20/03/2015
Numerous sources of income, from oil sales to human trafficking, mean that IS’s reported annual budget of $2bn might be conservative.
Photo: ISIS may have gained international prominence for its criminal activities, it has also developed several more mainstream funding sources (AA) | Source: Middle East Eye
19 March 2015 (Middle East Eye) – Sheikh Abu Saad al-Ansari, a senior religious figure in Mosul, northern Iraq, revealed earlier this year that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS) has approved its first annual budget of $2bn for 2015, with an expected surplus of $250m.
David S Cohen, the US Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, has also seemingly confirmed this number by saying that the budget for the areas controlled by IS was more than $2bn a year.
If true, this would make IS the wealthiest “jihadi” movement in history, exceeding even the central branch of al-Qaeda.
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20/03/2015
Happiness for the entire human family is one of the main goals of the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared, as the Organization kicked-off its global celebrations marking the annual observance of the International Day of Happiness on 20 March 2015.*
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Children from the Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced perform traditional dances at the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, El Fasher, Sudan. UN Photo/Albert Gonzalez Farran
“Peace, prosperity, lives of dignity for all – this is what we seek. We want all men, women and children to enjoy all their human rights. We want all countries to know the pleasure of peace,” the Secretary-General said in his message for the Day.
“We want people and planet alike to be blessed with sustainable development, and to be spared the catastrophic impacts of climate change.”
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20/03/2015
Amid ongoing fighting between Government forces and Boko Haram insurgents, the effects of the crisis in north-eastern Nigeria are increasingly reverberating across the region, two senior United Nations humanitarian officials on 19 March 2015 said, as they urged international donors to ramp up financial support for relief efforts.
A group of Nigerian refugees rest in the Cameroon town of Mora after fleeing armed Boko Haram attacks. Photo: UNHCR/D. Mbaoirem
Briefing the press at UN Headquarters in New York, John Ging, Operations Director for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and Afshan Khan, Director of Emergency Programmes for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), reported on the growing tragedy facing civilians following their recent visit to the city of Yola, near the Nigerian-Cameroonian border.
“The people of north-east Nigeria have suffered immensely,” stated Ging.
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20/03/2015
Women, children and the elderly are disproportionately bearing the devastating impact of the protracted conflict in Ukraine, which has left five million people in need of humanitarian assistance, senior United Nations officials on 19 March 2015 said, as they stressed the “grave and urgent need” to scale up international relief efforts.
Residents walk along the main road of Nikishino village in eastern Ikraine. Photo: UNHCR Andrew McConnell
Accessing vulnerable populations and lack of funding remain the two biggest obstacles to getting the help to where it is needed most, John Ging, Director of Operations, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a press conference in New York.*
Fresh off a multi-agency visit to Ukraine and Nigeria, Ging, who was joined by Afshan Khan, Director at the Office of Emergency Programmes, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), called his trip an “unprecedented mission.”
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19/03/2015
By Kumi Naidoo*
18 March, 2015 — Reports that the growth in carbon pollution paused last year should give heart to climate campaigners and clean energy investors around the world. The figures, from the International Energy Agency, no less, will come as a cold shower to those who still believe that burning fossil fuels is inextricably bound to economic growth.
Photo credit: Ferina Natasya/Greenpeace
For the first time in 40 years, global carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector did not increase. During 2014, the global economy grew by 3 percent but emissions remained at 2013 levels.
“This is a real surprise. We have never seen this before”, IEA chief economist Fatih Birol was reported as saying.
Whether a blip or a tipping point, it is an indication that renewable energy and energy efficiency are becoming serious game-changers.
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18/03/2015
By Kate Shuttleworth and Joe Dyke*
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JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, 18 March 2015 (IRIN)* – Shortly before Israel’s elections on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that as long as he remained in power there would be no independent Palestinian state.
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**Photo: Ahmed Dalloul/IRIN | The summer’s war in Gaza was only a sideline issue in the Israeli elections, but does Netanyahu’s victory increase the chances of another conflict?
“Whoever moves to establish a Palestinian state or intends to withdraw from territory is simply yielding territory for radical Islamic terrorist attacks against Israel,” he said.
The announcement was a major part of a strategy that saw Netanyahu rise from polling several points behind the more liberal Zionist Union a few days before the vote to surprise election victory and a likely fourth term in office.
While the election was fought more over economics than relations with the Palestinians, where does his explicit rejection of the two-state solution leave the peace process?
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18/03/2015
By Pepe Escobar*
17 March 2015 (RT)* – US Secretary of State John Kerry may be starting to enjoy the brinkmanship, as he says it’s “unclear” whether the US and Iran would reach a political framework nuclear deal before the end of this month.
**Most of the world’s oil reserves are in the Middle East | Author: RockyMtnGuy | Wikimedia Commons.
Loud applause may be heard in corridors ranging from Tel Aviv to Riyadh.
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18/03/2015
The head of the UN health agency on 18 March 2015 welcomed new data showing that non-smoking is becoming the new norm but urged global action to “push back hard” against the tobacco industry, saying: “We do not have the riches of the tobacco industry, but we are right and we are resolved.”*
A man smokes a cigarette at a road side rest stop in rural Nepal. Photo: World Bank/Aisha Faquir | Source: UN
Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), made the call in a keynote address at the 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, which opened today and is focussing on tobacco control and non-communicable diseases, namely lung and heart diseases, cancers and diabetes.
Tobacco kills nearly six million people each year, according to WHO, and more than five million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use, while more than 600,000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
Nearly 80 per cent of the world’s one billion smokers live in low- and middle-income countries.
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18/03/2015
Dementia currently affects more than 47 million people worldwide, with more than 75 million people estimated to be living with dementia by 2030. The number is expected to triple by 2050, according to the conclusions of the WHO-hosted Ministerial Conference on Global Action Against Dementia in Geneva, held on 16-17 March 2015 in Geneva*
Source: WHO
Participants in this first ministerial conference on this issue included 80 Member States, 80 philanthropic foundations, 45 NGOs and 4 UN Agencies.
The final statement says “We, the participants of this Conference, note the following:
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18/03/2015
Depriving children of their childhood and their freedom is “the biggest crime against humanity,” child rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi on 17 March 2015 said during a visit to United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Kailash Satyarthi. UN Photo/Mark Garten
In an interview with the UN News Centre, Satyarthi welcomed the momentum gained in the struggle to eradicate child labour and child slavery since his awarding of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, voicing optimism that the fight would ultimately be a successful one.
“The very first few hours following the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize in October brought so much attention to the world about the plight of the most exploited, most neglected children on the planet. That hadn’t happened in all my life,” he explained.
“Suddenly, the whole issue of child slavery, child labour, education for children, child violence, and things like that, appeared in the global discussion.”
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 