UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19, 2010 (IPS) - Despite numerous factors that threaten the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 - a global financial crisis, a food crisis, climate change, natural disasters - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this week that his main concern is "political will".

Ban addressed U.N. member states and media following the release of his report, "Keeping the Promise", on Mar. 16. The report "reviews successes, identifies obstacles, and suggests ways to accelerate progress," according to the secretary-general.

At a meeting of the General Assembly, he warned that, "We are off course because of unmet commitments, inadequate resources and a lack of focus and accountability."

"We do not need new pledges," Ban said later that day at a media briefing. "If nations deliver on the financial commitments they have already made, we can achieve the goals. There is clearly a lack of political will."

STOCKHOLM, Mar 18, 2010 (IPS) - Aid organisations perpetuate humanitarian disasters. That is one of the conclusions made by war correspondent Linda Polman in her latest book as she describes the world of humanitarian aid.

When there is a major disaster, large and wealthy aid organisations come pouring into the area, according to Polman who has seen the results in a range of crisis areas.

"Should international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) carry on providing relief if warring factions use aid for their own benefit, thus prolonging the war?" she asks.

`With Friends Like These (De crisiskaravaan) - The untold story of humanitarian aid operations in war zones' investigates the effects of emergency aid on the course of wars and on the crises themselves. She criticises the aid industry`s multi-billion dollar operations, which she describes as a business in a market of supply and demand, dressed up as Mother Teresa.

"Aid has always been a subject of abuse. Money is disappearing into the wrong pockets,'' she says.

Polman talks about "contract fever" and how aid organisations focus on winning and extending contracts and follow the flow of funds. As donors look for other disasters and other countries, the crisis caravan - international humanitarian organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the International Committee of the Red Cross - set off again.

The salaries and the danger-and-discomfort bonuses in the aid sector are said to be fostering an international jet set. "In humanitarian territories, restaurants, squash courts and golf and tennis facilities are often reconstructed sooner than bombed-out schools and clinics," she writes in her book and notes "wherever aid workers go, prostitution soars".

She also describes how aid is used and abused by governments and rebels.

Scientists have unearthed the remains of one of the Worlds rarest fossils - in downtown Ottawa. The 450 million year old fossil preserves the complete skeleton of a plumulitid machaeridian, one of only 8 such specimens known.

Plumulitids were annelid worms - the group including earthworms, bristleworms and leeches, today found everywhere from the deepest sea to the soil in your yard - and although plumulitids were small they reveal important evidence of how this major group of organisms evolved.

"Such significant new fossils are generally discovered in remote or little studied areas of the globe, requiring difficult journeys and a bit of adventure to reach them" notes Jakob Vinther of Yale University, lead author of the paper describing the specimen. "Not this one though. It was found in a place that has an address rather than map co-ordinates!"

French Secretary of State for Sport, Rama Yade, has said the survival of Paris Saint-Germain football club is "at stake" if the club does not start taking intense action against fan violence. A Paris Saint-Germain football supporter died after spending weeks in a coma, following an attack by fellow fans.

"The worst has happened," Yade said. "Supporters who kill each other should be punished with the utmost severity. The very survival of the club is at stake."

The 37-year-old Parisian supporter, known as Yann L, suffered a beating by fellow PSG supporters on the fringes of a match against arch-rivals Marseille on 28 February.

He died early Thursday.

One in four South African men questioned in a survey said they had raped someone, and nearly half of them admitted more than one attack.

The study, by the country's Medical Research Council, also found three out of four who admitted rape had attacked for the first time during their teens.

It said practices such as gang rape were common because they were considered a form of male bonding.

The MRC spoke to 1,738 men in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces.

The research was conducted in both rural and urban areas and included all racial groups.

Using an electronic device to keep the results anonymous, the study found that 73% of those who admitted rape said they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.