Viewpoint by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka The writer is UN Women Executive Director. She issued this statement for International Youth Day, 2019. NEW YORK (IDN) – Sixteen-year old Gambian Jakomba Jabbie wants to be an aerospace engineer. A vocal advocate for girls’ education, she created a robotics team at school to show that girls can also participate […]
Kenya to Host a Momentous Summit of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific Nations
By Reinhard Jacobsen BRUSSELS (IDN) – The heads of state and government of the 79-nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States will gather at a momentous Summit themed ‘A Transformed ACP: Committed to Multilateralism’ from December 9-10 in Nairobi, Kenya. Laying the groundwork for finalizing the Post-Cotonou agreement as well as the revision […]
Exploding the Myth of the ‘Ugly Indian’
The new-generation tourists are the millennials, and they are anything but ugly — at least when abroad. They travel light and are averse to carrying stuff. They travel not to pick up things, but to gather experiences. By Shastri Ramachandaran* NEW DELHI (IDN) – East Asian hotels and resorts, especially in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and […]
The Devastating Arms Race Rages Unabated
Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa* “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” – U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower in ‘The Chance for Peace’ address in April 1953. NEW YORK (IDN) […]
Blue Water Navy Plays an Important Role in Russian Diplomacy
By Mark Thomas-Patterson* WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – July 28 marked Russia’s Naval Day, one of the series of military holidays celebrated in the country. The highlight of this year’s festivities was the first national fleet review in seven years, with President Vladimir Putin present at the main parade in St. Petersburg while Prime Minister Dmytry […]
Russia Prepares for Africa Summit to Elevate Economic Profile
By Kester Kenn Klomegah MOSCOW (IDN) – As Russia prepares to strengthen its overall corporate economic profile during the African leaders’ summit in Sochi in October, policy experts are questioning agreements that were signed – many of them largely unfulfilled and forgotten – at least in the past decade with African countries. Experts, such as […]
Costly City Housing Threatens Farming in Southern Kazakhstan
By Milena Melnikova* CHOLDALA, Southern Kazakhstan (IDN) – “I work six days a week, like my wife. I can sometimes take extra hours, and she takes work home. We don’t have time to grow something or raise cattle,” says Andrei Pan, who has been living in Choldala about 580 miles (or 933 km) south of the […]
ACP Group and INTERPOL Plan to Strengthen Cooperation
By Reinhard Jacobsen BRUSSELS (IDN) – The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States have expressed interest in strengthening the cooperation between the two organizations. This was underlined by the INTERPOL special representative to the European Union Pierre St. Hilaire’s meeting with the ACP Secretary General Dr. […]
No Excuse to Further Defer Action on Climate Change and Land
Viewpoint by Ibrahim Thiaw Following is the text of the response of Ibrahim Thiaw, UN Under Secretary General and Executive Secretary to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), to Special Report on Climate Change and Land by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in Geneva on August 8. BONN IDN) – We have […]
Hindu Nationalists Succeed in Depriving Jammu & Kashmir of ‘Special Status’
By Pieter J. Friedrich* GREENWOOD, Canada (IDN-INPS) – Terror grips the most militarized zone in the world after India’s Central Government terminated Jammu and Kashmir’s 70-year-old “special status” as the first step towards stripping the disputed region of statehood entirely. Internationally infamous as the world’s hottest potential nuclear flashpoint, J&K originally acceded to India in […]