24/09/2017
22 September 2017 – With the number of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar arriving in south-east Bangladesh edging towards half a million, United Nations agencies are stepping up delivery of life-saving aid to two official refugee camps, where the health concerns are quickly growing.

Rohingya refugees navigate their way around the Kutupalong extension site where shelters have been erected on land allocated by the Bangladesh Government. Photo: UNHCR/Keane Shum
At the request of Bangladeshi authorities, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is speeding up the distribution of plastic sheeting to get as many people as possible under at least minimal protection from monsoon rains and winds.
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23/09/2017
The torture and ill-treatment of persons suspected of crimes is not only “deeply wrong” but, from an interrogator’s perspective, also counterproductive, the United Nations human rights chief on 22 September said at an event held in New York.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré
“Abundant scientific and historical evidence demonstrates that the information yielded by people who are being subjected to violence is unreliable,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said at the event, entitled “Torture during Interrogations – Illegal, Immoral, and Ineffective.”
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22/09/2017
Nearly seven months after the United Nations issued an urgent call for action to counter the threat of famine in South Sudan, Somalia, north-east Nigeria and Yemen, global efforts have kept that crisis at bay but millions of people still suffer and many are dying at this very moment, Secretary-General António Guterres on 21 September warned.
In the western desert town of Dinsoor, Somalia, newly arrived drought victims receive food supplies delivered by the UN’s World Food Program (WFP). Photo: Giles Clarke/Getty Images Reportage | Source: UN News Centre
“To keep famine at bay doesn’t mean to keep suffering at bay,” Guterres said at a high-level event on famine prevention and response, organized by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Bank.
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22/09/2017
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 20 2017 (IPS) – In his first address on the global stage of the General Assembly, United States’ President Donald Trump touted an “America First” approach at the very institution that is meant to inspire collaboration between nations.

Donald J. Trump. Credit: UN Photo/Cia Pak
During his 45-minute speech, President Trump praised national sovereignty, referencing the concept a whopping 21 times.
“Our government’s first duty is to its people, to our citizens — to serve their needs, to ensure their safety, to preserve their rights, and to defend their values,” he told world leaders.
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22/09/2017
By Johan Galtung*
18 September 2017 – TRANSCEND Media Service — Liu Xiaobo passed away. What is the–not so hidden–truth about him?

Johan Galtung
Answer: His speeches and writings show enthusiasm for the 100-year English colonization of Hong Kong, wishing 300 years colonization of China, celebrating the US war in Afghanistan, hoping for atomic weapons.
He got the Nobel Peace Prize for democratization of China, had the freedom of speech, but the prize communicated as a provocation. The prize could easily have been given to their Charter, not to Liu Xiaobo.
Norway’s security–what are the threats?
Answer: Given the location, an invasion by USA or Russia to prevent the other from doing so.
The situation is reminiscent of the threat from England, Germany and USSR to prevent one of the other from doing so in 1940; what happened was England and Germany violating Norwegian neutrality, fighting a battle on Norwegian territory.
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22/09/2017
21 September 2017 (openDemocracy)* — A new UN treaty could make nuclear sabre-rattling and boasts of a willingness to incinerate cities, as unacceptable as threats to use chemical and biological weapons.
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Image: United Nations/Flickr, Creative Commons.
Yesterday [20 September] the UN Secretary-General António Guterres opened the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in New York. Heads of state and senior officials from over 40 countries lined up to sign the ground-breaking treaty on its first day.
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22/09/2017
September 21, 2017 (ICAN—International Campaign against Nuclear Weapons)* — On Wednesday 20 September, the new Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons officially opened for signature and over 50 countries signed. The US was not one of the signers, but US advocates for the Treaty have succeeded in making the first US bank annouce that it will not invest in nuclear weapons production.
New York-based Amalgamated Bank used the day of the signature of the Treaty to publish its investment policy around weapons – including nuclear weapons.
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22/09/2017
By Amb. Sergio Duarte*
18 September 2017 – TRANSCEND Media Service – A new facility designed to help prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons – the Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) Bank – was inaugurated last August 29 at Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

Ambassador Sergio Duarte
The inauguration coincided with the celebration of the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, declared in 2009 by the United Nations on the initiative of the Republic of Kazakhstan, to mark the closure of the former nuclear weapon test site at Semipalatinsk.
Kazhak President Nuursultan Nazerbayev presided over the ceremony, which was attended by Yukya Amano, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, Director of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), and Dr. Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Test-ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) among other local and international personalities.
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22/09/2017
21 September 2017 – About 617 million children and adolescents worldwide are not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics, signalling “a learning crisis” that could threaten progress on global development goals, a report from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) shows.

Youth in the classroom. Photo: Deshan Tennekoon/World Bank. | Source: UN News Centre
“The figures are staggering both in terms of the waste of human potential and for the prospects of achieving sustainable development,” said Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute of Statistics.
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22/09/2017
The United Nations disarmament chief on 21 September warned against emerging technologies that make the acquisition and use of weapons of mass destruction easier, and stressed the need for effective approaches combining diplomacy, international cooperation and implementation of Security Council decisions.

Izumi Nakamitsu, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, addresses the Security Council’s meeting on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. UN Photo/Manuel Elias
“The Council’s engagement on weapons of mass destruction has always been grounded on a common understanding that measures for disarmament and non-proliferation are two sides of the same coin and are mutually-reinforcing,”
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