News headlines in 2020, page 110

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 03 (IPS) - A sophisticated Italian food system is placing a heavy burden on Italy's workers and farmers, an independent UN human rights expert said on Friday, following an 11-day visit to the country that many regard as the world's food capital.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 03 (IPS) - With over 37,500 staffers in its global Secretariat payroll, the United Nations has gone high alert as the deadly coronavirus continues to take a heavy toll worldwide.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 31 (IPS) - Weeks into widespread panic about the "Coronavirus" that has so far killed at least 170 people in China, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday declared it a public health emergency. As of Friday, the disease had spread to all the regions in Mainland China, with more than 7,500 cases in the country alone, according to the BBC. 

KOLKATA, India, Jan 31 (IPS) - World Wetlands Day is on Sunday, Feb. 2. IPS senior correspondent Manipadma Jena marks the day by visiting the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW), a unique wetland that operates as a natural water purification ecosystem.

Ramkumar Mondal's farm is awash in a brilliant yellow mustard bloom. A flock of grey cranes peck for food amidst the shallow watergrass. But Mondal's fishpond digs in there like a do-or-die last sentinel as nearby high-rise buildings, a symbol of development and encroachment, menacingly tower over the fishpond, permanently blocking the eastern sun so essential for the pondwater to convert sewage into fish-feed.

KATHMANDU, Nepal, Jan 31 (IPS) - Since I was a kid, I grew up with adventures and stories of famous characters of the books of Jack London: White Fang, Make a Fire… and the incredible ode to perseverance of Martin Eden.

LONDON, Jan 31 (IPS) - There was only one topic on everyone's lips at Davos this year – climate change. The headlines focused on the cold war between Greta Thunberg and Donald Trump, but there was much greater consensus among those gathered for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 31 (IPS) - The rise in new coronavirus cases outside China, now constitutes a global health emergency, the World Health Organization's Emergency Committee declared on Thursday, calling on all countries to take urgent measures to contain the respiratory disease.

WASHINGTON DC, Jan 30 (IPS) - Economic activity in Latin America and the Caribbean stagnated in 2019, continuing with the weak growth momentum of the previous five years and adding more urgency and new challenges to reignite growth.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 30 (IPS) - The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem has described the much-ballyhooed US Middle East peace plan as "more like Swiss cheese-- with the cheese being offered to the Israelis and the holes to the Palestinians".

Jan 30 (IPS) - On January 23, the authorities of Wuhan City, China, sealed off the motorways and shut down all public transport to stop the coronavirus outbreak from spreading. Shortly afterwards, at least ten other cities in China were under quarantine orders, most of them located in the areas surrounding Wuhan.