a clean water supply.

WHO is currently working with governments in the affected countries to ensure an effective response, while UNICEF is supplying equipment, chlorine and medicines, the agencies said.

“Public health measures must become much more of a priority for governments,” said the Acting UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Manuel Fontaine. “We are now seeing children and their families falling prey to a disease that is avoidable.”

Fatality rates in the region can range up to eight per cent, which WHO and UNICEF described as “unacceptably high.” These rates are also 34 per cent higher compared to the same period last year.

But peoples often pass through fire, iron and blood. The dead in Syria are so many, that citizens of the West keep wondering why NATO does not interfere, or why the U.S. continues to maintain a wait-and-see stance. Why haven’t they charged ahead, as they did recently in Libya? And is there more in the role of the Security Council besides empty resolutions? Usually foreign powers intervene in cases of energy resources, arms deals, or in order to open markets or serve geopolitical interests. Which one is relevant in the case of Syria? Half words coming from all directions! However, the idea of an external intervention ultimately exceeds minced words, as China and Russia refuse to sign the removal of the Assad regime. Particularly Moscow chooses to sell its weapons (Russian guns kill dissidents and their families) and at the same strengthens its naval base on Syrian territory. Besides, the Arab Spring last year has partly ousted the country from the geopolitical game. How could, therefore, Russia abandon its territorial takes?

It is said that Syria and its neighbors are the Balkans of the 21st century and Damascus the NATO-bombed Kosovo. But is this right? The US, despite what is said as regards weapons trafficking through Turkey and Saudi Arabia to the Syrian opposition, will hardly earn the necessary legitimacy by international public opinion to intervene. The lies of the Bush administration in the invasion of Iraq remain in the news agenda, leading Obama to move cautiously, taking into account besides the election period, two additional factors: first, the alliance of Damascus with Tehran, which is waiting patiently for Israel’s wrong move and, second, the stance of Turkey that appears determined to reinforce its position as a leading regional power.

With ten thousand years of history, Syria is one of the most flammable parts of the world, reminding us, Greeks, who appear insulted by Lagarde’s statements, that a single sparkle could put the world ablaze. And then what?

Published in Greek in Kathimerini, 7.6.2012

Clashes erupted on Sunday between former rebel fighters from Sebha, Libya’s fourth largest city, and gunmen from the Tibu tribe after a Sebha man was killed in a argument over a car, according to al Arabiya.

A truce was agreed on Wednesday, but reports of fighting emerged later in the day.

The clashes stress the problems the government faces in imposing its authority following the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi last year.

Abdelmajid Seif al-Nasser, a local official who said he had quit his post on the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) in protest at the violence, told AFP news agency: “There are still clashes in Sabha but not as intense.”

Some African tribes in southern Libya, such as the Toubou, feel they are discriminated against by Arabs from the coastal cities of the north who tend to dominate the country’s government and security forces, according to BBC. Other Libyans blame the Toubou of involvement in the smuggling of illegal migrants trying to get to Europe through Libyan ports.

The Toubou are black oasis farmers by custom who also have connections beyond Libya’s borders. They live in southern Libya, northern Chad and in Niger, and have previously denied having nationalist ambitions.

The EU is concerned about reports of clashes in Sebha, and calls for restraint from all who are involved in the conflict in a statement by Catherine Ashton, EU high representative. The EU underlined its support for all efforts aimed at national reconciliation and for the process of democratic transition in Libya.