A deepening crackdown on civil society in Libya, has prompted the concern of the UN human rights office, which noted on Friday that arbitrary arrests and a campaign of social media vilification are having “a seriously chilling effect on human rights defenders, humanitarian workers, and other civil society actors.”

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 25 (IPS) - When North and South Yemen merged into a single country ushering in the Republic of Yemen back in May 1990, a British newspaper remarked with a tinge of sarcasm: “Two poor countries have now become one poor country.”

Calling on the international community to accept and adopt the recent findings in his report, an independent human rights expert said on Friday that “apartheid is being practiced by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory”.

Ongoing violence in Ukraine has left millions of people “in constant fear” of indiscriminate shelling, the UN warned on Friday, as efforts continued to reach the country’s most vulnerable populations, one month on from the Russian invasion.

“Let us stand united against racism and together build societies based on dignity, equality and solidarity”, the UN chief said on Friday, International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery.

The UN chief on Friday paid tribute to the dozens of United Nations personnel who have been detained this year while working for the Organization, and those whose whereabouts is unknown.

LOS VILOS, Chile, Mar 24 (IPS) - The Pacific Ocean could quench the thirst caused by 10 years of drought in Chile, but the operation of desalination plants of various sizes has a long way to go to become sustainable and to serve society as a whole rather than just corporations.

NEW DELHI, Mar 24 (IPS) - According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), the unemployment rate in urban India stood at 9.4 percent between January and March 2021, with an even higher proportion of youth unemployment (22.9 percent). In the same time period, more than 11 percent of the urban workforce reported working for less than 36 hours in a typical week.

The UN chief on Thursday strongly condemned the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, more commonly known as North Korea, its first such long-range test, since 2017. 

Data analysis on unintended pregnancy and abortion from 150 countries has revealed major disparities in accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare, the UN health agency, WHO, said on Thursday.