THE WORLD

comes with a substantial monetary award. [IDN-InDepthNews – 03 December 2019]

Western Sahara Rights Activist Awarded Major Peace Prize

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ goes to five human rights activists this year. Among them is Aminatou Haidar of the Western Sahara.

Ms. Haidar receives the Right Livelihood Award “for her steadfast nonviolent action, despite imprisonment and torture, in pursuit of justice and self-determination for the people of Western Sahara”, according to organizers of the event in Stockholm, Sweden on December 4.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 03 December 2019

South Africans Mark World Aids Day With New ‘Wonder’ Drug

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – On the occasion of World Aids Day on December 1, South African health minister Zweli Mkhize announced the roll-out of a new state-of-the-art antiretroviral drug which, he said, should drastically reduce the number of people living with HIV.

The roll-out could start as soon as this month. A modified three-in-one pill was hailed as a ‘game-changer’, much needed in South Africa where 7.7 million South Africans are living with HIV.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 03 December 2019

Collage of photos of Karl Marx, V.I.Lenin and Julius Martov (the Menshevik leader) downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.

What’s Left? What’s Right? Or When Left Is Right

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – It goes back to the French revolution of 1789. At the Revolutionary Convention the most radical of the insurgents decided to seat themselves on the left side. “Why not on the other side, the right side, the place of rectitude, where law and the higher rights resided, when man’s best hand could be raised in righteous honour?” wrote Melvin Lasky in what was then Britain’s most influential intellectual monthly, Encounter. “Anyway they went left, and man’s political passions have never been the same since.”

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 03 December 2019

Africa Forum Urges Investors to Support Inclusive Development

By Bernhard Schell

CAIRO (IDN) – “I stand here on behalf of the United Nations system and reaffirm our strong commitment to the member states and the people of Africa,” Secretary-General António Guterres told the 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU), adding: “I strongly believe Africa is one of the greatest forces for good in our world.”

: Bernhard Schell; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 December 2019

Photo: Germany and UNIDO reinforce partnership through strategic talks. Credit: UNIDO.

Strategic Talks Reinforce UNIDO Partnership with Germany

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN (IDN) – Germany and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) have agreed to strengthen their partnership towards the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). During high-level strategic talks in Berlin, hosted by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on November 26-27, Germany and UNIDO underlined the importance of each other as partners.

: Jutta Wolf; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 01 December 2019

Photo: A view of the sculpture – Good Defeats Evil – on the UN Headquarters grounds, presented to the UN by the Soviet Union, predecessor of the Russian Federation, on the occasion of the Organization’s 45th anniversary. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias.

Middle Eastern States Are Back on The Path to A WMD Free Zone

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is President of Pugwash and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The establishment of a nuclear weapon free zone in the region of the Middle East has been one of the most frustrating undertakings in the field of arms control and non-proliferation at the United Nations. Over the past few decades it has been possible for States in other regions of the globe to successfully negotiate and adopt treaties that establish nuclear weapon free zones that greatly enhance peace and security.

: Sergio Duarte; OPINION; 01 December 2019

Photo: Mario Marazziti, co-founder of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty in 2002 and Member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri | INPS-IDN Multimedia Director.

Papal Visit to Japan Revives Debate About Death Penalty

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) – An international conference "No Justice Without Life" has called on Japan to halt all executions next year, the year of the Olympic Games. Japan is one of the 56 nations which retains capital punishment, also known as the death penalty or death sentence for capital crimes. In fact, Japan, the United States and South Korea are the only nations in the group of developed economies that meet out death penalty.

: Katsuhiro Asagiri; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 30 November 2019

Photo: Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa. Source: Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Supreme Court Attempts to Destabilize the Pakistan Govt.

By Abdus Sattar Ghazali*

FREMONT, California, USA (IDN) – The Supreme Court of Pakistan on November 28 limited the three years extension in the term of Army Chief of Staff General (COAS) Qamar Javed Bajwa to six month.

A three-member court bench led by the Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, who retires in less than one month, on November 27 suspended Prime Minister Imran Khan’s August 2019 order to extend the term of General Bajwa to three years.

: Suresh Jaura; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 30 November 2019

Photo: Kazakh children back from Iraqi prisons. Credit: The Astana Times.

Adaptation Course for Kazakh Children Returned from Iraq

By Aidana Yergaliyeva

NUR-SULTAN | BAGHDAD (IDN | The Astana Times) – Kazakhstan’s humanitarian operation on November 27 brought 14 children back to their homeland from an Iraqi prison, where they have been living for two years with their mothers. The life “after” will start for them with courses of rehabilitation at Pravo public fund’s regional centres.

“There are six of them (mothers). They are in an Iraqi prison in Baghdad. They have been serving the life sentence, which in Iraq means 25 years. And for two years they (children) have been there with their mothers. Unfortunately, our government only got to know that our citizens are in an Iraqi prison in March,” said The Astana Times reporter Assel Satubaldina who was reporting from Baghdad.

: Europe Editor; CENTRAL ASIA; 29 November 2019

Photo: IRGC's Naval special forces, S.N.S.F. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Iranian Agents Likely to Target U.S. and European Assets

Viewpoint by Syafruddin Arsyad*

JAKARTA (IDN) – As the Iranian leaders are now feeling the pressure of the full sanctions on Iranian oil and the terror-designation of Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), they will try and shift much of the IRGC’s human resources and assets into Iranian intelligence service that operates under Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).

The developing scenarios in the Middle East and the last year’s thwarted Paris explosion plot suggest that MOIS operatives might be used against U.S. and European interests and assets globally, particularly in Western soil.