'Unseen' News and Views
Addis Ababa, 23 March 2018 (IOM)* – IOM, the UN Migration Agency, has launched an appeal for USD 88,550,000 to help people in need of humanitarian assistance in Ethiopia.
Internally displaced Ethiopians in Guji Zone, Oromia Region. Photo: Rikka Tupaz / IOM
A recurrent theme in these columns is the widespread myth that nuclear weapons are solely about deterring attack through the threat of an overwhelming response.
Western society is flirting with a disturbing trend where people are being denied the time-honored ‘presumption of innocence’. The same undemocratic method is even being used against nations in what is becoming a dangerous game.
**U.S. Navy and Coast Guard personnel stand guard aboard the Al Basrah Oil Terminal in July 2009. | Author: hello_rizzudo…| public domain | Wikimedia Commons
24 March 2018
THE CLOSER Mahmoud Abbas gets to the end of his reign, the more extreme his language becomes.
Uri Avnery
Recently he spoke about Donald Trump and uttered the words “May your house be destroyed”.
In Arabic this is a common curse, and sounds less extreme than in English. But even in Arabic this is not a usual phrase when speaking about a head of state.
This week Abbas spoke about the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and called him a “Son of a Dog”. This, too, sounds in Arabic slightly less offensive than in English, but is hardly diplomatic.
It is hard to say that Friedman does not deserve it, though I would have wished, as a dog-lover, that Abbas had chosen another animal.
Friedman is a kippah-wearing Jew, who identifies completely with the most extreme settlers in the occupied territories.
He certainly would be more fitting as Israeli ambassador to the US than as US ambassador to Israel.
Hurricanes, monsoon floods and continuing severe drought made 2017 the costliest year ever for severe weather and climate events, according to a new report by the United Nations weather agency launched on the eve of World Meteorological Day.
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Hunger is on the rise worldwide mainly because “people won’t stop shooting at each other,” the head of the United Nations food relief agency on 23 March 2018 said, telling the Security Council that if it did more to break the link between conflict and hunger, countless lives could be saved.
Over the past 15 years there has been “a marked increase” in cyber harassment, making the safety of women journalists a major issue for reportage in today’s digital era, participants on 22 March 2018 highlighted at a United Nations event.
Claiming more than 4,500 lives daily, tuberculosis (TB) continues to be the top infectious killer worldwide as well as the leading cause of death among people living with HIV, the United Nations on 23 March 2018 said , ahead of World Tuberculosis Day.
Source: WHO
On 24 March, IOM, the UN Migration Agency, and other partners will honor the many ‘Leaders for a TB-free world’ for World Tuberculosis Day. It is estimated that public health systems miss approximately 40 per cent of the new TB cases.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 