News stories by Aruna Dutt, page 3

UNITED NATIONS, May 11 (IPS) - Jack Norton was on a glacier in northern India. A seemingly impenetrable fortress of sweeping ridges and towering walls of granite, capped by hanging glaciers. It seemed, he said, that nothing could touch it, nothing could beat it down.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 30 (IPS) - More than 3.3 billion people live in rural areas around the world. Rural development is therefore of vital significance if the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – "a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity" – is to become reality.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 13 (IPS) - It was two a.m. on Aug. 2 as peacekeeping forces from the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) searched for a criminal suspect in the PK5 Muslim enclave of the capital city of Bangui.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 06 (IPS) - As the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples approaches on Sunday, Aug. 9, concerns are growing that they will not fully benefit from the newly drafted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 04 (IPS) - The recent agreement between Iran and six nations on nuclear non-proliferation will likely have a "positive impact" on North Korea, according to a senior South Korean diplomat.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 03 (IPS) - After two years of negotiations, representatives of the United Nations' 193 member countries have reached agreement on a draft of the ambitious Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the global agenda for eradicating poverty while ensuring sustainable growth.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 30 (IPS) - The global population has now reached 7.3 billion. In the last 12 years, the world has added approximately one billion people, and in the next 15 years this is expected to occur again.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 25 (IPS) - U.S. President Barack Obama spoke in Nairobi at the end of a two-day visit Saturday, focusing on Kenya's economy and the fight against terrorism, but also briefly touching on gay rights and discrimination.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 11 (IPS) - "The threat is never over until we rebuild," Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma stressed at an Ebola Recovery Conference Friday in New York.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 09 (IPS) - As Nepal's monsoon rains approach, some humanitarian aid remains tied up in the capital Kathmandu and there are concerns that a rush to build shelters could lead to the same shoddy construction that collapsed during the Apr. 25 earthquake, a U.N. official said Wednesday.