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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | NAIROBI (IDN) — Kenya’s crucial rainy season came up short this year with only a few showers, wiping out livestock and putting millions of people at risk.
Photographs from Wajir County, near the border with Somalia, show dying and dead cows in a desert dotted with thorn trees. The longest dry spell in memory is pushing pastoralists nearer to starvation. “If they die,” said one herder referring to his camels, “we all die.”
By Radwan Jakeem
NEW YORK | ISLAMABAD (IDN) — A senior UN official has painted a grim picture of Afghanistan with 23 million people facing hunger; malnourished children overflowing in health facilities; 70 per cent of teachers working without salaries; and millions of students—who are the country's future—out of school.
The UN's Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator said, Afghanistan’s economy is in “free fall”, and warned that if decisive and compassionate action is not taken immediately, it may “pull the entire population with it”.
By UN News
NEW YORK (IDN) — Secretary-General António Guterres received the Lamp of Peace award on December 18, a major honour from the Catholic Church, which he said recognizes the work of UN personnel “striving for peace around the world”.
Reminding that after the horrors of World War in the 20th Century, “the UN was created in the name of peace”, he affirmed that “we are united here today in our pursuit of peace”.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah*
MOSCOW (IDN) — Russian policy experts and academic researchers have been upbeat with heated reactions, especially in the local media on the current state of affairs between the United States, Europe and Russia, and the prospects of moving forward. The focus has been on the key questions dealing with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its eastward expansion, security in the former Soviet republics and the much-speculated Russia's war on Ukraine.
By Marie Terracol and Ida Nowers
BERLIN (IDN | Transparency International) — Whistleblowing is one of the most effective ways to detect and prevent harm. Still, only 47 per cent of European citizens feel they can safely report corruption, with 45 per cent fearing reprisals for speaking up. Far too often, those who witness malpractice are not empowered to say something, and when they do, face personal, professional or legal attacks, harming their mental and even physical well-being. Robust legislation is key to protect individuals who blow the whistle and ensure that the wrongdoing they report is addressed.
The following is the text of an Open Letter Issued by Mayors for Peace to NPT States Parties.
HIROSHIMA (IDN) — On behalf of Mayors for Peace, a global non-governmental organization with 8,059 member cities, we are writing to express our views prior to the NPT Review Conference that will open next January in New York.
We urge all participants to recall the solemn historical circumstances facing this conference. The use of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had catastrophic humanitarian consequences.
By Sri Krishnamurthi for Asia-Pacific Report
WELLINGTON (IDN) — The world’s highest paid rugby player, Charles Piutau, is delighted he will be eligible to play for Tonga now that World Rugby has changed its eligibility rules.
In one of his rare New Zealand interviews, he told Pacific Media Network’s Tongan programme with Tangata Pasifika’s John Pulu he was surprised and relieved that world rugby had changed its eligibility rules.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SINGAPORE (IDN) — A new 414 kilometres high-speed rail link between China and Laos has finally opened landlocked mountainous Laos to the region and made it possible for trade and tourism to expand across Southeast Asia. This link has technically facilitated rail travel from China to Singapore, and land-based trade that could make the South China Sea less important for regional trade.
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene
The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.
ABUJA (IDN) — It’s not been a merry run-up to Christmas for many Nigerian travellers. It all started with Canada, Saudi Arabia, and then the UK, red-listing Nigeria (and 10 other African countries) for the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in spite of relatively low reported cases.
By Emi Hayakawa
This article is the 48th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous reports. Emi Hayakawa is Head of Global Operations, BTN (Buddhist Television Network) World, South Korea.
SEOUL (IDN) — The celebrated “birthplace” of contemporary Korean Catholicism was originally a Buddhist hermitage and temple, the history of which is being ruthlessly erased from modern Korean narrative, with an information plate on the site today misrepresenting an important part of the country’s religious history.
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.