IDN-InDepthNews – Page 758 – News for a Sustainable World, Peace and Security

GLOBAL ISSUES2016-02-032023-07-10

Buddhist Revival in China Fuels Animal Welfare Movement

By Kalinga Seneviratne*

This article is the first in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Feature and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

SINGAPORE (IDN | Lotus News Features) – A Buddhist revival in China is fuelling a growing animal welfare movement across the country with the Chinese government poised to revise the decades-old animal welfare act. In January, the National People’s Congress (NPC) started soliciting public comments on four draft laws. One is the revision of the Wildlife Protection Law, which came into effect in 1989.

ARTS & CULTURE2016-02-032023-07-10

A Poet Takes Her Verse to the People with Slam

PARIS – To those who like to say that poetry is dead, Elizabeth Acevedo has a ready answer: poetry is by no means dead, it’s just constantly taking on new forms. And slam is one of these transmutations, where poets recite their work on stage, engaging directly with the audience.

“I see hundreds of young people at slam performances,” says Acevedo, a prize-winning writer and performer based in Washington, D.C. “But some people would like to dismiss this as just yelling. That makes me want to rebel.”

Acevedo was a member of the Beltway team that won the 2014 National Poetry Slam in the United States, by delivering impassioned, uncompromising verse. Since then she has been touring colleges, conducting workshops and giving lectures.

Individual Journalists, SYNDICATION2016-02-022023-07-12

Brazil has Seen the Future, and it Works

LONDON – “Brazil has a great future, and always will,” said Charles de Gaulle, the president of France in the 1960s. In truth it is not difficult to be cynical about Brazil. It is a large land of both great potential and many lost opportunities – and yet whenever I visit it, as I have regularly over 40 years, I find the positive changes are immense.

Africa2016-02-022023-07-10

Africa’s Nonstop Sun Now Powers a Solar Bus

NEW YORK | KAMPALA – The Ugandan manufacturers of a solar-powered bus are showing off their creation at a stadium in Kampala. A 35-seater, it uses two batteries and the direct rays of an equatorial sun.

Solar panels attached to the roof power the 35-seater. Hopefully, partners will be found to help manufacture the bus for the mass market.

The brainchild of Kiira Motors Corporation (KMC) of Uganda, the bus was dubbed ‘Kayoola’ – loosely translated as ‘mass carrier’.

Africa2016-02-022023-07-10

Nigeria’s Woes Begin as Oil Price Plummets

NEW YORK | ABUJA – Tumbling oil prices have been a gift to some but they’ve blown a huge hole in Nigeria’s balance sheet which some fear may set the once promising African economy into a tail spin.

What could be worse than finding you have a trillion dollar budget gap and an insurgent group that threatens to hit whatever oil wells remain?

Nigeria startled the finance markets by announcing plans to ask the World Bank and the African Development Bank for a $3.5 billion loan.

Africa2016-02-022023-07-10

AIDS Quietly Taking its Toll in Kenya

NEW YORK | NAIROBI – Africa appears to be registering lower AIDS infection rates around the continent but with some exceptions. A new pediatric study has found that 19,000 children in Homa Bay county, Kenya, are infected with HIV.

While HIV is rarely a page one story these days, the virus is particularly rampant in Kenya where one in every four people in the county of Homa Bay, bordering Lake Victoria, lives with HIV. The area contributes the highest number of new infections in the country, recording 15,000 new HIV infections in 2013 alone, according to the Kenya HIV Prevention Revolution Road Map 2014.

UN INSIDER2016-02-012023-07-10

Japan and Kazakhstan Campaign for Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

VIENNA | TOKYO (IDN) – As the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) prepares to convene a ministerial meeting in June, Kazakhstan and Japan have reaffirmed their commitment to intensify their efforts toward entry into force of the Treaty.

During the first week of the symposium ‘Science and Diplomacy for Peace and Security’ from January 25 to February 4, representatives of the two countries in Vienna assured that they would set forth their efforts initiated by their respective foreign ministers in September 2015 at the United Nations headquarters in New York. READ IN JAPANESE

ARMAMENTS2016-02-012023-07-10

Japan and Kazakhstan Campaign for Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

By Ramesh Jaura | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

VIDEOS2016-02-012023-07-10

Disarmament Talk with CTBTO Executive Secretary Dr Lassina Zerbo

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During the symposium ‘Science and Diplomacy for Peace and Security: the CTBT@20’ from 25 January to 4 February 2016 at the Vienna International Centre in Austria, IDN-InDepthNews (IDN), flagship ofthe International Press Syndicate (INPS), interviewed Dr. Lassia Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). The interview focuses on what the CTBT is about, why it has not yet entered into force, and what the CTBTO is doing to overcome hurdles on way to its becoming a de jure global treaty.

CTBTO2016-02-012023-07-10