16 March 2015 (RT)* – Fifty years since Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov made the historic first step into space, RT is bringing you special coverage – and a chance to have your question answered by the pioneer spacewalker himself.
On March 18, 1965, a small two-man Voskhod-2 spacecraft shot into Earth’s orbit with a breakthrough mission for humankind. The world watched breathlessly as the ship’s commander, Pavel Belyaev, radioed to Earth that “man has gone out into outer space.”
Stockholm, 16 March 2015 (SIPRI)* – The United States has taken a firm lead as the major arms exporter globally, according to new data on international arms transfers published today by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Overall, the volume of international transfers of major conventional weapons grew by 16 per cent between 2005–2009 and 2010–14.
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Source: International Campain to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
The volume of US exports of major weapons rose by 23 per cent between 2005–2009 and 2010–14.
The USA’s share of the volume of international arms exports was 31 per cent in 2010–14, compared with 27 per cent for Russia.
Russian exports of major weapons increased by 37 per cent between 2005–2009 and 2010–14.
During the same period, Chinese exports of major arms increased by 143 per cent, making it the third largest supplier in 2010–14, however still significantly behind the USA and Russia.
Tens of thousands of children are in urgent need of assistance in Vanuatu in the aftermath of Cyclone Pam. UNICEF is supporting families in the island country and its neighbours with critical services disrupted by the category 5 storm.
Photo: UNICEF
SUVA, 15 March 2015 – Tens of thousands of children are in urgent need of assistance in Vanuatu after tropical Cyclone Pam ripped through the island.*
“Around 60,000 children in Vanuatu are affected,” said Isabelle Austin, UNICEF Pacific Deputy Representative. “We are particularly concerned about their health, nutrition, safety, schooling and recovery.”
The category 5 storm hit late on Friday night (13 March) and continued into the early hours of Saturday morning, leaving children at particular risk.
“It felt like the world was coming to an end,” said UNICEF’s Alice Clements, one of UNICEF’s staff members who was in the capital, Port Vila, when the storm hit.
“Our life before the war was very ordinary,” says Wazzam, thinking back to the years his family spent in Raqqa, Syria. “Our doors were open all night. We feared nothing. It was difficult at times to find work, but our minds were at peace because it was safe.”
Source: UNHCR
13 March 2015 – The long journey he has since made with his wife, Ayesha, and their six children from their home in eastern Syria to a refugee camp in southern Turkey traces the arc of the country’s devastating conflict, which is now entering its fifth year.
Raqqa, their former home and the provincial capital of Syria’s oil-rich eastern province, has been engulfed in unrest for well over a year. There were months of bombardment from the air and land as opposition groups fought street battles with government forces. Then those groups turned on each other, fighting for months for dominance.
Wazzam remembers those days and nights vividly. As fighting spread and intensified, he says, the city of 500,000 people descended into lawlessness.
As the Syrian conflict enters its fifth year, it is shameful that even the basic demand for full humanitarian access has not been met, Oscar-winning actress and United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) Special Envoy, Angelina Jolie said on 14 March 2015.
UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie (right) records the stories of refugees who have just escaped the war in Syria at the Jaber border crossing in Jordan on 18 June 2013. Photo: UNHCR/O. Laban-Mattei
“It is deeply alarming that the international response so clearly falls short of what is needed to end the conflict in Syria,” Jolie emphasized in a statement.*
According to the UN, over 220,000 Syrians have been killed, and almost half of the country’s men, women and children have been forced to flee their homes since the conflict in Syria erupted in March 2011.
More than 4 million people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, while a further 7.6 million are displaced within Syria.
LONDON, 13 March 2015 (IRIN)* – The risk of people being displaced by natural disasters has quadrupled in the last 40 years and, unless governments adopt national and global plans to address the main drivers of displacement, increasing numbers of people will lose their homes to floods, earthquakes and landslides in the future.
**Photo: Jefri Aries/IRIN | Survivors survey the ruins of their former homes after the 2004 tsunami that hit West Aceh
This is the main message of areport released on Thursday [12 March 2015] by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) ahead of the third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction due to take place in Sendai, Japan in the coming days.
UN member states are expected to adopt a global plan to reduce disaster risk that will build on the Hyogo Framework for Action adopted 10 years ago.
The Hyogo Framework addressed disaster risk reduction but not the risk of being displaced by a disaster.
Meetings in Morocco arranged by the United Nations that brought together participants in the Libyan political dialogue have concluded on 13 March 2015, having covered substantive and procedural issues on the way forward.
Special Representative and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Bernardino León briefs the press in Morocco. Photo: UNSMIL
The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has proposed resuming the political dialogue next Thursday, 19 March, in Morocco, with the time between to allow for more consultations and further work on the draft documents that were presented in the earlier discussions.8
“This is a dialogue, whose purpose is to reach a solution and to reach a solution because Libya cannot wait anymore,” the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNSMIL, Bernardino Leon, told a news conference after the meetings ended.
“The Mission hopes that the parties will come back next Thursday ready to address the final stage of the talks.”
In Morocco, participants renewed their commitment to the dialogue as the sole mechanism for the resolution of political differences and noted the need to work quickly to reach agreement to draw Libya out of its crisis and bring peace and stability.
“The crisis in Libya is deepening in all aspects, in political security, economic and financial aspects,” Leon said.
“We have conveyed to the parties a sense of urgency. Libya has no time.”
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 