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Photo: Vocational training centre for women in Faizabad, Bakakshan province. Credit: UNAMA | Fardin Waezi

UN Pushes for Gender Equality in War-Torn Afghanistan

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI | KABUL (IDN) – The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has documented that, in 2017, 359 women were killed – five per cent more than in the previous year – and 865 injured. Altogether about 10,000 civilians lost their lives or suffered injuries in 2017.

It is against this backdrop that the UN in Afghanistan marked International Women’s Day on March 8, recognizing the global movement for women's rights and the work of activists who have been central to the push for gender equality.

Afghanistan ranks 154th in the UN Gender Inequality Index, and this year’s Women's Day – under the theme 'Time Is Now: Rural and Urban Activists Transforming Women’s Lives' – sought to draw attention to rural and urban women who are left behind in many areas of development.

: Devinder Kumar; UN INSIDER; 12 March 2018

Photo: Early September 2017 the U.S. government conducted flight tests of the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb over Nevada. More are required before it enters service in 2020. Credit: TomoNews YouTube video

U.S. Undermining the Global Nuclear Testing Taboo

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | GENEVA (IDN) – A new document that outlines U.S. nuclear policy, strategy, capabilities and force posture for the next five to ten years proclaims that the Trump Administration does not intend to ratify a global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests. Nor does it rule out resuming such tests.

The document, titled 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), proclaims that "the United States does not support the ratification of the CTBT." But the U.S. will continue to support the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

: Ramesh Jaura; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 12 March 2018

Infrastructural Boom Spreads Across Southern Africa

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (IDN) – Waving a red cloth tied to a stick while signalling vehicles to stop, 35-year old Denford Muzvidziwa who dons blue overalls and a white helmet, joyfully busies himself on the Harare-Mutare high way which is still being upgraded.

For over a decade after he completed a degree in Social Work at the University of Zimbabwe, Muzvidziwa has never found a formal job that suits his qualification, but he is happy with his new found job in the construction sector, saying the job nevertheless earns him some bit of money to caution him in the face of this country’s fledgling economy.

: Jeffrey Moyo; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 March 2018

Photo: Donald Trump and ‘America First’: YouTube

US Foreign Policy and Trump's Contradictions – Part 4

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the fourth of a five-part article looking at US foreign policy in historical context and its global implications under President Donald Trump.

BERGAMO, Italy (IDN) – All US administrations between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have experienced considerable fluctuations, both in the face of development of their actions and because of unforeseen events.

Each administration has its own characteristic slogan "to sell" on the domestic and international political market, a certain rhetoric with which it seeks to differentiate itself from the previous one and which conveys a certain basic vision, attitude or political priority.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 11 March 2018

Structural Reform Needed to Ensure Brazil's Inclusive Growth

By Sean Buchanan

LONDON (IDN) – Brazil is emerging from its long recession and is headed for solid growth in 2018 and 2019 as recent structural reforms start to bear fruit, but the country still has some way to go.

The mixed outlook comes in the latest OECD Economic Survey of Brazil which notes that sustaining this recovery, unleashing Brazil's full economic potential and spreading the benefits fairly will require additional efforts to rein in public spending, increase trade and investment, and further focus social spending on those most in need.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 11 March 2018

Photo: The House of Peace on the 38th parallel, likely to be the venue of the Trump-Kim summit by May 2018. Source: lifeinkorea.com

Surprise Trump-Kim Summit by May with Global Repercussions

By Jayantha Dhanapala

The writer is a former Sri Lanka Ambassador and UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs. He was also President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs for ten years until August 2017. Click here for his previous stimulating contributions for IDN. – The Editor.

KANDY (IDN) – Donald Trump has always had the capacity to surprise us. Amidst the actions to fulfil his Presidential Campaign promise to "Make America Great Again" by slapping tariffs on friendly allies and having declared Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, he has now signalled a dramatic volte-face on talks with Kim Jong-un of the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) whom he had frequently taunted as the "little rocket man".

: Jayantha Dhanapala; OPINION; 11 March 2018

Photo: Cold War. Courtesy of Creative Commons

US Foreign Policy and Trump's Contradictions – Part 3

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the third of a five-part article looking at US foreign policy in historical context and its global implications under President Donald Trump.

BERGAMO, Italy (IDN) – The development of capitalism is global but structurally unequal: its contradictions are also expressed through the hierarchy of the system of States. And, subjectively, the great power induces great ambitions and produces great errors: hence the oscillations between rollback and containment, aggressive posture and detente.

It is known that omnipotence is the attribute of divine, not earthly power, yet there appears to be seems to be a sort of theology of disillusionment or illusion at work in the thesis of American decline which, from the discovery that power is not unlimited or constant, dates from its relentless obsolescence.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 10 March 2018

Photo: In the worst outbreak of violence against Muslims in recent years, mobs were on the rampage earller in March attacking people and property in the central hill capital Kandy. Picture shows the Kandyan terrain as viewed in 2013. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Sri Lanka’s Extremists Find a New Enemy

Viewpoint by Dr Farah Mihlar*

LONDON (IDN) – After fiercely quelling a three-decade armed conflict fought mainly on ethnic grounds, majoritarian politics in Sri Lanka has found a new enemy – the country’s nine percent Muslim community.

In the worst outbreak of violence against Muslims in recent years , Sinhalese-Buddhist mobs were on the rampage earller in March attacking people and property in the central hill capital Kandy. One Muslim was killed in the violence and dozens of Muslim owned shops and properties set ablaze. The government imposed a curfew and sent in troops, but the situation remains volatile and tensed as police are at best ineffective and at worst complicit.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 10 March 2018

Photo: Putin addressing the Federal Assembly on 1 March 2018. The presentation was attended, among others, by State Duma deputies, members of the Government, leaders of the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court, the leaders of traditional religions, public figures, as well as the leaders of major media outlets. Credit: Russian President's Website en.kremlin.ru

The Importance of Putin and Russia's Presidential Election

By Somar Wijayadasa

Somar Wijayadasa, a former UNESCO delegate to the UN General Assembly and Representative of UNAIDS at the United Nations, has been a frequent visitor to Russia since 1962 when the then Soviet Union "was a proud nation with a thriving economy, marvels of industrialization, advances in science, technology and medicine, escapades into outer space, and basking in the glory of a Super Power." – The Editor

NEW YORK (IDN) – Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is seeking re-election in the upcoming Presidential vote on March 18.

: Somar Wijayadasa; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 09 March 2018

Photo: Sri Lanka's central province Kandy (as seen in 2005). Parts of the province have been affected by the latest spate of violence. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The Timing of 'Communal' Violence in Sri Lanka Raises Questions

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 21st in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

BANGKOK (IDN) – The damage has already been done. Buddhists are accused of Islamaphobic communal attacks in Sri Lanka and tourists are cancelling their trips to the country as the international media follow a common formula denigrating the Buddhist majority, while ignoring questions that are being raised in the country on the timing of these latest “communal” attacks.

The violence against Muslim businesses and homes in Central Sri Lanka and in the East came a day before a no-confidence motion against prime mnister Ranil Wickremasinghe was to be tabled in parliament by the opposition.