(UN News)* —Israeli bombardments continued across Gaza on Wednesday , killing hundreds more people – many of them women and children – and leaving widespread destruction in its wake, according to local authorities.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that leaflets were dropped over Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun in the shattered-north, as well as eastern Khan Younis in the south, ordering residents once again to leave their homes.
(UN News)* —The rapid spread of the highly infectious avian flu virus H5N1 has reached an “unprecedented” scale, wiping out hundreds of millions of birds worldwide and increasingly spilling over into mammals, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned on Monday .
World Bank | A laboratory specialist doing research into avian influenza at a human health lab. (file).
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Briefing Member States in Rome, FAO officials called for urgent action to strengthen biosecurity, surveillance and rapid-response mechanisms to curb the outbreak.
Rome (FAO)* –World coffee prices reached a multi-year high in 2024 – increasing 38.8 percent on the previous year’s average – mostly driven by inclement weather affecting key producing countries, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 14 March 2025 said.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Mar 14 2025 (IPS)* –In these turbulent and sad times, it is hard to keep quiet about abuses and violations of human rights taking place around the world; in eastern DR Congo, South Sudan, Ukraine, and Gaza.
Among the most egregious examples of incomprehensible stances on such abuses is the behaviour displayed by the Trump Administration, not least the President’s behaviour against the lawfully elected president of Ukraine.
Trump’s doubts about the validity of a nation’s desperate struggle against the forces of a dictatorial regime, which destroys their country and aims at taking over its richest territory.
HOMS, The Syrian Arab Republic, 14 March 2025 –“The people in Syria are destroyed from war. There has been no year that has been okay for us. My generation has suffered a lot,” said Maryam,* a 21-year old woman from Homs in western Syria.
(UN News)* — The UN Secretary-General has urged everyone to speak out against xenophobia and discrimination to combat a “disturbing rise” in anti-Muslim bigotry.
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UN Photo/Helena Mulkerns | Peace doves fly on the grounds of the historic Hazrat-i-Ali mosque, in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. (file)
(UN News)* — The UN emergency food relief agency has not been able to transport any aid into the Gaza Strip, due to the ongoing closure of all border crossing points, which is now in its twelfth day, the UN Spokesperson said on Friday .
There is also a shortage of fuel, which is affecting the movement of vehicles across Gaza and slowing down first responders, Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at the regular news briefing in New York.
(UN News)* — UN Secretary-General António Guterres, during his visit to the Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, vowed to do everything in his power to prevent further hardship as drastic aid cuts threaten food supplies and other critical relief efforts.
(Stockholm, 10 March 2025) — Ukraine became the world’s largest importer of major arms in the period 2020–24, with its imports increasing nearly 100 times over compared with 2015–19.
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Photo: US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Alexander Cook
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European arms imports overall grew by 155 per cent between the same periods, as states responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and uncertainty over the future of US foreign policy.