News briefs compiled by Suresh Jaura* TORONTO | NEW DELHI (IDN) – The U.S. on May 19 included the India unit of Huawei along with its other foreign subsidiaries in its Entity List, as part of efforts to prevent the Chinese telecom company from doing business in America. The Trump administration in recent months has […]
Massive Die-Off of Fish on Nigerian Coastline Linked to Toxic Discharge
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – An immense blanket of dead fish stretching across three states has sparked anger and frustration among communities along the Atlantic Ocean coastline in Nigeria. The area is known for oil spills that have polluted the waters and left fish and other wildlife inedible. The massive […]
Burundi Threatens to Deal a Severe Blow to UN Reputation
Viewpoint by Paula Donovan and Stephen Lewis Paula Donovan and Stephen Lewis are Co-Directors of AIDS-Free World and its Code Blue Campaign, which seeks to end impunity for sexual offences by UN personnel. NEW YORK (IDN) – It is a matter of extreme urgency that Burundi’s presidential, legislative, and local elections, scheduled for May 20, […]
COVID-19 Strikes South Asia’s Minorities Whose Rights Are Already Threatened
By Jaya Ramachandran LONDON (IDN) – A new report warns that the minorities and other marginalised communities are even more exposed to the worst impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is hitting South Asia. It has come at a time when governments are inflicting sustained assaults on their rights. Minorities face severe obstacles in accessing […]
Two ‘Unsung Heroes’ Helping Kenya’s Slum Dwellers Facing Coronavirus
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Journalists who step out of their high-floor offices or manage to escape from their coronavirus confinement sometimes find a great story right on the street below. Such was the story discovered by Kevin Phillips Momanyi, a reporter with Kenya’s Tuko news channel.
‘Flowers of Hope’ from Kenya As Major Markets Dry Up
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – It was inevitable during a lockdown that sales of Kenya’s flower exports would dry up as buyers make fewer impulse purchases of carnations, roses and other blossoms. According to data from the Kenya Flower Council, sales of cut flowers in overseas markets have fallen below […]
Africans Mourn the Passing of a Distinguished Thinker and two Outstanding Artists
By Lisa VIves, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – While the rate of fatalities in Africa is still much below that of developed countries, every life lost is a library gone, according to a saying. Here are three noted Africans who passed this year just as thousands of lives were tragically lost to the […]
Kenyans Are Innovative in Finding Ways to Fight COVID-19
By Justus Wanzala BUSIA, Kenya (IDN) – It is a hot afternoon at a bus station at Mungatsi market centre, Nambale Sub-County, in Busia County, Western Kenya. Many people, many travellers, are queuing to wash their hands. Each person is maintaining a distance from the other as they wash their hands and board public service […]
One Year on, Easter Bombing in Sri Lanka Continues to Puzzle
By Kalinga Seneviratne This article is the 39th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship of the International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous reports. SYDNEY (IDN) – A 22-year-old Sri Lankan law graduate became the first Islamic suicide terrorist a year ago in the predominantly Buddhist Sri […]
ISRAEL: How ‘Centrist’ Gantz Resurrected Rightist Netanyahu
By Ramzy Baroud * This article was first published on the author’s website www.ramzybaroud.net on 22 April 2020. MOUNTLAKE TERRACE, Washington (IDN) -– It was intended to be a Machiavellian move, but the decision by Benny Gantz, leader of Israel’s Kahol Lavan (Blue and White) coalition, to join a Benjamin Netanyahu-led government is likely to […]