News headlines in 2025, page 278

NEW YORK, Mar 05 (IPS) - In 2025, the United Nations will celebrate 80 years of shaping global policies, fostering peace, and driving international development. Yet, in those eight decades, not a single woman has held the position of Secretary-General.

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday that severe funding cuts – particularly in the United States – are threatening decades of progress in the fight against tuberculosis (TB), still the world’s deadliest infectious disease.

The UN Secretary-General on Wednesday announced a fresh bid to end the decades-long hostilities over the division of Cyprus through informal talks scheduled to take place over two days from 17 March.

The people of Syria’s painful search for a peaceful future took centre stage at the UN on Wednesday as one leading representative of the families of the country’s forcibly disappeared spoke of the continuing pain of not knowing their fate.

A UN report released on Wednesday has uncovered a pattern of grave human rights violations committed by armed groups in southeast Central African Republic (CAR), targeting Muslim communities and Sudanese refugees.

“Humanity’s future depends on investing in the machinery of peace, not the machinery of war,” said Secretary-General António Guterres in a message marking the International Day for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Awareness.

The unilateral halt to aid deliveries entering Gaza announced by the Israeli authorities on Sunday has left Gazans afraid of a return to violence and lifesaving healthcare services under threat, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has warned.

BRUSSELS, Mar 04 (IPS) - It’s like walking through several psychedelic halls of history, where bold colours, electrifying compositions and contagious rhythms hit the senses all at once.

PORTLAND, US, Mar 04 (IPS) - As the world’s population increased five-fold since the start of the 20th century, the changes in the geographic distribution of the billions of people across the planet have been ongoing and significant.

BRATISLAVA, Mar 04 (IPS) - LGBTQI communities across Europe and Central Asia are being ‘weaponized’ by governments as part of a wider attack on fundamental human rights and freedoms, rights activists have warned.