World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan voiced deep concern about the increase worldwide of childhood obesity, with numbers climbing fastest in developing countries. “As the 2014 World Health Statistics report bluntly states, ‘Our children are getting fatter,’” she said during her opening speech to the Health Assembly on Monday in Geneva.
People everywhere are living longer, according to the World Health Statistics 2014 published this week by the World Health Organization (WHO). Based on global averages, a girl who was born in 2012 can expect to live to around 73 years, and a boy to the age of 68. This is six years longer than the average global life expectancy for a child born in 1990.
The British Government torpedoed Spain’s bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games as a reprisal for the Spanish Government’s hard line stance on Gibraltar, Sir Graham Watson has claimed.
The Spanish Government has accused Britain of failing to tackle a sharp rise in tobacco smuggling at the border. In a statement marking the six-month deadline set by the European Commission following its visit last year, Spain also said that cooperation with law enforcement agencies in Gibraltar had deteriorated.
Conservative MP Rory Stewart has been selected to chair the British House of Commons defense committee. In a short statement to the Commons, Speaker John Bercow said 479 MPs voted in the election for the post. In the final round of voting, Mr Stewart got 226 votes. His rival, Julian Lewis received 212 votes. There was one spoilt ballot paper.
US telecommunications firm AT&T will acquire satellite television provider DirecTV in a cash and stock deal valued at $48.5bn (£29bn). If approved, the deal gives AT&T access to DirecTV's 40 million digital TV customers in the US and Latin America.
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says he was forced out of office as a result of a “plot” by European Union officials. Berlusconi made the remarks last week following the publication of a book authored by former US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff confessed on Thursday evening during dinner with journalists that she is fed up with FIFA chief Joseph Blatter and said the last chapter of protests in the Brazilian cities that will host the World Cup next month were a failure.
President Barack Obama lists assets worth between 1.95 million and 7.15 million dollars, of which 1 million to 5 million dollars were in Treasury notes, according to financial disclosure forms released today.
Opposition candidate Narendra Modi thundered to victory on Friday in India's election, with partial results showing that the pro-business Hindu nationalist and his party trounced the ruling Nehru-Gandhi dynasty in a seismic political shift.