Beijing, China: More than 320,000 people have volunteered to work at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The large number means many Olympic fans will be disappointed, since Beijing organizers will need only 70,000 volunteers for the Summer Games with 30,000 more for the Paralympics.  Read article

London, UK: Around 700 volunteer and community organizations will share a £23.9 million pot of government grants, Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis has announced. This will fund the Health Department's volunteer-related projects that support high quality health and social care in England.   Read article

Nairobi, Kenya: A 14km run through slums in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, marked the end of the World Social Forum (WSF) on Thursday, after five days of meetings and demonstrations attended by about 46,000 delegates from all over the world.  Read article

Kampala, Uganda: United Way, a non-governmental organisation based in the US has opened a charity branch in Uganda last Friday. United Way who focuses mainly on volunteering to help the unprivileged, has been in Uganda for the last two years but was yet to be formally launched.  Read article

Maputo, Mozambique: The Mozambican Red Cross will begin training hundreds of volunteer workers to manage antiretroviral therapy (ART) for people in their care living with HIV/AIDS.   Read article

Bonn, Germany: When German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul recently announced her plan for a new voluntary service abroad program, she said she was simply reacting to an unmet demand.  Read article

Suakoko, Liberia: Garmai Gbelawoe had to mark the ballot paper with her inked fingerprint when she voted in Liberia's landmark presidential election in November 2005. Today, she feels empowered after learning how to read and write at a volunteer-run women's centre that is helping to reintegrate returnees in the country's Bong County, north of the national capital, Monrovia.  Read article

Banda Aceh, Indonesia: In partnership with the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, Acehnese musicians Mahrisal Rubi and Edy Erwinsyah released a song commemorating the second anniversary of the tsunami that hit several countries of South East Asia on 26 December 2004.  Read article

Geneva, Switzerland: On Sunday, 17 December a number of Iraqi Red Crescent Society staff and volunteers and other persons were abducted from one of the Society's offices in Baghdad. As of today, some have been released, but many are still being held.  Read article

Washington, D.C., USA: Today more than 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies have employee volunteer programs to leverage the power of service and volunteering in the corporate sector. The Corporate Community Involvement Summit, a coalition of nonprofit organizations, has developed a set of standards that will help to track trends, benchmark programs and encourage better practices in employee volunteer programs.   Read article