By Tayé-Brook Zerihoun Tayé-Brook Zerihoun is the Assistant Secretary-General for United Nations Department of Political Affairs. The following are extensive excerpts from his ‘briefing’ to the Security Council on ‘The Situation in the Middle East’ on 5 January 2018. UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – The protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran started on 28 December […]
India Looks Forward to Hectic Diplomacy in 2018
By Shastri Ramachandaran* NEW DELHI (IDN) – The world could be too much with us in 2018, in a sense that Wordsworth may never have foreseen. In fact, the New Year would begin with a lot of the world in India when leaders of 10 ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations), governments come as […]
Jailed U.S.-Cameroonian Professor and Writer Wins Release
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – A New York-based university professor jailed for his writings critical of President Paul Biya of Cameroon has been released from prison after an outpouring of support from free speech activists, students and academics around the world. Stony Brook professor Patrice Nganang, who has dual citizenship […]
Eritrean Refugees in the Netherlands Want Ban on Diaspora Tax by Asmara
By Reinhardt Jacobsen and Klara Smits AMSTERDAM | BRUSSELS (IDN) – Hundreds of Eritreans have been taking to the streets in various cities and refugee camps all over the world against the Eritrean regime to express solidarity with the unusual protests that took place in Asmara, the country’s capital, on October 31. The latest in […]
Traumatised Rohingya Women Bear the Brunt of Persecution
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 […]