THE WORLD

Photo: Families wait in the early hours of the morning to be registered prior to a food distribution carried out by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and partner agencies, in Thonyor, Leer county, South Sudan. Credit: UNICEF | UN | Modola

Unrest Deepens Across East Africa and Africa’s ‘Horn’

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Instability is growing in the East African nations of Sudan and South Sudan while the U.S. pursues a military solution to a decades-long civil war in Somalia. Recent U.S. bombing raids are claiming 35 al-Shabab victims in the Hiraan region of central Somalia, the U.S. military’s Africa Command reports.

Such airstrikes in Somalia are typically carried out by armed drones. This is the 12th American drone strike on Somalia this month, according to Halgan Media, a Somali online news wire.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 26 February 2019

Photo: Late Mama Dorothy Masuka. Source: Music Africa.

Eulogies Flow for A Golden Voice That Challenged Apartheid

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A baobab tree has fallen with the passing of a one-of-a-kind musician. Those were the words spoken of the legendary Mama Dorothy Masuka by South African Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa.

She was hailed alongside her friend, the late veteran star Miriam Makeba, for using music to highlight the plight of South Africans during the apartheid era.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 26 February 2019

Photo: BWC Workshop in Cameroon. Credit: UNODA

UN Acclaims European Support for Implementation of Biological Weapons Convention

By Ronald Joshua

GENEVA (IDN) – The activities funded by the European Union are making a difference on the ground and are helping countries to develop their capacities against the threat of proliferation of biological weapons by States or non-States actors.

This was one of the conclusions at an EU side event that was organised in the margins of the annual meeting of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in Geneva in December 2018 to present project activities under the EU Council Decision 2016/51 in support of the Convention. "Our aim is to promote universal adherence to this important Convention and support States Parties in their efforts to implement their obligations," said Anne Kemppainen, Head of the Political Section for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation at the EU Delegation in Geneva who moderated the panel discussion.

: Ronald Joshua; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 25 February 2019

Photo: The IAEA’s first School on Drafting Nuclear Security Regulations for African Countries was held at the IAEA’s headquarters in Vienna. Credit: D. Calma/IAEA

IAEA Keen to Enhance Nuclear Security in Africa

By Reinhard Jacobsen

VIENNA (IDN) – Enhancing regulatory framework for nuclear security in Africa has been on the agenda of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), nuclear watchdog of the United Nations, for nearly two years.

Against this backdrop, lawyers and nuclear scientists from 10 African countries reviewed the status of their countries’ regulatory frameworks for the security of radioactive material and developed action plans to address any identified gaps during the IAEA’s first School on Drafting Nuclear Security Regulations for African Countries.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; THE WORLD; Africa; 24 February 2019

Photo credit: Munich Security Conference.

Europe Ventures to Speak Up Against USA

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK | MUNICH (IDN) – "The whole liberal world order appears to be falling apart – nothing is as it once was," said Wolfgang Ischinger, a senior German diplomat in an opinion article in the run-up to the 2019 Munich Security Conference (MSC) that he chairs.

He added: "When Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea and started the bloody conflict in Eastern Ukraine in 2014, many considered him to be the major cause of global destabilization."

"Nobody could have known," Ischinger went on to say, "that just a few years later the U.S. President, of all people, would seriously challenge the current international order. Donald Trump questions free trade just like he questions the Western set of values or NATO. This has massive consequences – not just for us Europeans."

: Somar Wijayadasa; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 22 February 2019

Photo: Mahidol University that co-hosted the 1st Makhapuja International Conference on ‘The Future of Buddhism in Asia’.

Consumerism and Proselytism Threatening Buddhism in Asia

By Natcha Lim

This article is the 28th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous series.

BANGKOK (IDN) – Buddhist scholars attending the 1st Makhapuja International Conference on ‘The Future of Buddhism in Asia’ have warned that consumerist trends within the monastic order and aggressive proselytism by Islamic and Christian groups are a threat to the future of Buddhism in Asia.

Governments in the region lack adequate political solutions to defy "anti-Buddhist movements”, and this poses a huge challenge, said Professor Kapila Abhayawansa, Vice Rector for Academic Affairs at the International Buddhist College in Thailand.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 22 February 2019

Photo: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev at the first Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, in November 1985.

A Nuclear Arms Race Will Produce No Winners

Despite everything, it is still in our power to avoid nuclear confrontation.

Viewpoint by Mikhail Gorbachev*

MOSCOW (IDN-INPS) – The fate of the INF treaty has politicians and ordinary people worried on every continent. I am also concerned, and not only because I signed that treaty with former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Dec. 1987. These events are yet another manifestation of the dangerous and destructive trends in world politics facing us today.

The main idea guiding us on the path to signing the original treaty was expressed in a joint statement with the United States, adopted at our first meeting in Geneva: “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 21 February 2019

U.S. and Canadian Baby Boomers Retiring to Mexico

By Bill Dahl*

REDMOND, Oregon, USA (IDN) – The term boomerang is considered a noun and a verb. As a noun, it is defined as a curved flat piece of wood that can be thrown so as to return to the thrower, traditionally used by Australian Aborigines as a hunting weapon. As a verb, boomerang means a plan or action that results in a return to the originator, often with negative consequences.

One of the overlooked, unanticipated consequences of social, economic and political policies is that they inherently possess a boomerang effect; they return to the sender with negative consequences. A current example of this phenomenon are the negative consequences U.S. President Donald Trump’s range of policies have thrust upon a major demographic cohort in the U.S.: The Baby Boomers.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 21 February 2019

Photo: Joseph Hammond, aged 91, is a Commonwealth veteran from Ghana who fought for Britain in WWII. Credit: DFID

African WWII Vets Seek Formal Apology, Compensation From UK

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | LONDON (IDN) – The UK government is coming under pressure to compensate and apologize to the last surviving African veterans who fought alongside white British soldiers in the Second World War that began 80 years ago and lasted six years.

More than half a million black African soldiers who fought in the British army were paid up to three times less than their white counterparts, a newly unearthed document has revealed, prompting calls for an investigation and the government to compensate surviving veterans.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 20 February 2019

Photo (from left to right): Noboru Yamaguchi (Japan); Yang Xiyu (China), Chung-in Moon (South Korea), Kevin Clements (Coordinator: Toda Institute), Joseph Yun (USA), Georgy Toloraya (Russia). Credit: Yukie Asagiri.

Experts Discuss Prospects of Peace on The Korean Peninsula

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) – Nearly 66 years have passed since the Armistice Agreement formally brought about "a complete cessation of hostilities" of the Korean War. One year later, Chinese Premier and Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai proposed a peace treaty. But U.S. Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, refused – leaving a final peace settlement on the Korean Peninsula hanging in the air.

The signed Armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the de facto new border between the two nations, put into force a cease-fire, and finalized repatriation of prisoners of war. The DMZ runs close to the 38th parallel and has separated North and South Korea since the Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953.