News headlines in 2023, page 57

UN Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated his call for sustained humanitarian aid to be delivered to Gaza in remarks to the Cairo Summit for Peace on Saturday.

UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator Martin Griffiths welcomed the entry of an aid convoy into Gaza on Saturday, the first since the start of hostilities two weeks ago following deadly attacks by Hamas against Israel.

LONDON, Oct 20 (IPS) - It’s a rapid reversal for New Zealand’s Labour Party, in power for six years. At the last election in 2020 it won an outright majority, the first party to do so under the current voting system. But three years on, it’s finished a distant second in the election held on 14 October. The result speaks to a broader pattern seen amid economic strife in many countries – of intense political volatility and the rejection of incumbents.

NITERÓI, Brazil, Oct 20 (IPS) - Houses with balconies facing the street or the surrounding hills, when they are not hidden behind high walls, reflect a neighborhood where people live on the shore of a lagoon but reject the landscape it offers.

NAIROBI, Oct 20 (IPS) - The tips of our fingers have densely packed nerve endings. That is why a miniscule paper cut activates our pain receptors and causes stubborn pain for a day or two. Now consider that a clitoris has over 10,000 nerve endings. It is the human female’s most sensitive erogenous zone, explaining the sexual pleasure it elicits at the slightest touch. A paper cut on your clitoris would be agonizing yet does not compare to the pain of female genital mutilation – or FGM.

HARARE, Oct 20 (IPS) - They do not have a pension nor financial support from families or relatives, but they have themselves. Now they have become collectors of plastic waste, which they turn into products as they battle for survival - earning money from the growing plastic pollution in Zimbabwe.

BANGKOK, Thailand, Oct 20 (IPS) - Cities have always been dynamic hubs of culture, education, economic growth and opportunity, and most importantly, centres of social interaction attracting residents and visitors alike.

Families in western Afghanistan, who have lost everything to a series of devastating earthquakes, need urgent assistance to withstand the harsh winter, the UN relief wing reported on Friday.

As the possible transition to a new global order heightens security risks, more effective multilateral diplomacy is a vital tool to maintain peace, the Security Council heard on Friday.

Hundreds of trucks are waiting for a green light at the Rafah border in Egypt, poised to deliver lifesaving aid to 2.3 million besieged people in the Gaza Strip. What's inside the convoy?