'Unseen' News and Views
Juarez Saw is the chief of the Sawré Muybu village on the Tapajós River between the municipalities of Itaituba and Trairao in the state of Pará, Brazil. Credit: Gonzalo H. Gaudenzi/IPS
But the “evil spirit”, as they refer in their language to the Sao Luiz Tapajós dam, threatens to leave most of their territory – and their way of life – under water.
The forgotten victim of Wahhabi-inspired radicalism, Nigeria stands besieged by powers which have disguised themselves as legitimate, the avant-garde of an ideological plague which seeks a complete re-engineering of Africa’s religious map.
**Photo: Saudi and U.S. troops train in December 2014 | Author: U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. Fifth Fleet | Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. | Wikimedia Commons
Geneva (ICAN)* – On 7 December 2015, governments adopted at the United Nations General Assembly in New York a resolution that will convene talks in Geneva in 2016 to develop new law on nuclear weapons.
Source of image: ICAN-International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
The resolution presented by Mexico received the support of two-thirds of the governments of the world and is a response to the growing demand for a treaty banning nuclear weapons.
While praising the current United States administration for its commitment to women’s equality, United Nations experts on 11 December 2015 warned that the extreme polarization of US politics is “profoundly” affecting the Government’s ability to guarantee women’s human rights, and even to ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Marching in New York City for gender equality. Photo: UN Women/J Carrier
“The US, which is a leading State in formulating international human rights standards, is allowing its women to lag behind,” said the UN Working Group on discrimination against women in law and practice in a news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
5 December 2015
IT WAS wonderful.
I went to the seashore for the first time since my operation three weeks ago. A five minute walk from my home.
Uri Avnery
The sea was placid, smooth. A mild sun was shining near the horizon, not too hot, not too cold, just as we like it. A cool wind, not too cold, was blowing.
I was sipping a cup of “americano” coffee, thinking that all was well with the best of all possible words.
BUT OF course it wasn’t. In fact, all was wrong with the worst of all possible worlds.
True, beyond the blue sea, in faraway Paris, the largest assembly ever of world leaders was deliberating on how to save the planet from climate disaster.
Our own Binyamin Netanyahu was there with a huge delegation, though most Israelis, including Netanyahu, have only contempt for the issue, which they consider a phony problem for pampered countries which have no real problems, as we have aplenty.
He went there only to shake hands and have his picture taken shaking the hands of all the world’s great leaders, including Arabs, giving the lie to all those who bemoan Israel’s growing isolation in the world.
But all this was sham. Israel, the country I love, is in grave danger. Actually, it is in more dangers than one.
Nelson Pérez monitors the water temperature in the trays where lettuce grows in a controlled-environment farm in the town of Rio Hato, Panama. Vertical farms are beginning to catch on around the world, as a technique that boosts food security, in the face of the impacts of climate change. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS
The water, which contains calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and vitamins, must be kept at a steady 21 degrees Celsius, to obtain the best growth.
BISHKEK, December 2015 (IRIN) – High in Kyrgyzstan’s Tian Shan Mountains, the twin effects of climate change and gold mining have combined to pose a potential environmental and human health disaster. A melting glacier is feeding a rapidly expanding lake, which experts fear could burst its banks and overrun a mine tailings pond, releasing toxic waste into the region’s water system.
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World delegates are now in Paris thrashing out details of a deal to cut emissions to mitigate global warming, which has caused glaciers throughout the world to melt for the past 50 years.
– On a sunny November day in Addis Ababa the courtyard of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) centre is packed with people—some attend a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reception clinic, others get essential supplies, while students attend classes, and many simply play volleyball, table football or dominoes to pass the time.
http://www.ipsnews.net/slideshows/ethiopia/soundslider.swf?size=1&format=xml
Benyamin told IPS he came to Ethiopia from Yemen because practising his religion freely just wasn’t an option. After converting from Islam to the Jewish faith, he was put in a psychiatric hospital. “If I’d been sent to court I could have been put to death,” Benyamin adds phlegmatically.
30 November 2015 – TRANSCEND Media Service – International Peace Delegation to Syria 24-30 November 2015
Our delegation has just spent five days with the people of Syria visiting the cities of Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Qara and Ma’alula.
We have been deeply moved by the kindness and warmth of the Syrian people whom we have had the privilege and joy of meeting.
Although they have suffered unimaginable violence, they have inspired us by their vision of a peaceful Syria and deep commitments to solutions in their country.
These are the findings of our delegation, consisting of eleven peace and human rights advocates from six countries. Over the course of five days, we met with internally displaced persons, refugees, affected communities, religious leaders, combatants, government representatives and many others in Syria.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 