News headlines in 2023, page 145

Severe sand and dust storms (SDS) are becoming increasingly common, with UN climate experts attributing the rise to human-driven causes such as climate change and unsustainable farming practices. To combat this, the UN has designated 12 July its first-ever International Day of Combatting Sand and Dust Storms.

The continuing lack of accountability for the violations and abuses committed by Russian forces in Ukraine is deeply concerning, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Wednesday.

More than 120 million girls are out of school and the world must do more to ensure they can get an education, Nobel laureate and UN Messenger of Peace Malala Yousafzai said in Abuja, Nigeria on Wednesday, her 26th birthday.

As many as 783 million people faced hunger worldwide in 2022 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, repeated weather shocks and conflicts, including in Ukraine, according to a study launched by five United Nations agencies on Wednesday.

Half of humanity lives in countries that are forced to spend more on servicing their debt than on health and education, which is nothing less than a development disaster, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday.

Women and girls of African descent face a “systemic and historical pattern” of racial abuse in the health sector in countries across the world, leaving them at increased risk of death during childbirth, the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency said on Wednesday.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 12 (IPS) - When President Ferdinand Marcos was running an authoritarian regime in the Philippines (1965-1986), he was once asked about rumors of rigged elections in his country.

“I promised I will give you the right to vote,” he said, according to a joke circulating at that time, “But I did not say anything about counting those votes”

NAIROBI, Jul 11 (IPS) - East African international students could soon easily study in neighbouring countries after the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) proposed a new qualification framework to mitigate the difficulties faced when seeking education across borders.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Jul 11 (IPS) - The role of water in conflicts is changing, with more attacks against environmental and civilian infrastructure. Dr Martina Klimes of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) recently held a lecture describing the shifting security landscape and how water can be both a weapon and a victim of war – and sometimes a tool for peace.

The UN Secretary-General has strongly condemned an attack on a UN peacekeeping patrol in the northeast Central African Republic (CAR) on Monday which left one Rwandan ‘blue helmet’ dead.