16/10/2014
The protection of biodiversity is directly related to the eradication of poverty and stimulation of economic growth, senior United Nations officials on 15 October 2014 stressed at a meeting in Republic of Korea, calling on countries to take an integrated approach when it comes to development.
A Cheetah mother with her two cubs in Kenya. (Image used under license from Shutterstock.com) | Source: UN News Centre
“Maintaining biodiversity is related not only to direct conservation measures, but also to pursuing poverty reduction and human development in ways which are sustainable. This is of critical importance to the success of the post-2015 development agenda,” said Helen Clark, Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) at the opening of the High Level segment of the of the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP-12) in Pyeongchang.
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16/10/2014
15 October 2014 – As the world celebrates the seventh annual Global Handwashing Day, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is spotlighting how the simple practice not only saves lives, but is also instrumental in the fight against Ebola.
In Conakry, Guinea, a mobilizer teaches children about proper handwashing techniques, which help prevent the spread of diseases, including Ebola. Photo: UNICEF/Timothy La Rose
“Handwashing with soap is one of the cheapest, most effective ‘vaccines’ against viral diseases, from the seasonal flu, to the common cold,” Sanjay Wijesekera, head of UNICEF’s global water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programmes, said in astatement on the Day.
UNICEF is using this year’s Day to raise awareness about Ebola in the affected countries, counter misconceptions and promote handwashing to combat the further spread of the disease. The agency has distributed protective supplies such as gowns, gloves, and bleach – as well as 1.5 million bars of soap in Sierra Leone alone, and millions more in Liberia and Guinea.
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14/10/2014
By Johan Galtung*, 13 Oct 2014 – TRANSCEND Media Service — More senseless bombing of Muslims, more defeats for USA-West, more ISIS-type movements, more West-Islam polarization. Any way out?.
**Photo: An American F/A-18C Hornet aboard the USS George H.W. Bush prior to the launch of operations over Iraq | Author: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Margaret Keith | Wikimedia Commons
“ISIS, Islamic State in Iraq-Syria, appeals to a Longing for the Caliphate” writes Farhang Johanpour in an IPS column. For the Ottoman Caliphate with the Sultan as Caliph–the Shadow of God on Earth–after the 1516-17 victories all over till the collapse of both Empire and Caliphate in 1922, at the hands of the allies England-France-Russia.
Imagine the collapse of the Vatican, not Catholic Christianity, at the hands of somebody, Protestant or Orthodox Christians, meaning Anglo-Americans or Russians, or Muslims. A center in this world for the transition to the next, headed by a Pope, the apostolic successor to The Holy Spirit, an emanation of God in Heaven. Imagine it gone.
And imagine that they who had brought about the collapse had a tendency to bomb, invade, conquer, dominate Catholic countries, one after the other, like after 2 Bush wars in Afghanistan-Iraq, 5 Obama wars in Pakistan-Yemen-Somalia-Libya-Syria, and “special operations”. Would we not predict [1] a longing for the Vatican, and [2] an extreme hatred of the perpetrators? Fortunately, it did not happen.
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14/10/2014
Tunis, 14 October 2014 (IRIN)* – In Zarzis, a small port city of some 70,000 in southeastern Tunisia, fishermen plying the Mediterranean have become inadvertent saviours, rescuing boatloads of illegal migrants to Europe setting out from the shores of Libya.
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**Photo: Nicholas Linn/IRIN | Tunisian fishermen are increasingly being forced to act as coastguards
Ahmed is one of them. He squints in the bright light as fishing boats with names scrawled in Arabic across their sterns bob gently around him. He sits on a pile of nets, his broad woven mdhalla hat angled back on his head, while in the distance, large cargo ships sit docked in a nearby commercial port.
On their two to three day fishing trips Ahmed and his colleagues often come across boats full of migrants who have been set adrift by smugglers in boats with little fuel or whose motors break down.
“With no government left in Libya, there’s plenty of harraga [burners],” he said, using the local word for illegal migrants. Too often, he said, fishing trips have to be cut short to drag the harraga to shore.
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13/10/2014
New York, 13 October 2014 (IFAD)* – News coverage of two of the world’s biggest migration stories in recent months rarely included the voices and stories of migrants themselves, according to a report funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and presented at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Friday, 10 October at a media briefing entitled “Food + Migration: Untold stories”. Those missing voices could be sounding an alarm about an impending food crisis.
Zimbabwean migrants at a temporary shelter in South Africa. Photo: Guy Oliver/IRIN
The report, prepared by Sam Dubberley, a fellow of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, looks at how 19 large global and regional news organizations covered issues related to migration and, in particular, food security and agriculture and how it impacted on migration.
It focuses on two stories that made headlines over the summer of 2014 – the US/Mexico border crisis and the ongoing conflict in South Sudan, which created a large numbers of migrants.
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12/10/2014
As violence between the PKK and Islamic State continues in Kobane, the different players in the long running Turkey-PKK conflict examine their options.
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Union of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK)
The Kurdistan Workers Party are a group of armed guerrilla fighters who historically aimed to create an autonomous Kurdistan region in part of Turkey.
Founded in 1978, the group have fought a bloody war with the Turkish state which has cost over 40,000 lives and are classified as a terrorist organisation by the US, EU and NATO.
Led by Abdullah Ocalan, who has been in prison since 1999 after being captured by the CIA, the party has in recent years moved away from Marxist-Leninism and the goal of an independent state and has moved towards what Ocalan has termed ‘Democratic Confederalism’ inspired by the writings of American anarchist theorist Murray Bookchin (whom Ocalan read avidly while in prison in Turkey).
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11/10/2014
An estimated 70 million girls aged 15 to 19 report being victims of some form of physical violence while around 120 million girls under the age of 20 have experienced forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts, while 70 per cent of girls aged 15 to 19 who had been victims of physical or sexual violence never sought help as many said they did not think it was abuse or did not see a problem, according a new UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report released on the occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child.
Photo: UNICEF
The United Nations has paid tribute to the almost one billion young and adolescent girls living around the world as many of them continue to face daily challenges to their development and overall diminished potential due to the enduring scourge of gender discrimination and violence.
“All over the world, an alarming number of adolescent girls are assaulted, beaten, raped, mutilated and even murdered,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 10 October 2014 announced in his message marking the third annual International Day of the Girl Child.*
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11/10/2014
10 October 2014 – The continuing application of the death penalty is a “cruel practice” that undermines human dignity, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said as he urged Member States to “reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights” and impose moratoriums on executions.
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré
In a video message issued to an event that took place yesterday at the UN Office in Geneva to mark the annual observance of the World Day against the Death Penalty, the Secretary-General noted that an increasing number of States from all regions of the world had acknowledged the failure of capital punishment as a means to exact justice.*
The death penalty, Ban said, does not deter crimes more than any other punishment and its abolition or moratorium can contribute “to the enhancement and progressive development of human rights.”
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11/10/2014
Dubai, 10 October 2014 (IRIN)* –The World Food Programme (WFP) is facing a US$40 million deficit for its Afghanistan programmes, as aid agencies fear that foreign troop withdrawal will lead to decreasing budgets for humanitarian action.
**Photo: Mohammad Popal/IRIN | Displaced children from Helmand in southern Afghanistan (File photo)
WFP has already decreased the size of food packages for hundreds of thousands of people and the agency’s country head said that without more support they will have to take “dramatic” measures, which could including stopping assistance altogether for some groups.
US-led foreign troops are due to cease combat operations as part of their staggered withdrawal at the end of 2014, though thousands of troops will remain in the country in other capacities.
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10/10/2014
By Zhang Kai*, 10 October, 2014, Greenpeace — Usually it’s only locals that have to suffer through Beijing’s notorious air pollution. But as records in air quality are smashed, celebrities and sport stars in town this week are forced to power through as well. Mariah Carey, top cyclists and football star Lionel Messi will get a taste today of Airpocalypse – episodes of extreme air pollution.
Credit: Wu Di/Greenpeace
For the first time this year, air quality reached “hazardous levels”, or 215 times “safe” levels, for over 50 hours. This is the longest Beijingers have been forced to breathe this sort of air this year.
Parents, children, students and even visiting football star, Lionel Messi who is in Beijing for a football match this year, have been going about their daily business in air so noxious and thick with pollutants that visibility is down to 500 metres.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 
**Scene from an anti-PKK demonstration in Kadıköy, İstanbul, on 22 October 2007. | Author: QuartierLatin1968 | Wikimedia Commons