By Kalinga Seneviratne This article is the 51st in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous reports. BODHGAYA, India (IDN) — The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, has just concluded a three-day speaking engagement here at Bodhgaya, known as […]
UN Concerned About 10 Million People Detained Worldwide
They are Threatened with Torture & ill-Treatment By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — According to a joke that was circulating in Washington political circles in a bygone era, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s notorious torture chamber in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad—once held up as a symbol of barbarity—was never shut down. After the […]
Only Three Africans on Forbes List of 100 Most Powerful Women
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is the current Director General of the World Trade Organization, and Nigerian media mogul Mosunmola Abudu are the only African women featured in the list of the World’s Most Powerful 100 Women by Forbes. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala […]
South Pacific: Democracy Prevails in Fiji
Former Coup leaders Change Roles in Parliamentary Vote By Ravindra Singh Prasad SUVA (IDN) — In a parliamentary vote on December 24, former coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka was elected the new Prime Minister by a slim majority of one after a hung parliament. He replaces another former coup leader and twice democracy-elected Prime Minister, Voreqe […]
Austria: Call for an Independent Law Enforcement Body
A Special Report by Aurora Weiss VIENNA (IDN) — Austria’s capital is home to 20 international United Nations offices and organisations seated at the Vienna International Centre. But law enforcement in this country falls short of the UN’s requirements. The United Nations Convention against Corruption, for example, calls for independent bodies or persons specialized in […]
UN Chief to Convene “No Nonsense” Climate Summit to Avert Disaster
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has never ceased to warn about the impending hazards of climate change worldwide. “We are on a fast track to climate disaster,” he has predicted rather ominously and pointed out that some of the world’s major cities are under water. “There are unprecedented heatwaves, […]
Advocating for Gender Equality in Universal Health Coverage
By Roopa Dhatt & Samiratou Ouedraogo Roopa Dhatt is Executive Director and Co-Founder of Women in Global Health. Samiratou Ouedraogo is the Coordinator and Co-Founder of Women in Global Health, Francophone West Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. WASHINGTON DC (IDN) — If there was a Harvey Weinstein in health, we probably wouldn’t know about it. Not […]
A Landmark UN Biodiversity Agreement Achieved
By J C Suresh TORONTO (IDN) — Countries around the world have agreed on a historic package of measures aimed at addressing the dangerous loss of biodiversity and restoring natural ecosystems. The agreement was achieved after a two-week-long 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity on December 19. Convened under […]
COVID-19 Enables Rise in OECD Development Aid
By Robert Johnson PARIS (IDN) — Though ODA-official development assistance from members of the OECD’s DAC-Development Assistance Committee rose to a new high last year, it amounted to the equivalent of only 0.33 per cent of their combined GNI-gross national income, thus falling short of a United Nations goal to reach an ODA/GNI ratio of […]
A NATO-Ukrainian Proposal for European Security
By Vladimir Socor * WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — The Ukrainian Presidential Office envisages a system of international security guarantees vis-a-vis Russia that would answer Kyiv’s post-war requirements. The guarantees would be provided by willing North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries, albeit, at the moment, short of NATO membership, this would potentially clear Ukraine’s path […]