MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Aug 04 (IPS) - The title shouldn’t fool you: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is one of the world’s longest-ruling autocrats. A political survivor, this former military commander had been bolted to his chair since 1985, presiding over what he turned into a de facto one-party system – and now apparently a dynastic regime.

BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE, Aug 04 (IPS) - When Nelson Mudzingwa arrived in the Shashe farming area in Mashava in Masvingo, about 294 kilometres from the capital Harare, in the early 2000s, the land was barren, with no hope that the soils could be suitable for farming.

NEW YORK, Aug 04 (IPS) - Last week, there was uproar in Kenya when a report about one of the largest banks, Equity Bank, revealed a 52 percent gender pay gap between their female and male employees working in similar positions. This difference is neither okay nor acceptable. However, documenting the gap is laudable because that is the first step in trying to fix it.

BIRMINGHAM, UK, Aug 04 (IPS) - Russia’s special military or colonization operation in Ukraine continues to surprise. These surprises come from a decided absence of strategic thinking by Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.

Two senior UN humanitarian officials have called for more funding and less bureaucratic impediments to support civilians affected by the war in Sudan, including roughly 14 million children.

The new sentence imposed on jailed Russian politician Alexei Navalny on Friday raises renewed serious concerns about judicial harassment and instrumentalization of the country’s court system for political purposes, the UN Human Rights High Commissioner said in a statement.

Christine, her son, and her mother are among 100,000 refugees, mostly women and children, living in a camp in northwestern Uganda, served by the World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners, which are providing critical assistance to breastfeeding mothers.

The UN launched on Friday a policy brief on transforming education, which lays out a set of proposals to create inclusive and truly learning societies, and to understand education as a global public good.

Global food prices rose for the first time in months following the collapse of the landmark agreement to ship grain from war-torn Ukraine to the rest of the world, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Friday.

The UN human rights office in Uganda will cease operations on Sunday after the Government decided not to renew the host country agreement, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday, affirming that he “remains committed” to working in the country, in line with his global mandate.