IDN-InDepthNews – Page 708 – News for a Sustainable World, Peace and Security

ARMAMENTS2016-09-092023-07-10

What After North Korea’s Fifth Nuclear Test?

Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf*

STOCKHOLM (IDN) – The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has reported that at 00:30 UTC, a seismic event magnitude 5.3 was detected in North Korea that possibly could be the second nuclear test carried out this year by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK/North Korea). The DPRK carried out its fourth nuclear test in January this year, following earlier tests in 2013, 2009 and 2006. Early speculative estimates put the yield close to that of the Hiroshima bomb (10-15 kilotons), which makes it the most powerful DPRK test to date.

Africa2016-09-082023-07-10

Fight Against HIV/AIDS Brings Hope to Lesotho

By Sechaba Mokhethi

QACHA’S NEK, Lesotho (IDN) – Mampiti Mohapi, a local chief of very remote Ha Nkoko village, travels ten kilometres every month to receive her antiretroviral therapy (ART) medication to counter human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

She was diagnosed with HIV in 2006 at the age of 62 but was not started on ART treatment immediately because at the time such treatment was not administered to people unless they had a CD4 count of 500 or less, which was not her case.

A CD4 count reports the number of cells in a cubic millimetre of blood, and a normal CD4 count ranges from 500 to 1,500 cells per cubic millimetre.

UN INSIDER2016-09-072023-07-10

USAID Helps FAO Track Progress in Development Goal 2

By Ronald Joshua

ROME (IDN) – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have signed a $15 million agreement aimed at boosting the capacity of developing countries to track key agricultural data – information that is essential to good policymaking and that will help track progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

FAO said in a news release on September 7, the USAID donation will cover the first phase of an FAO-led project that will run from 2016 to 2021, starting with pilot efforts in four developing countries – two in sub-Saharan Africa, one in Latin America and one in Asia. A dialogue is under way with eligible countries.

OPINION2016-09-062023-07-10

Creative Destruction in Macedonia

Viewpoint by Paul Mikov*

NEW YORK (IDN | INPS) – Bombs**, irrespective of the domains in which they are triggered, are always associated with and accompanied by destruction. This is so in theatres of military campaigns, as is in economics or politics. The only differentiation is in the nature of destruction and the possibilities that might be envisioned following, or out of, the destruction itself.

The concept of “creative destruction” that was coined by the economist Joseph Schumpeter in 1942 seems to increasingly have correspondence with and applicability for the political situation that has been developing and emerging in Macedonia over the past year or two.

OPINION2016-09-062023-07-10

Mongolia’s Contribution to a Nuclear-Weapon Free World

Viewpoint by Dr. Jargalsaikhan Enkhsaikan*

This is a slightly abridged version of the Mongolian Blue Banner NGO President Dr. Jargalsaikhan Enkhsaikan’s address to the Astana Conference on August 29, 2016 to mark the 25th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.

ULAANBAATAR | ASTANA (IDN-INPS) – Abolition of nuclear weapons is an ambitious goal that reflects seven decades of peoples’ aspirations and hopes to do away with this weapon of mass destruction. The paradox of the post cold war period is that though the number of nuclear weapons has been reduced, the number of states possessing such weapons has increased.

OPINION2016-09-062023-07-10

Behind Global Crackdown on Non-governmental Organisations

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – At a time when United States-Russia relations continue to deteriorate, Russia has blacklisted seven U.S.-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as being “undesirable” on its territory.

This cannot be ruled as another manifestation of President Vladimir Putin’s Cold War-style paranoia as this happens in hundreds of countries around the world.

In the past year, Armenia, India, Egypt, Cambodia, Russia, China and Uganda are among the countries that enforced draconian laws to regulate NGO activities – mostly on suspicion of foreign governments interfering in their internal affairs.

OPINION2016-09-062023-07-10

U.S. Invested Trillions in Wars, China in Development

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The French ambassador to the U.S. from 1902 to 1924, Jean-Jules Jusserand, observed that distant powers could not easily threaten the U.S. because “On the north, she has a weak neighbour; on the south, another weak neighbour; on the east fish and on the west, fish”.

The coming of the submarine-based nuclear missile has not changed that. Apart from the fact that no enemy would dare use them for fear of retaliation, and that there is no country in the world that feels that hostile to America (accept North Korea), the fact is America is too big and too far away to be invaded and dominated. There could not be a blitzkrieg by a foreign army across the mid-west or a Vichy America.

ARMAMENTS2016-09-062023-07-10

Field Trip to Semey, Kurchatov and the former Soviet Nuclear Weapon Test Site

UN INSIDER2016-09-052023-07-10

New UNGA President Peter Thomson to Work Closely with India

By Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK | NEW DELHI (IDN) – The implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will top the agenda of Peter Thomson of Fiji who assumes office as President of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly, when it begins on September 13.

In an interview with The Hindu during a visit to New Delhi, Thomson said he had discussed realisation of SDGs in talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “This was the basis for my candidacy, and it will be my utmost effort to ensure that in the 71st session we do whatever we can to get the wheels turning on the SDGs. India and the PGA’s (President of the General Assembly) office will work closely on this.”

ARMAMENTS2016-09-042023-07-10

Kazakhstan Claims ‘Moral Right’ to Push for Banning Nukes

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | ASTANA (IDN) – The fact that President Nursultan Nazarbayev shut down the Semipalatinsk test site “against the interests of the Soviet military authorities” even before the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan became “fully independent”, is not widely known.

The decision reflected a strong political will, the courage to translate it into reality, and put a series of follow-up measures in place which, as Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov says, give Kazakhstan “the moral right to push for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, both globally and regionally”.