The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a $43 million appeal to support earthquake response in Syria and Türkiye, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Sunday.

With extremist groups expanding their reach, the international community cannot let up its guard against terrorism, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Sunday.

Humanitarians will launch appeals forTürkiye and Syria in the aftermath of the deadly earthquakes this week, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said on Saturday.

NEW YORK, Feb 10 (IPS) - Latin America’s (LATAM) transportation sector produces the largest share of regional emissions and is a large source of air pollution, making transforming transportation technology systems key to energy transition and decarbonization. In particular, electrifying public transportation systems across the region through a transition to electric bus (e-bus) fleets will reduce fossil fuel demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

MADRID, Feb 10 (IPS) - The food industry continues to intensively use toxic chemicals in their products, some of them provoking heart diseases and death. Trans fat is just one of them, adding to contaminating fertilisers, pesticides, microplastics and a long etcetera.

LONDON, Feb 10 (IPS) - Thulani Maseko knew speaking out in Eswatini was a risky business. An activist and well-known human rights lawyer, he’d previously spent 14 months in jail for criticising the country’s lack of judicial independence. Now he’s dead, shot in his home by unknown assailants.

NEW YORK, Feb 10 (IPS) - The opioid addiction crisis in the United States is an acute public health emergency and a profound threat to national security – which is caused by the over-prescription, misuse, illegal production, and criminal trafficking and sale of opioid pharmaceutical drugs to Americans. It is estimated that over 130 people die every day from opioid overdoses in the U.S.

BRATISLAVA, Feb 10 (IPS) - As plans are announced to set up an international centre in The Hague to prosecute war crimes committed in Ukraine, groups involved in documenting them say there must be a fundamental change in how the world reacts to war atrocities.

Extreme violence and gross human rights abuses, including mass incidents of murder, gang rape and sniper attacks, have sharply increased in Cité Soleil on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, said a UN report published on Friday.

Denmark and Greenland must address the negative impact of a colonial legacy that has led to structural and systemic racial discrimination against the indigenous Inuit community, an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said on Friday.