By Naimul Haq COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (IDN) – Shefali Aktar, mother of three, fled her home in Thaphanbin, a tiny village overlooking the Arakan Mountains in Rakhine state in Myanmar. The 22-year-old pregnant woman escaped near death when her neighbour helped her and her children to hide in the nearby forest the night after the […]
U.S. Politics Increasingly Governed by Policy of Unilateralism
By Rodney Reynolds NEW YORK (IDN) – The politics of the Trump administration are being increasingly governed by the twin policies of unilateralism and isolationism. After Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016, he withdrew from a historic 2016 climate change agreement signed by 195 countries – and the only signatory to do so. […]
Dutch Court Rules Against ‘Center of the Eritrean Intelligence Network’
By Martin Plaut* AMSTERDAM (IDN-INPS) – In 2015, Dutch professor and human rights advocate Mirjam van Reisen was interviewed by Dutch radio station ‘BNR Nieuwsradio‘ about people with ties to the Eritrean regime being employed as interpreters at the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND). Van Reisen is professor at the Tilburg University and Leiden […]
Sparkle of Hope Fast Disappearing in Post-Mugabe Era
By Jeffrey Moyo HARARE (IDN) – When Robert Mugabe resigned late November as president of Zimbabwe, hopes were rekindled that the country would finally be set on the course of a fresh start after 37 years of widely criticised authoritarian rule of this Southern Africa nation. For years, under Mugabe’s regime, the Southern African nation’s state […]
Village Buddhist Monks in Laos Initiate Environmentally-Aware Development
By Toung Eh Synuanchanh This article is the 19th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. BEUNGSANTHUENG, Laos (IDN) – A quiet revolution is taking shape in rural Laos, where environmentally-conscious village Buddhist monks are teaching people morality and meditation to spearhead a movement mobilising the people […]
World Bank Explains Uganda Benefits of Ending Child Marriage
By Ronald Joshua NAIROBI (IDN) – With a new report, the World Bank is striving to put an end to child marriages in Uganda deploying a carrot-and-stick approach. Subsequently, the report titled ‘Accelerating Uganda’s Development: Ending Child Marriage, Educating Girls‘ argues that ending child marriage could generate $3 billion per year for the East African […]
Galleries, Fairs Offer African Art Feast in Paris
By SWAN PARIS (IDN-INPS) – Fans of African art in France have been spoilt for choice this year, with an abundance of exhibitions around the country, particularly in the capital Paris During the spring, Art Paris Art Fair featured Africa as its “guest of honour”, with works from all over the continent, while the Louis Vuitton Foundation […]
From Arizona to Bangkok, Determined to Help Thailand
By Jutta Wolf BERLIN | BANGKOK (IDN) – There is something exceptional about Dr. Thanawan Bhookphan who was born in Min Buri, one of the 50 districts of Bangkok, the capital city of Bangkok, and spent over 30 years in the United States. He received Mechanical Engineering Degree from the University of Arizona, and Master’s […]
The Challenge of Making Africa’s 830 Million Young People ‘Effective Citizens’
By John Dramani Mahama and Siddharth Chatterjee John Dramani Mahama is the former President of the Republic of Ghana. (Follow him on twitter.) Siddharth Chatterjee is the UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya. (Follow him on twitter.) ACCCRA | NAIROBI (IDN-INPS) – In July 2017, Spanish charity workers rescued 167 migrants arriving from Africa aboard a small boat. 2016 was the deadliest […]
UN Envoy Expresses Hope and Concern About the Gaza Accord
By Santo D. Banerjee UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – A senior United Nations official has emphasized the urgency to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and to return the enclave to full civilian and security control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) as agreed in the Cairo accord on October 12, 2017, described as a […]