Page 56 - Lobal Issues News Today

Civilians in Sudan – where rival militaries are waging a bloody war, with devastating consequences – are at a high risk of falling into catastrophic levels of hunger by May next year, the UN emergency food relief agency warned on Wednesday.

A pioneer in the study of chimpanzees and a vocal environmental activist, Jane Goodall became a UN Messenger of Peace in 2002.

The outbreak of conflict seven months ago in Sudan has led to “a convergence of a worsening humanitarian calamity and a catastrophic human rights crisis”, according to a senior UN official, and the restive region of Darfur has been particularly badly affected.

Some Gazans are so desperate for food that they are now stopping aid trucks and immediately eating what they find, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned on Thursday.

NEW DELHI, Dec 14 (IPS) - A batch of three bills introduced in India’s Parliament in August to replace archaic, colonial period laws and revamp the criminal justice system will, however, retain the existing law that legalizes marital rape.

Myanmar is now the world’s largest opium producer, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported on Tuesday, as the economic and political crisis following the 2021 coup and widening conflict between the military and armed groups continues to drive farmers towards illicit opium poppy production.

Half of the world’s population is not fully covered by essential health services and two billion people are impoverished because they must cover medical bills out-of-pocket.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Dec 12 (IPS) - Last month the Saeima, Latvia’s parliament, passed a package of eight laws recognising same-sex civil unions and associated rights. The new legislation came in response to a 2020 Constitutional Court ruling that established that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to the benefits and legal protections afforded to married opposite-sex couples.

DUBAI, Dec 12 (IPS) - One of the most heated debates at the annual climate summit coming to a conclusion in this United Arab Emirates city revolved around the phrasing of the final declaration, regarding the "phase-out" or "phase-down" of fossil fuels within a given time frame.

NEW YORK, Dec 12 (IPS) - Child poverty persists even in some of the world’s richest countries, new findings from a UNICEF report reveals.UNICEF’s Office of Global Insight and Policy’s latest report details the prevalence of child poverty in 39 EU and OECD countries. It reveals the extent of child poverty in these countries and how these cases vary from middle-to-high income countries. Titled Child Poverty in the Midst of Wealth, this report is the latest in the Innocenti Report Card serie...