By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – A British mining company has agreed to pay over $7 million to settle claims including allegations of torture and murder at ruby mines in the northeast of Mozambique. The brilliant red stones, worth millions, have been worn by international actresses Mila Kunas, Bel Powley, and […]
Rohingya Refugees Remain in A Perilous Situation
Viewpoint by Vincent Auger* United Nations aid agencies and partners launched an appeal on February 15 to raise $920 million to assist more than 900,000 refugees from Myanmar and the more than 330,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis hosting them. MACOMB, Illinois, USA (IDN-INPS) – Eighteen months after being driven from their homes in Myanmar by what UN […]
Europe’s Invisible Wall Whets Human Trafficking
By Klara Smits BRUSSELS (IDN) – After his visit to Austria, Libya’s foreign minister Mohammed Sayala told the Kuwaiti News Agency on January 31 that Libya’s southern borders have now become Europe’s borders. Illegal migration could not be stopped at the Mediterranean Sea, he argued. Therefore, he promised that on the February 20, Libya will […]
Africa’s First Ladies Launch Strategy to Promote Health
By Ronald Joshua ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – The Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD) has launched a New Strategic Plan (2019-2023) which envisions “a developed Africa with healthy and empowered children, youth and women”. The plan will make a significant contribution to the health and well-being of children, youth and women in Africa. […]
Egypt’s El-Sisi Takes Over African Union Chairmanship from Rwanda’s Kagame
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – Rwandan President Paul Kagame has turned over the leadership of the 55-member African Union (AU) to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of Egypt, at the 32nd ordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. El-Sisi has pledged to […]
Buhari, If Re-elected, Could Put Nigeria Back on Track
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Nigeria is a veritable factory of sophisticated novelists. It was no surprise that Ben Okri won the British Booker Prize that goes annually to the best novelist of the year. Considering that high-class novel writing in English only began in Nigeria in 1958 with Chinua Achebe’s famous […]
African Leaders Put Rich Nations on Notice That Days of Cheap Resources Are Ending
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | CAPE TOWN (IDN) – African leaders had a new message for foreign companies seeking the diamonds, gold, rubies and emeralds so plentiful in desperate dirt-poor countries and so pricey when polished and sold in New York, Paris and Switzerland. We’re no longer a cheap date. That […]
Nalanda Grapples With Making Pali Relevant 2500 Years Later
By Kalinga Seneviratne This article is the 27th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous series. NALANDA, India (IDN) – It is believed that more than 2500 years ago Gauthama Buddha chose to preach in Pali rather than Sanskrit because […]
Morocco’s Indigenous People Cry For Sustainable Development
By Peter J. Jacques The writer is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, USA. He recounts what Indigenous Amazigh people told him during field work in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. ORLANDO (IDN) – Life and death for whole communities hang in the balance of achieving the […]
Emeralds, Rubies Could Make Zambia Rich
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Foreign mining companies extract more than a quarter of the world’s production of rare emeralds in Zambia yet, in some quarters, are alleged to declare losses to make themselves tax exempt. So far, charges of tax evasion filed against Kagem mine, a subsidiary of the […]