Category: Health & Well Being

By J W Jackie RENO, Nevada, USA (IDN) – Art, music and sports have all been proven to boost mental health across a wide range of age groups, but one new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia indicates that these extracurricular activities are a powerful way to boost teen mental health. The […]

By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | GENEVA (IDN) – UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi has stressed the need to address the frailties of globalization that led to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and its uneven economic impacts, gravely wounding the world economy with serious consequences for everyone. He hopes that the situation would prove to […]

Developed Countries Should Change Their Mindset Viewpoint by Maru Mormina and Ifeanyi M. Nsofor* OXFORD | WASHINGTON (IDN) – Nine months into the pandemic, Europe remains one of the regions worst affected by COVID-19. Ten of the 20 countries with the highest death count per million people are European. The other ten are in the […]

By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) – The COVID-19 crisis has hit tourism-dependent Pacific Island countries severely. Fiji, the largest of these states, is feeling the impact badly, with laid-off workers of tourism-related industries, such as hotels and travel companies, turning to farming and fishing for survival. Because of its larger land mass and fishing grounds […]

By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – In a significant move to mobilise global support, the United Nations, Project Everyone and 72 Films are launching ‘Nations United – Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times’. A first of its kind film has been released September 19 on the UN YouTube channel and global broadcast networks. The importance […]

By J. Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – A new UN report has underlined the importance of biodiversity in addressing climate change, and long-term food security, and concluded that action to protect biodiversity is essential to prevent future pandemics. The fifth edition of the UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook report, released on September 15, has warned: “The […]

By Rosemary DiCarlo UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Following are extensive excerpts from Ms DiCarlo’s briefing to the Security Council on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on peace and security. NEW YORK (IDN) – It is sobering to realize that the risks the Secretary-General identified to this Council on 2 July are […]

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s former president, and Helen Clark, New Zealand’s former prime minister, are to head the newly formed Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.  The announcement follows the Trump administration’s formal notification to the […]

By UN News NEW YORK (IDN) – As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the world, Latin America and the Caribbean have become a “hotspot of the pandemic”, the UN chief said on July 8, releasing a new policy initiative on how best to recover in a region already embroiled in poverty, hunger, unemployment and inequality. […]

News briefs compiled by Suresh Jaura* TORONTO | NEW DELHI (IDN) – The focus of news in Indian media in the second half of June was on the start of human trials by India’s ‘first’ indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, a nod to Indian start-ups to participate in space activities, emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi on June […]