NEW YORK, Sep 17 (IPS) - Today, we stand with solemn hearts as the world marks this week the three-year ban on girls' secondary education in Afghanistan.

Today and every day, we must stand up for the millions of Afghan girls and women living under the yoke of gender-apartheid: systematized and institutionalized oppression, exclusion, and marginalization based exclusively on their gender. However, standing in solemnity for their suffering is not enough. We must act to remove the oppression and injustice. Against all odds, we must continue to deliver results to provide the girls access to an education well beyond grade sixth.

The UN independent human rights expert on protection from torture on Tuesday reiterated the urgent need for all Israeli hostages held in Gaza to be unconditionally released.

The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, has called for calm following attacks across the country on Tuesday which killed at least nine people, including children, and left thousands injured - many critically.

UN agencies and their humanitarian partners are providing life-saving relief to families in Nigeria who lost their homes during recent flooding.

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, issued its latest report on Myanmar on Tuesday, detailing a range of serious violations that continue to underscore the deepening crisis and lack of rule of law throughout the country.

Violence used against opponents of the Venezuelan authorities has reached unprecedented levels, a top independent human rights probe alleged on Tuesday, citing arrests, sexual abuse and torture as just some of the methods used by the Government of President Nicolas Maduro to stay in power.

The General Assembly will resume a rare emergency special session at 10am on Tuesday in New York on the issue of Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory with Palestine expected to introduce a draft resolution that would, among other things, demand an end to the occupation within one year. UN News app users can follow live here.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 17 (IPS) - The constant drumbeat of nuclear threats seems never ending—emanating primarily from the Russians, Israeli right-wing politicians and North Koreans.

SYDNEY, NEW YORK, Sep 16 (IPS) - Bangladesh's White Paper committee will review foreign loan deals signed by the fallen kleptocratic regime. We recommend that it identifies and declares the loans or portions of loans that did not benefit the nation as unpayable, because they were siphoned off the country by corrupt politically powerful elites, or worse used to buy deadly weapons and surveillance equipment to oppress people. Such loans are "odious" – they stink and are detestable.

MULLIVAIKAL, Sri Lanka, Sep 16 (IPS) - Thousands of Tamils are heading to Mullivaikal on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka, many of whom were here 15 years ago and still live in the region. They are there, May 18, to commemorate the massacre of civilians in a ‘no fire zone' during the final stages of the civil war.