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By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) – In view of the increasingly critical situation for ordinary Venezuelans, the United Nations remains committed to providing humanitarian support, based on “need, and need alone”, according to a senior aid official.
But the oil-rich country is not only suffering from food and medical shortages. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) noted that dozens of opposition politicians continue to face ongoing harassment in the South American country.
By Rodrigo Pérez
MONTEVIDEO (IDN) – The United Nations is willing to bring Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido together for "serious negotiations" at their request, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said during a press conference at the 32nd African Union summit on February 10 at Addis Ababa. Ethiopia.
Earlier, the spokesman for Guterres, Stéphane Dujarric, said that the UN Chief "supports the efforts of the international community that will help find a political solution" to the situation in Venezuela.
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 the latter was the language of the elite while Pali was spoken by the masses. Today nobody speaks Pali in India, but, the Buddhist scriptures that were originally written in Pali are still used to educate monks as well as in Buddhist chantings.
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 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that include eliminating poverty, conserving forests, and addressing climate change, passed by the United Nations unanimously in 2015. Take for example, the Indigenous Amazigh people who live in the mountains around Marrakech. They are representative of people who need to be served first by sustainable development.
By Sean Buchanan
LONDON (IDN) – Amid a deterioration of trust in democracy, people around the world clearly disillusioned with formal political institutions are turning their anger into protest.
Besides being self-seeking, the political class is seen as riddled with corruption, leading to a situation where democratic progress has slowed to a near halt. Indeed, even some countries which had been demonstrating robust and open governance systems are now starting to backslide with democratic norms, while their institutions are under threat.
Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne
SINGAPORE (IDN) – The 'Washington Consensus' on democracy today is not about respecting peoples’ right to elect their leaders by popular vote, but how to buy these votes to promote U.S. business interests. Thus, the ongoing campaign to bring “regime change” in Venezuela is not about overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolas Madura, but overthrowing the Bolivarian development model and an alternative trading system introduced by Hugo Chavez after he came to power in 1999.
Viewpoint by Federico Mayor Zaragoza*
BARCELONA (IDN) – “Suddenly,” said Leonardo Da Vinci, “there are no poor and rich, no young and old, no white and black on board … only a bunch of passengers toiling, working together to survive, to avoid a shipwreck.”
This is the advice we should convey today through all media so that the “peoples” become aware of the situation humanity is facing for the first time in history. In recent years a series of global threats have been recognised as potentially irreversible processes that need to be confronted and dealt with on time before it is too late.
By Radwan Jakeem
NEW YORK | ASTANA (IDN) – "Today, there are about 300 million young people aged 18 to 30 years in the world who do not have a permanent job or are unemployed," said Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev officially launching in Astana, the capital city, '2019 the Year of the Youth' that focuses on housing, employment and adequate education for young people.
Similar to the 'Youth 2030: The United Nations Youth Strategy', initiated by UN Secretary-General António Guterres at a high-level event of the 73rd session of the General Assembly in September 2018, the Year of the Youth aims at meeting young people’s needs, and recognises their positive contributions as agents of change.
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 London-listed gemstone miner Gemfields, have been unsuccessful on investigation and dismissed by the Zambian Revenue Authority.
Viewpoint by António Guterres
The following is the text of UN Secretary-General's remarks to a high-level debate of the Security Council on 'Mercenary activities as a source of insecurity and destabilization in Africa' with the Central African sub-region as a focus, under the presidency of Equatorial Guinea for the month of February. Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo chaired the meeting on February 4. – The Editor.
NEW YORK (IDN) – The use of mercenaries dates back through the ages. From antiquity to the medieval era to the present day, those who fight for financial reward or other material compensation have been a near constant on the battlefield. The shadowy nature of the practice makes data hard to come by. Reports suggest a surge in the use of mercenaries and other foreign fighters. While the numerical picture may be murky, the impacts of mercenaries today are all too clear.
This interactive WHO dashboard/map provides the latest global numbers and numbers by country of COVID-19 cases on a daily Basis.
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