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By Devinder Kumar
NEW DELHI (IDN) – In 2018, the first 100% organic state in the world, Sikkim in the North of India, received the Gold Award of the UN backed Future Policy Award, also known as ‘Oscar’ for best policies. The policy enhances soil fertility and increases biodiversity at field and landscape level. Further states in India and the Himalayas have adopted 100% organic farming goals or aim to adopt them.
By António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
NEW YORK (IDN) – Our planet is changing dramatically. Forests are burning, sea ice is shrinking, and the Greenland icecap is pouring unprecedented amounts of water into the ocean. Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are higher than they have been in human history, climate disruption is the new reality, and scientists are warning that the planet is simply not capable of coping with the growing pressure being placed on it by humanity.
Since I became Secretary-General, I have witnessed what it means to live in a world that is, on average, one degree Celsius hotter than it was before the industrial revolution. I have come to know the dramatic force of natural disasters supercharged by climate change.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
KATHMANDU (IDN) – The democratically elected Communist Party government in this former Hindu Kingdom is trying to change decades old media laws that were enacted before the digital age and is running into opposition from journalists who fear that the government is trying to muzzle a free media.
“The communist party came to power with a two-thirds majority in 2017 and they didn’t come to enhance media freedom,” argues Kunda Dixit, Editor and publisher of the popular weekly Nepali Times. But he believes that the government does not want to do it suddenly.
By Alisher Kukanbekov
KHOROG (IDN) – “I’m surely grateful to have lived in the Soviet Union. Our lives moved rather slower back then, we didn’t have to worry about putting food on the table. Everyone was equal,” says Amid, recalling the days when Tajikistan was part of the Soviet Union.
It is not uncommon for older people in the Central Asian region that was under the Soviet Union to express such nostalgia for the communist era, as the capitalistic get rich fast skim fades away failing to deliver a better lifestyle.
BRUSSELS (ACP Press) – Dr Pendo Maro, team leader of the Intra-ACP GCCA+ Programme – an initiative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group funded by the European Development Fund (EDF) – recently chaired a panel discussion on the progress and successes of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the Caribbean region during the Regional Dialogue on NDCs for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Regional Dialogue was held on 19 to 20 August during the Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week 2019 (LACCW), from 19 to 23 August in Salvador de Bahía, Brazil.
By Shanta Roy
NEW YORK (IDN) – India, Pakistan and Israel, three countries armed with nuclear weapons, are not recognized as nuclear weapon states by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) – a “privilege” bestowed only on the world’s five major nuclear powers: the U.S., UK, Russia, France and China, which are also members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)
But in a report titled “António Guterres backs India’s coveted NSG membership”, the New Delhi-based Economic Times said “India has received a shot in the arm for its civil nuclear program from the UN, with Secretary-General António Guterres announcing support for Delhi’s NSG membership in his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi” (on August 25).
By Kalinga Seneviratne
This article is the 34th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous articles.
GANGTOK, Sikkim (IDN) – Since the special status accorded under section 370 in the Indian constitution to Jammu and Kashmir was abrogated by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 5, 2019, there has been a sense of unease among the people of the northern Indian state of Sikkim – which also enjoys special status under Section 371F enshrined in the Indian constitution. This unease is felt mainly by the Buddhists who feel that the special protections given to them could be taken away.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – As state-sponsored violence threatens Latinos in the U.S., xenophobia is again threatening Nigerians and other Africans whose shops in Johannesburg are being targeted for looting and destruction by unknown groups.
The latest spate of violence broke out in suburbs south of Johannesburg’s city center and spread to the central business district.
More than 50 mainly foreign-owned shops and business premises were destroyed, according to local news accounts. Cars and properties were torched and widespread looting took place.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) - Gabonese President Ali Bongo is receiving medical treatment in London after his health deteriorated during a visit to the city, according to people familiar with the matter.
But news of the absent president was immediately contradicted in an official press release this week in a pattern common to many ailing leaders. The leader of this oil-producing country is merely spending time at his London residence while on a short period of leave, the official statement read. He is undergoing routine medical checks and will soon return to Gabon.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The gloves are off in Hong Kong. Judging from the pictures on September 3 BBC News the police no longer have any compunction about beating protestors. Ironically, they don’t appear to get close to the fringe of protestors who are using violent tactics. Rather they are swinging their batons left right and centre at any young person they meet, even chasing them on to the metro trains where commuters get thwacked too.
It reminds me vividly of the tough sheriffs of Alabama and Mississippi in the 1960s who used dogs against the civil rights protestors and cracked heads.
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.