News headlines in 2022, page 241

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 15 (IPS) - Ukraine is on fire. The country is being decimated before the eyes of the world. The impact on civilians is reaching terrifying proportions.

Countless innocent people – including women and children – have been killed. After being hit by Russian forces, roads, airports and schools lie in ruins.

Security forces in Myanmar have killed at least 1,600 people and detained more than 12,500, since the military coup last year, the UN rights office said on Tuesday.

Gender equality and women’s rights are essential to a renewed social contract anchored in human rights - the new Agenda for Peace - the UN chief told a meeting on Tuesday aimed at advancing women’s leadership worldwide.

Nearly five million children born in Syria since March 2011 have known nothing but conflict. After 11 years of war, the crisis continues to leave them struggling with physical and psychological scars, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.

Almost one child per second in Ukraine is becoming a refugee of the war, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday, as the total number of people who have now fled the country since the Russian invasion began, passed three million.

BRATISLAVA, Mar 15 (IPS) - “I never, ever, believed that anything like this could happen,” says Valia*. “Not for a second.”

Mar 14 (IPS) - It is no secret that economic inequality has risen exponentially in the last few decades, both in India and globally. According to the World Inequality Report 2022, India is one of the most unequal countries in the world in terms of both income and wealth inequality. It is estimated that in 2021, the top 10 percent of Indians held 57 percent of the total national income while the bottom 50 percent’s share was just 13 percent.

Mar 14 (IPS) - Neglected tropical diseases is an umbrella term used to describe a group of 20 infectious diseases. These diseases affect over 1.7 billion people. They can disable, debilitate and even kill. The world’s most vulnerable and poorest are most affected.

The UN human rights chief has condemned the beheading of 81 people by Saudi Arabia during the course of a single day, charged with terrorism-related offences.

The war in Ukraine is the most severe test the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has faced since its creation in 1975, the top UN political affairs official told the Security Council on Monday, as the 15-member organ held its annual briefing on the OSCE’s work against the backdrop of intensifying bombardments of key Ukrainian cities.