11 March 2018(Wall Street International)*— Many before me have noted the problems with a rapidly spreading contemporary global disorder that is caused entirely by that most modern technology, the cell phone. Users have been admonished not to drive or to walk in the streets while texting, a practice that has resulted in injuries and even death.
British firm BAE Systems will sell 48 Typhoon fighter jets to the Saudis after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Prime Minister Theresa May for talks.
A preliminary deal has been signed, according to reports, for the Kingdom to buy from the UK, as part of a multi-billion-pound deal.
9 March 2018 (openDemocracy)* — An earlier column in this series looked at the unknown or neglected history of accidents involving nuclear weapons. Much of the secrecy that shrouds nuclear issues, above all their actual targeting, is the result of deliberate supprerssion by governments with the collusion of the media.
HMS Illustrious in Portsmouth Harbour Aircraft Carrier, April 2009. Wikicommons/Peter Trimming. Some rights reserved.
After seven years of brutal conflict in Syria, there are no clear winners, “but the losers are plain to see,” the United Nations refugee agency chief on 9 March 2018 said, describing the “colossal human tragedy” that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, driven 6.1 million people from their homes and forced 5.6 million others to seek safety in neighbouring countries.
UNHCR/Susan Schulman | Displaced by fighting, famalies try to make a life among badly damaged buildings in Syria’s war-torn Aleppo.
“This seven-year war has left a colossal human tragedy in its wake. For the sake of the living, it is high time to end this devastating conflict,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi underscored.
The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) on 9 March 2018 launched new guidelines on the role that tobacco product regulations can play in saving lives by reducing the demand for tobacco and tobacco products – estimated to kill over seven million people annually.
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World Bank/Aisha Faquir | A sign posted at a health facility in rural Nepal announces no smoking. | Source: UN News Centre.
The new guide together with an accompanying publication will help governments “do much more” to implement regulations and address the exploitation of tobacco product regulations, highlighted the UN health agency.
9 March 2018 — Three Nigerian women will spotlight themes such as human trafficking, suicide bombing, and sexism and sexual harassment at the United Nations, showing the strength of women as agents of change in African societies often dominated by men.
OCHA / Yasmina Guerda | Teenage girls at a displacement camp in Gwoca LGA, Borno State, Nigeria.
“We have to see ourselves as part of the solution, not just as women reserved for sex or for the kitchen,” author and Queen Blessing Itua told UN News ahead of a special event planned for this Sunday 11 March 2018 in the UN General Assembly Hall.
9 March 2018 — A senior United Nations official has stressed the need to ensure survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Iraq are fully protected and that perpetrators are brought to justice.
Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, speaking to women and girls in Darfur, in February 2018.
Alone in the same bed | Photo re-posted from Wall Street International. 
