News headlines in March 2026, page 2

KABUL, March 30 (IPS) - It is almost unheard of for a student to deliberately fail final school exams for no apparent reason. Therefore, when 13-year old Sara (not her real name) from Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan took her school report home to her parents, they were shocked to learn that the top-performing student had failed her final exams and would not advance to the next level. But there was no longer a next level for Sara, even if she had passed.

BRATISLAVA, March 30 (IPS) - Government and medical professionals must implement systematic changes to deal with a “crisis” of obstetric violence (OV) across Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), experts and rights campaigners have said.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay / BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 30 (IPS) - On 19 March, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) did something unprecedented in its eight-decade history: it held a vote. The Trump administration, having spent two weeks attempting to defer, amend and ultimately block the session’s main outcome document, known as the agreed conclusions, cast the only vote against its adoption. That dissenting vote said a lot, as it came from the world’s most powerful government, backed by financial leverage, bilateral reach and a network of anti-rights states and organisations that are making inroads at many levels.

Fears are mounting for civilians caught up in Sudan’s deadly war between rival militaries as attacks intensify and humanitarian access shrinks, following a deadly airstrike on a funeral gathering in West Kordofan.

The United Nations has condemned two consecutive days of deadly attacks on peacekeepers serving with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), amid rising hostilities between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants.

A night of drone attacks reportedly killed two people and injured 12 in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, as a maternity hospital and three educational facilities were also damaged.

Asking the softly spoken, veteran humanitarian worker Philippe Lazzarini how he feels as he comes to the end of his second term as the head of the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, is perhaps an unfair question.

Developing countries are being priced out of the affordable finance they desperately need for sustainable development, with sovereign credit ratings often overstating risk and overlooking long-term economic potential, the UN said on Monday.

Clearing mines laid at sea can be an “extremely challenging and very dangerous” undertaking according to a UN mines expert.

Further attacks have been reported across the Middle East as the war enters a second month, with one UN peacekeeper killed in Lebanon on Sunday and another seriously injured. On the diplomatic front, the UN has announced a taskforce to restore the flow of fertilizer and aid through the Strait of Hormuz, while the UN's atomic watchdog confirms an attack on a heavy water facility at Khondab in Iran. Stay with us for live updates on this and UN agencies. App users can follow coverage here.