• A deadly cholera outbreak in Sierra Leone has killed nearly 300 people with more than 18,000 cases reported since the beginning of the year. The World Health Organization (WHO) calls it the country's worst in nearly four decades. WHO and the International Red Cross/Red Crescent are helping Sierra Leone to control the [...]
Germany assumed the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council in September with a view to focus on three particular issues – children and armed conflict, the Arab world and Afghanistan. Ambassador Peter Wittig told Gerry Adams the Council is working on improving accountability for such crimes as the recruitment of child soldiers and other [...]
Sierra Leone is in the grip of a deadly cholera outbreak which the World Health Organization (WHO) calls the country's worst in nearly four decades. The intestinal infection, caused by contaminated water or food, has killed nearly 300 people and more than 18,000 cases have been reported since the beginning of the year. WHO and [...]
Active ageing and the participation of older people in Europe were the focus of a two-day ministerial meeting that ended in Vienna on Thursday. The meeting was organized by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) which says it's no secret that the continent is growing older. While European countries have made great progress in [...]
Governments around the world have been urged not to place the burden of financial problems on the backs of the poor. The call was reiterated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the launch of his 2012 report on the MDG Gap Task Force on Thursday. The Task Force was created five years ago to track [...]
A $1.6 billion humanitarian appeal to assist millions of hungry people in Africa's Sahel region is nearly 60 per cent funded, according to UN humanitarian agencies and their partners. They also expect that malnutrition levels and food insecurity will ease because good rains will increase cereal production and there is a likely drop in [...]
The release of prisoners of conscience by the government of Myanmar has been welcomed by the United Nations independent expert on the situation of human rights in the Asian country. Tomás Ojea Quintana renewed his call on the government of Myanmar to immediately release all the remaining prisoners of conscience without conditions. Donn Bobb reports. [...]
A good response by donors has contained a food and nutrition crisis in the Sahel region of Africa, according to a senior United Nation humanitarian official. UN humanitarian agencies and their partners say the appeal for $1.6 billion to help millions of hungry people in the region is 60 per cent funded. David Greesly, UN [...]
The 2012 Olympics are now a fading memory, but the sporting spirit lives on in Timor-Leste where more than 300 people recently competed in a gruelling bike race that promotes peace and development. The Tour de Timor took riders throughout the island nation and, for the first time ever, into the territory of West Timor [...]
The Cholera outbreak in Sierra Leone continues to escalate with the number of cases reported now close to 19,000, according to the World Health Organization(WHO). The disease has already claimed 273 lives. WHO says 12 of the country's 13 districts are now reporting cholera cases with the capital Freetown being the epicenter of the outbreak. [...]
