Visiting Iran, the head of the United Nations atomic energy agency on Sunday 29 October 2017 reiterated that the commitments undertaken by the country under the nuclear accord of 2015 are being implemented.*
The Busher nuclear power plant in Iran. Photo: IAEA/Paolo Contri
According to the press release issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), its Director General Yukiya Amano met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Vice-President and President of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi, and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, during a visit to the capital, Tehran.
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Oct 30 2017 (IPS)– The mother moved in like a tigress to save her cub. In 2015, when her 13-year-old daughter Shumi Akhter was about to be married off, Panna Begum pleaded with her husband, Dulal Mia, to cancel the marriage he’d arranged for their daughter.
Akhter and her mother, Panna Begum, who saved her from being married off at the age of 13. Credit: Shahiduzzaman/IPS
Panna argued vehemently that Shumi was just a child and it was wrong for her to be married off at such a tender age.
26 October 2017 (Wall Street International) – The most vicious, pervasive and enduring stereotypes of African Americans are attributed to African American men. They are feared as the “Brute,” vicious criminal, violent, more animal-like than human. How did Americans, principally white Americans, come to view African American males in this way, and how does this impact the lives of African American males?
The image of the African American male was not always one of the violent Brute. During the enslavement period, the image of the African American male was used to present a benign portrait of slavery.
HALLELUJAH! AT long last I have found a point on which I agree with Binyamin Netanyahu. Really!
Uri Avnery
This Monday the Knesset reassembled for its winter session after a long (and blessed) vacation.
On such occasions, the president of the state and the prime minister are invited to speak. The speeches are supposed to be festive, full of pious platitudes. In one ear and out the other.
Not this time.
Seated next to the Speaker, the President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, made a speech that was unprecedented in every respect. He attacked the Likud-dominated government coalition and accused it of undermining the rule of law, the Attorney General and the police.
The President is no leftist, by any means. He belongs to the nationalist right. His ideology is that of “the whole of Eretz-Israel”. He is a member of the Likud party.
27 October 2017 – The United Nations human rights chief on Friday called on the parties to the conflict in Syria to allow badly needed food and medical supplies to Eastern Ghouta in rural Damascus, describing the situation of at least 350,000 besieged civilians there as “an outrage.”
In December 2015, a mother loads preserved food supplies in a truck as the family prepares to move out of Nashabieh village to a neighbouring safer town within besieged East Ghouta, Syria. Almost 400,000 people are trapped in besieged locations. Photo: UNICEF/Amer Al Shami
27 October 2017 – Freezing temperatures, storms and heavy snowfall will add to the misery afflicting hundreds of thousands of families affected by conflict across the Middle East unless assistance – including cold weather clothing and supplies – is urgently provided, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned.
.A three-year-old boy sits on a box of winter clothing that his family has received from a distribution at Kawergosk Syrian Refugee Camp in Erbil Governorate in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Photo: UNICEF/Khuzaie
27 October 2017 (openDemocracy)*— The biggest problem with immigration is the common misperception that it is a problem. But shifting unduly negative perceptions requires more than simply presenting the facts.
. **Photo: Pro-migration/refugee protest in Prague, Czech Republic. | Author: Itsyoungrapper | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
The overwhelming weight of evidence suggests that immigration is generally a good thing – for the societies that receive talented, hard-working and diverse newcomers, not to mention for migrants themselves. Yet public perceptions of migration are often much more negative. How, then, should this chasm between perceptions and evidence be addressed?
GOMA, DR Congo, Oct 26 2017 (IPS) – Late last week, the humanitarian community activated a Level 3 emergency for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This trigger in the global humanitarian system is seldom used, and only after serious deliberation by the top echelons of the UN system.
A family flee violence in Kamonia, Kasai province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Credit: UNHCR/John Wessels
The alarm is uniquely activated for the world’s most complex and challenging emergencies. It is decided on based on five criteria: scale, complexity, urgency, capacity and reputational risk. It calls for the entire humanitarian system to scale up and respond to colossal needs.
Look who’s coming for dinner, it’s wife number two! While many will smile at the premise such a statement implies, one controversial Muslim entrepreneur decided to make it the basis of his new UK business venture … Talk about playing to a stereotype.
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**Some Saudi Arabian woman choose to wear Islamic clothing, as required | Author: Walter Callens | Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Azad Chaiwala decided to make it the basis of his new UK business venture … Talk about playing to a stereotype.
Actually, Azad Chaiwala did more than just play to a stereotype – that of the unapologetic, misogynist serial polygamous Muslim man, he flat out exploited a legal loophole to inflate both his bottom line and family ergonomics. Yes, you read that right: ergonomics!
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 25 2017 (IPS) – The vote on the latest American-sponsored resolution in the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Syria was predictable: of the five big powers, China abstained and Russia vetoed, while the US, UK and France voted for it.
Syrian conflict. Credit: UN Photo
Not surprisingly, the 15-member UNSC continues to lose its political legitimacy as its five veto-wielding members are more intent in protecting their own national interests – and their client states—than the pursuit of world peace.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 