Human Development Report release

Here's a great link for statistics on a mass of global issues like hunger, poverty, gender equality, trade, aid, etc. http://hdr.undp.org/ - Its the newly released Human Development Report 2005 (HDR2005), an annual release by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). And the best part is that you can download it for free through the UNDP website!

Some highlights:

UN report warns poverty goals likely to be missed (The infant death rate for African Americans in Washington DC is higher than that in the cities of the India state of Kerala, the United Nations has warned as part of a damning review of poverty and inequality around the world) - Financial Times

'Aid, trade fail to mend divide' (The developed world does not give as much aid to the poor nations as it must if the millennium development goals (MDG) are to be met. What’s more, by keeping world trade rules unfair, it robs the developing world of sums that three times as large as the aid flows.) - The Times of India

Life 'worse for world's poorest' (Many of the world's poorest countries are doing worse in 2005 than they were 15 years ago, a major UN report says. Kemal Dervis, UNDP administrator, warned that the world's governments had to act quickly if they wanted to meet those targets) - BBC