Vancouver, Canada: Security officials promised a cutting-edge effort to weed out criminals, terrorists and troublemakers and select the 25,000 volunteers they need for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to be held in Vancouver, Canada.  Read article

Sydney, Australia: Migrants from non-English speaking countries are less likely to be volunteers than Australian-born people or migrants from English-speaking nations, a new study shows.  Read article

Submit your ‘story of volunteer action’ for possible inclusion in a joint CIVICUS-IAVE-UNV publication on the indispensable role of volunteering and activism for achieving the Millennium Development Goals! Deadline is Feburary 8, 2008.  Read article

Windhoek, Namibia: "This is the first time that I am presiding over a swearing-in ceremony in Namibia, and I feel a tremendous sense of pride, both as an ambassador and as an American," says Dennise Mathieu, new US Ambassador to Namibia.  Read article

Athens, Greece: Four months after a fire devastated one of the last forests on the outskirts of Athens, Greek volunteers on Sunday planted around 2,000 pine saplings in an initiative backed by the US and British embassies, the agriculture ministry said.  Read article

Researchers analysing the voluntary sector should use their studies to challenge the preconception that volunteering in all its forms is necessarily a good thing, according to the Institute for Volunteering Research.  Read article

Bonn, Germany: The United Nations Volunteers Online Volunteering service today announced the winners of the “Online Volunteering Team of the Year Award”.  The 10 winning teams, comprising online volunteers and their volunteer managers at the host organizations, made an exemplary impact on human development through their efficient online collaboration and commitment to volunteering.  Read article

Harare, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe has great potential to reduce poverty among communities through promoting and supporting volunteer activities as many of its people are willing to donate their valuable time and resources to assist others, a United Nations representative said.  Read article

Beijing, China: On 1 December, the 20th AIDS Day, Chinese volunteers took an oath to help fight the deadly infection. The rate of new HIV/AIDS infections in China is slowing but the situation remains a very big concern.  Read article

Hong Kong, China: Nearly 700,000 registered volunteers and more than 1,700 registered organizations have committed to volunteering since 1998 in Hong Kong, a city with a population of around 7,000,000, the wife of Hong Kong Chief Executive Selina Tsang said on Saturday.  Read article