By Jessica Corbett * WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – Joining global critics of a plan that President Donald Trump unveiled on January 28 to address the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on February 3 rejected the “biased” proposal and urged members states not to cooperate with U.S. efforts to enforce it. At a […]
The World as A Whole Is Getting Happier
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Can we be happier? All of us probably experience grave unhappiness at some point in our lives – a bereavement of someone close, a job loss, a bad illness, a vindictive boss, a drop in income or status, a loss of love for or from one’s partner, […]
A ‘Green’ Message Shakes Up the Industry at Mining Confab
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – After years of defending dirty extractive industries such as the mining of coal, large mining companies seemed to have switched sides and joined the Greens, or so it seemed at the African Mining Indaba held from February 3-6 in South Africa. At the Indaba, the […]
UN Avails of Famed Literature Festival to Achieve Global Goals
By Devinder Kumar JAPIPUR (IDN) – As part of a Decade of Action for accelerating sustainable solutions to all the world’s biggest challenges — ranging from poverty and gender to climate change, inequality and closing the finance gap – the United Nations availed of a new tool end of January: the world’s largest literature festival […]
Russia Shares UN Concern About Rising Terrorism in Africa
By Kester Kenn Klomegah MOSCOW, (IDN) – UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mohamed Ibn Chambas, told the UN Security Council’s first formal meeting in 2020 that the West African region has experienced “a devastating surge in terrorist attacks against civilian […]
Why Brexit Has Not and Will Not Trigger EU Disintegration
Viewpoint by Douglas Webber* LONDON (IDN) – Brexit could radically change the UK. Both Scottish independence and Northern Ireland breaking away from Britain are conceivable and Boris Johnson’s government has a lot on his plate when it comes to negotiating the country’s future relationship with the EU, all the while delivering on the promised benefits […]
Why Shutting Down Chinese ‘Wet Markets’ Could Be a Terrible Mistake
Viewpoint by Christos Lynteris and Lyle Fearnley* LONDON (IDN) – An epidemic of a new coronavirus, yet to receive a proper name by the WHO, has been developing in China and affecting other parts of the world over the past few weeks. So far, we know thousands have been infected, with nearly 200 deaths, with […]
African Union Campaigning to Achieve Peace and End Conflict
By Zipporah Musau, Africa Renewal NEW YORK (IDN) – Realising a conflict-free Africa is the dream of every African. In this edition, we highlight the current hotspots; the root causes of conflicts; the various efforts in search of peaceful co-existence and development and the African Union’s quest for silencing the guns by 2020. In 2013 African Union […]
Shantytowns Housing Thousands Demolished in Ivory Coast
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Bulldozers have begun demolishing homes built in the shantytowns of Abidjan, the commercial capital of the Ivory Coast, leaving thousands without shelter as authorities carry out plans to build a buffer zone around an international airport. This comes as large numbers of Ivorians are leaving […]
Sri Lanka Committed to Non-Proliferation and Disarmament
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA | COLOMBO (IDN) – In an exceptional move, Germany has granted funds to Sri Lanka’s Forum on Disarmament and Development (FDD) for the translation of the texts of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty (CTBT) to the island state’s official languages Sinhala and […]