By Anna Kucirkova UNIVERSAL CITY, Texas (IDN-INPS) – Fresh water is the most important resource for human life on earth. People can survive far longer without food than without water, and virtually all of our food sources require fresh water to grow or create. Global climate change and the exponential increase in population has led […]
UN Inching Towards Peace Talks on Yemen
By J Nastranis Fourteen million civilians are on the edge of famine in Yemen. Starvation is on the horizon, warns WFP‘s chief David Beasley. What he has seen during a recent visit to the country is “the stuff of nightmares, horror, deprivation and misery”. UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy Martin Griffiths is therefore at pains to […]
China Chides U.S. for Portraying Silk Road as ‘Trap’
By Devinder Kumar PORT MORESBY (IDN) – China’s President Xi Jinping has rejected U.S. criticism of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, vowing it is not “a trap” and that it is not designed to serve any hidden geopolitical agenda. The project is also known as Silk Road Economic Belt. Xi was addressing a meeting of […]
Finland Eyes Nuclear Power to Hit Climate Targets
By Jeffrey Donovan The author is Press and Public Information Officer of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), based in Vienna. This article first appeared on the IAEA website on November 16, 2018. VIENNA (IDN-INPS) – Along the pine-lined shores of Finland’s bucolic western coast, a clean energy vision of the Nordic country’s future is quietly […]
A Punitive Approach to Iran’s Missile Activities Will Not Fix the Problem
Europe Should Promote a Regional Security Mechanism in the Middle East Viewpoint by Dr Tytti Erästö * European powers deserve credit for their efforts to maintain the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but their current coercive approach to Iran’s missiles is counterproductive, writes Dr Tytti Erästö, a researcher in the Stockholm International Peace […]
ASEAN Refrains from Taking Sides as Trade Dominates Summit
By Kalinga Seneviratne SINGAPORE (IDN) – Addressing a media conference at the close of the three-day 33rd ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Summit on November 15, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong expressed fears that “circumstances may come” where the regional organization would have to “choose one over the other”. Though not naming […]
Conserving Biodiversity is Key to Mitigating Climate Change
By J C Suresh TORONTO (IDN) – An area almost the size of Australia – up to 724 million hectares in all – will be required by 2050 for cultivating bioenergy, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Platform on Climate Change (IPCC) on limiting climate warming to 1.5C. Models foresee that demand for […]
Slum Dwellers in 79 ACP Countries Draw the Focus
By Robert Johnson BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – Transforming ACP cities, leaving no one behind engaging in large scale investments in slums is the central theme of the three-day 3rd ACP-EC-UN-Habitat International Tripartite Conference in Brussels, headquarters of the European Union and the capital of Belgium. The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is an […]
Reconciliation Continues to Evade Serbia-Kosovo Relations
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – One hundred years after the end of the First World War, which was triggered by a crisis in the Balkans, peace in the region is nowhere within reach yet. This has been highlighted by a senior United Nations official in his regular briefing to the UN Security Council […]
Aral Sea Promises to Rise Like Phoenix from the ‘Ashes’
By Radwan Jakeem NEW YORK (IDN) – The zone of destruction created as a consequence of what has been called “one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters” has long crossed the frontiers of Central Asia, demanding urgent measures from the international community. Every year more than 150 million tons of toxic dust from the bottom […]