BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Apr 13 (IPS) - With the two extremes of global hunger and obesity on the increase, a new report suggests a radical reset for food and nutrition to ensure the long-term sustainability of livelihoods and the environment.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 13 (IPS) - US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has urged all governments to support a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 21%. The US is working with other G20 nations to get other countries to end the “thirty-year race to the bottom on corporate tax rates”.

The ongoing repression of protests in Myanmar could spark a “full-blown conflict” on a par with Syria, the United Nations’ top human rights official warned on Tuesday, urging States with influence to take immediate and impactful action to halt the “slaughter” of civilians. 

United Nations independent human rights experts on Monday called for the review of new legal and administrative measures adopted by the Government of Cambodia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which they said appear to be “disproportionate and unwarranted”. 

Last week’s eruption of La Soufrière volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, has left the entire population of the main island without clean water and electricity, the UN Spokesperson said on Monday. 

NEW YORK, Apr 12 (IPS) - Following an extensive scientific review, the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition Foundation (BCFN) is preparing to launch a new food systems model which incorporates nutrition and climate.

The growing complexities of the world drug problem are hampering efforts to achieve sustainable development by the end of the decade: a situation which the COVID-19 pandemic has only compounded, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said on Monday. 

A report released on Monday by the body dedicated to freeing the world of chemical weapons, concludes that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that a Syrian military helicopter carried out a chemical attack on the town of Saraqib, in 2018.

The COVID-19 pandemic is “a long way from over” but there are many reasons to be optimistic and it’s possible the pandemic can be brought under control “within months”, the head of the UN health agency said on Monday. 

Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries in Africa’s Great Lakes region are “on the right track”, with leaders pushing forward on political, security and economic cooperation, UN Special Envoy Huang Xia told the Security Council on Monday.