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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — “Please know this: as you dive into the water, as you prepare to throw, as you step into the arena, know that you are not alone.”
With those words of encouragement, over 180 athletes from the African continent were entered in this year’s 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo.
By Mohan Srilal
COLOMBO (IDN) — Sri Lanka’s latest sporting hero Dinesh Priyantha Herath is expected to touch down in Sri Lanka to a red-carpet airport welcome on Tuesday. The life story of the F46 Javelin Throw gold medalist at the Tokyo Paralympics is an inspirational one of how to overcome disabilities both economic and physical.
When Dinesh Priyantha using his abled right arm threw the javelin a distance of 67.79 meters creating a world record and winning Sri Lanka’s first ever gold medal at a Paralympics event, it enlivened a depressed nation trying to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic.
By Razeena Raheem
NEW YORK (IDN)— Dr. Sima Sami Bahous, 65, a former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, with links to the Royal court, is the front runner for the post of new Executive Director of UN Women.
She is the lead candidate among several contenders for the job which was held by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka of South Africa since August 2013 through August 2021.
By Jamshed Baruah
GENEVA (IDN) — Worldwide youth are standing up for peace and nuclear disarmament and taking a wide range of innovative actions. The Youth Working Group of Abolition 2000 global network to eliminate nuclear weapons builds cooperation amongst these youth actions, brings youth voices into key UN and other disarmament processes. The group has launched a new online platform and youth action plan for a nuclear-weapons-free world: Youth Fusion.
Viewpoint by Robert Sandford
Robert Sandford is a Global Water Futures Fellow at the UN University's Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), which is supported by the Government of Canada and hosted at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. The Institute marks its 25th anniversary in 2021.
HAMILTON, Canada (IDN) — The outdated treaties, compacts, bilateral agreements, acts, laws, policies and hardened institutions globally that stand in the way of effective, just and resilient 21st century transboundary water management likely number in the thousands.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) — Last year, Australia was among the first countries to successfully battle the Covid-19 pandemic with lockdowns and efficient contact tracing, but, with the rapid transmission of the Delta variant, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, the politicians' fetish for lockdowns is now being questioned with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and some state leaders arguing for "opening up" after a certain threshold is reached in vaccinating the population.
By Jaya Ramachandran
GENEVA (IDN) — "Journalists and media workers, in particular women, are facing heightened risks since the Taliban’s political takeover of Afghanistan," a group of UN human rights experts has warned and called on all States to provide urgent protection to Afghan journalists and media workers who fear for their lives and are seeking safety abroad.
By Vera Yuen
The writer is Lecturer in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Hong Kong.
HONG KONG (IDN) — Hong Kong has experienced a series of unexpected political developments since 2019. The government proposed a new extradition law that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be extradited to mainland China, which triggered months of protests and social unrest.
By Denghua Zhang, ANU and Shivan, University of Fiji
While Denghua Zhang is a Research Fellow at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, The Australian National University (ANU), Shivani is Lecturer in the School of Law at the University of Fiji.
CANBERRA | SUVA (IDN) — As strategic mistrust between the United States and China continues to deepen, Pacific Island countries have taken varying approaches. With the resurgence of COVID-19, Fiji once again sees itself at the centre of great power rivalry as assistance arrives from the two big donors.
Viewpoint by P.I. Gomes
Dr P.I. Gomes is former Secretary-General of the Organisation of African, the Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), previously the ACP Group of States.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (IDN) — The commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations in January 2020 was acknowledged world-wide and accompanied by the Declaration, Our Common Agenda, containing Twelve UN 75 Commitments.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.