NAIROBI, Feb 15 (IPS) - As the effects of climate change escalate and natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and droughts become more frequent and severe, threatening lives and livelihoods, humanity is losing the climate battle.

NEW YORK, Feb 15 (IPS) - United Nations member states agreed to fully fund UN human rights mechanisms that China, Russia, and their allies had sought to defund in the 2023 budget. This should set a precedent for UN human rights funding in the future.

A new exhibition highlighting the crucial role millets play in boosting global food and nutrition security, adapting to agrarian risks posed by climate change, and contributing to progress on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) agenda, opened on Tuesday at UN Headquarters in New York.

A newly signed plan for election security represents a “major development” for peaceful, inclusive elections in the Central African Republic (CAR), a spokesperson for the UN mission in the country said on Wednesday.

Critical maternal health services and other programmes for women and girls in north and northwest Syria “have had to scale up massively” following the deadly earthquake last week, a senior official with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has said. 

Current disease outbreaks highlight the urgent need for every country to ramp up its care systems, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief told journalists on Wednesday.

An independent UN human rights expert on Wednesday called on Bangladesh to draft laws to better protect those affected by leprosy.

Almost a year since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UN appealed on Wednesday for $5.6 billion to help millions of people affected inside the war-torn country and beyond.

ROME, Feb 14 (IPS) - Geology explains the terrible earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria on February 6 with academic coldness: the Arabian, Eurasian and African plates pressure the Anatolian plate. On the surface, geopolitics resorts to concepts like "fault", "tension" or "fracture" to explain things too. When one looks at Turkey, both disciplines’ maps can easily overlap each other, with a death toll calculated in the tens of thousands.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 14 (IPS) - The year 2022 was incredibly difficult for people around the world. We were confronted by a series of major crises, including a continuing pandemic, a major war in Europe, an energy crisis, rising inflation and food insecurity.