UNITED NATIONS, Apr 02 (IPS) - Governments worldwide sentenced at least 2,466 people to death in 2014; judgements which have been condemned by rights group Amnesty International.

KUWAIT CITY, Apr 02 (IPS) - As the world's spreading humanitarian crisis threatens to spill beyond the borders of Syria and Iraq into Libya and Yemen, the United Nations is already setting its sights on the first World Humanitarian Summit scheduled to take place in Istanbul next year.

BALI, Indonesia, Apr 02 (IPS) - The statistics tell the story: in some parts of the world, four times as many women as men die during floods; in some instance women are 14 times more likely to die during natural disasters than men.

NEW YORK/ABUJA, Apr 02 (IPS) - After several tension-filled months, a majority of Nigerians swept in an opposition leader and former military man, Muhammadu Buhari, to succeed incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, whose failure to contain a terrorist wave in the northern states doomed his re-election chances.

ABU DHABI, Apr 02 (IPS) - The numbers are in, and there's not much to celebrate: every year, about six million people die as a result of tobacco use, including 600,000 who succumb to the effects of second-hand smoke.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 02 (IPS) - Almost 90 percent of recent deaths or serious injuries to United Nations peacekeepers in Mali have been attributed to improvised explosive devices (IEDs), a U.N. panel has heard.

BRUSSELS/MAPUTO, Apr 01 (IPS) - World governments expect to agree to a new global treaty to combat climate change in Paris in December. As the catastrophic impacts of climate change become more evident, so too escalates the urgency to act.

HAVANA, Apr 01 (IPS) - In addition to other forms of discrimination, lesbian and bisexual women in Cuba face unequal treatment from public health services. Their specific sexual and reproductive health needs are ignored, and they are invisible in prevention and treatment campaigns for women.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 01 (IPS) - Even moderately well-informed analysts knew that the Brazilian economy was in dire straits as President Dilma Rousseff initiated her second term in office in January.