1. Kofi Annan condemns latest 200 Syria killings 2. WFP suspends delivery of food to 55 thousand in North Kivu 3. UN helicopters engage M23 forces in DRC 4. Uncertain future looms in Afghanistan as foreign forces get ready for draw-down 5. WHO says children with disabilities four times more likely to experience violence 6. [...]
The UN-Arab League Joint Special Envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan, is expressing hope that the Security Council will be able to come together in a united manner and press ahead in search of peace. There are a number of Syrian proposals in front of the Council that members are debating and Mr. Annan says [...]
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon chatted live with Sina Weibo followers while on a visit to China Tuesday. Weibo is a China-based microblogging service similar to a cross between Twitter and Facebook. During his 45 minute conversation, Mr. Ban answered about 20 questions from Weibo users. According to preliminary statistics the event has attracted the [...]
1. Human Rights Council to probe expansion of Israeli settlements in OPT 2. Human Rights Council condemns Syrian violations 3. First free parliamentary vote in Libya : Ban ki Moon salutes Libyans 4. UN proposes international tax to fund development 5. Consolidation of UN Supervision in Syria to better serve people 6. UN envoy to [...]
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says the number of Syrian refugees who have sought its help since April has almost tripled to 112,000. The agency says those numbers may necessitate that a new refugee camp be built in Jordan. The government of Turkey has already announced that two to three new sites may be [...]
There is an ambitious plan to eliminate new AIDS infections among children by 2015. There is also talk that we are seeing the beginning of the end of AIDS and that an AIDS-free generation is within our grasp. The 19th International Conference on AIDS takes place from 22-27 July. I asked Craig McClure, UNICEF Chief [...]
UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on Tuesday met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the ongoing crisis in Syria. Meanwhile, the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) says army defectors and activists reportedly had been targeted in the recent deadly attack on the village of Treimseh. That assessment is based on witness accounts and [...]
One staff member of the World Health Organization (WHO) and one international consultant were injured, when their vehicle was shot at by armed men in Karachi, Pakistan. WHO said in a statement that the two men were in stable condition. The men were supporting the currently-ongoing polio National Immunization Days campaign. The agency says at [...]
Pay inequality is a heated issue with many people believing CEOs and other "fat cats" earn too much while those at the bottom of the salary scale are barely scraping by. But Raghuram Rajan, a former Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is more concerned about those caught between these two extremes. [...]
The Desert Locust threat to pastures and croplands in Niger and Mali is growing after swarms of the insects arrived in the north of the two countries last month. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says during the last three weeks, heavy rains fell in the north of both countries allowing the maturation of the [...]
Whenever global food prices rise, developing countries are hit the hardest. Senegal is one such country. Rising food prices made even the most basic foodstuffs unaffordable. Senegal needed to become more food self-sufficient, but a major obstacle was a lack of access to good quality seeds. Two years ago, the European Union decided to allocate [...]
Navi Pillay Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have launched a crackdown on human rights defenders, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The activists are being subjected to harassment, denial of travel, termination of work contracts, arrests, denaturalization and expulsion from the country. On Monday, prominent human rights activist Ahmed Abdul Khaleq [...]
The number of Somalis who have fled their country has now surpassed one million, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). Over two decades of internal conflict, coupled with persistent drought and food shortages continue to drive Somalis from their homeland and into neighbouring countries including Kenya, Ethiopia and Yemen. UNHCR considers Somalia one of [...]
Every year since 2010, on 18 July individuals around the world are encouraged to devote 67 minutes to helping others by volunteering in honour of Nelson Mandela Day. For 67 years Nelson Mandela devoted his life to the service of humanity as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peacemaker and the [...]
