By Jamshed Baruah NEW YORK | VIENNA (IDN) – Nearly three months after the death of Yukiya Amano of Japan, Rafael Mariano Grossi of Argentina has been elected as the sixth Director General of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). His election by the majority of the Agency’s board on October […]
UN’s Chemical Watchdog Bashed for Report on Alleged Chemical Attack in Syria
By Reinhard Jacobsen BRUSSELS (IDN) – A panel of experts has bashed the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for “unacceptable practices” in the investigation of the alleged chemical attack in Douma in Syrian civil war on April 7, 2018. The panel was convened on October 15, 2019 in Brussels by the Courage […]
A Glimpse of Russian Policy of Writing Off African Debts
By Kester Kenn Klomegah MOSCOW (IDN) – President Vladimir Putin hosted the first Russia-Africa summit on October 23-24 in the greatest display of Moscow’s efforts to restore its geopolitical foothold on the continent after the historical collapse of the Soviet era. Russia had played rather a crucial role in the continent during the Soviet era, […]
ACP-EU-IOM Join to Combat Refugee Crisis Across Africa
By Jeffrey Moyo CHIPINGE, Zimbabwe (IDN) – When he fled from his country’s 1994 genocide, now 63-year old Iradukunda Nyaruyonga, a Rwandese national had four teenage children whose education he thought had been prematurely ended by the civil war in the home country. Now, despite having grown up in a refugee camp, Nyaruyonga’s children are […]
New Technique Converts Plastic Waste into High-Quality Plastic
By J W Jackie RENO, Nevada, USA (IDN) – Every year, around eight million tons of plastic makes its way to our oceans, with the yearly input expected to double by the year 2025. The problem is most visible in developing nations (where garbage collection and recycling systems are inexistent or sub-par) but developed nations […]
Growing Anxiety About the Crucial 2020 NPT Review Conference
By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – The survivors of atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Mayors of the two Japanese cities whose inhabitants have experienced first-hand the mind boggling cruelty of nuclear weapons, representatives of other civil society organizations as well as the United Nations are increasingly concerned about the fate of […]
Putin and El-Sissy Greet the Outcome of Russia-Africa Summit
By Kester Kenn Klomegah MOSCOW (IDN) – The first Russia-Africa Summit that brought together African leaders, corporate businesses, academics and other experts in the Black Sea city of Sochi on October 23-24 has agreed an action plan. At the initiative of African participants, a new dialogue mechanism – the Russia-Africa partnership forum – has been […]
EU Boosts Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture in ACP States
OSLO (IDN | ACP) – The EU, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) signed at the Our Ocean 2019 conference on October 23 a €40 million, five-year programme to boost the development of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in Africa, the Caribbean […]
UN Chief Unveils Grand Design for the 75th Anniversary
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – In the midst of multiple crises compounded by paucity of funds threatening the very functioning of the United Nations, Secretary-General António Guterres has announced plans emphasizing the vital significance of the world body. Commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations in 2020, he said, will feature […]
Russia and Africa Move Towards Filling the Information Gap
By Kester Kenn Klomegah MOSCOW, (IDN) – Russian and African communication experts have moved closer to forging collaboration in bridging the information gap between the two regions as well as fight against “anti-Russian propaganda” by western and European media in Africa. Some of the popular questions the panelists tried answering during the two-hour long deliberations […]