DOMINICA, Sep 22 (IPS) - On September 20, Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina accepted an award from the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network for her country’s ‘striking’ progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The King of Saudi Arabia, Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, said on Wednesday that promoting peace is his Kingdom’s top priority in international affairs. 

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 22 (IPS) - Amid scepticism and a lack of public interest, domestic crises and the backdrop of Covid-19, last week the BRICS countries delivered on their commitment to hold an annual summit without showing the signs of disunity that has beset the group in recent years.

The UN independent rights expert on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, told the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday that conditions inside the country following the 1 February military coup have worsened, urging a “change of course” to prevent further human rights abuses and deaths.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday repeated his call for a global COVID-19 vaccination plan to boost production and reach millions over the coming months, in line with recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Financial support will be critical if developing countries are to meet global climate goals, the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željko Komšić, said in the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.    

LETHBRIDGE, Canada, Sep 22 (IPS) - Food processing extends shelf-life and can transforms raw food into attractive, marketable products. It can also prevent contamination. The transformation can involve numerous physical and chemical processes such as mincing, cooking, canning, liquefaction, pickling, macerating, emulsification, irradiation and lyophilization. Frozen processed and raw food changes transport and storage requirements radically; while the packaging of food, both raw and processed, is an industry unto itself.

Two decades after a landmark declaration was adopted to eradicate racism, discrimination continues to “permeate institutions, social structures and everyday life in every society”, the UN chief told a high-level meeting on Wednesday.

Afghanistan’s girls and women are showing “bravery” in the face of real “fears and pressures” following the formation of the new, de-facto authorities in Afghanistan,  according to a UNICEF member of staff, one of the few westerners to remain in Kabul.

NAIROBI, KENYA, Sep 22 (IPS) - Food security experts have raised an alarm that with as many as 811 million people the world over or 10 percent of the global population going hungry, the world is off-track to ending hunger and malnutrition.