Worries about increase in terrorist elementsTHE United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon has urged stronger global partnership to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which world leaders pledged to achieve by 2015.According to a statement made available to The Guardian, the UN scribe who spoke at a media conference to launch the 2012 MDG Gap Task Force Report at the UN headquarters in New York, urged governments across the globe not to place the burden of financial problems on the poor.'I repeat my call to the international community ' do not place the burden of fiscal austerity on the backs of the poor either in your own countries or abroad,' he said.He said that the report was issued ahead of the annual high-level General Assembly meetings next week. The report warned that with no apparent commitment by donor governments to reverse the trend, few countries would achieve the MDGs by the 2015 deadline.Ban pointed out that the task force was created five years ago to track progress in strengthening the Global Partnership for Development.He added that though some global goals like parity between girls and boys in primary education had been met, global partnership was weaker.Official development assistance last year declined for the first time in many years; after reaching a peak in 2010, the volume of official development assistance fell almost three per cent in 2011.But Ban commended some donor countries that had maintained or increased aid in spite of cutting overall budgets.Separately, the UN Security Council has voiced grave concern over the 'increasing entrenchment of terrorist elements' in northern Mali, including Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb and urged all rebel groups to cut ties with the Islamist extremists.The 15-member Security Council in a statement said that it was gravely concerned 'about the continuing deterioration of the security and humanitarian situation in the North of Mali and the increasing entrenchment of terrorist elements including Al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and affiliated groups.'It also expressed 'grave concern about the violations of human rights perpetrated by rebel and extremist groups in the North of Mali.' It also noted an appeal by West Africa's regional body for targeted sanctions to be adopted in a bid to help end Mali's crisis and said that it would consider further measures if necessary.The council urged 'all Malian rebel groups to cut off all ties to AQIM and affiliated groups.'Mali descended into chaos in March when soldiers toppled the president, leaving a power vacuum that enabled Tuareg rebels to seize nearly two-thirds of the impoverished, landlocked country.Islamist groups, some allied with Al Qaeda, then hijacked the rebellion in the north to impose sharia law.The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), still gearing up for a tough fight to help Mali's government forces reclaim the north, has told the Security Council that it needed major military equipment including fighter jets.
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