Africa/Global: U.N. to Put Global Taxes Centre Stage

Despite strong reservations by the United States, Japan and Germany over proposed new global taxes, the United Nations is set to take centre-stage in the longstanding controversy over new sources of innovative funding for the world's poorer nations. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned that unless current development assistance is doubled to 100 billion dollars annually, the world's 132 developing nations will fail to meet their Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).