Conflicts

After a one-week deadlock between Western countries and Russia and China, the UN Security Council voted to restart cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria, but with only a single access point into the war-torn country. Read More »

By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Jul 8 2020 (IPS) – The coronavirus—which has claimed the lives of over 538,000 people and infected more than 11.6 million worldwide—has destabilized virtually every facet of human life ever since its outbreak in late December. Read More »

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has called for mobilization from within and beyond the humanitarian sector so that climate action and finance reach conflict zones and to ensure that communities hit hardest get the support they need to adapt to a changing climate. Read More »

By Ramzy Baroud 72 years after the destruction of historic Palestine at the hands of Zionist militias lies an opportunity to reassert the centrality of the right of return for 5 million Palestinian refugees. Just 48 hours before thousands of Palestinians rallied on the streets, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo paid an eight-hour visit to Israel to discuss the ... Read More »

Beijing, Xinhua/UNB, July 07 – India and China have reached a consensus on easing the border tensions after a skirmish that killed 20 Indian troops. Read More »

UK’s International Ambassador for Human Rights Rita French has said accountability for atrocities is essential for Myanmar to move towards peace and stability. Read More »

India’s ban on 59 Chinese apps, including the wildly popular TikTok and WeChat platforms, has left millions of users surprised and disappointed. The government in Delhi said the apps were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”. Read More »

Yangon, AP/UNB, June 30 – Thousands of people in western Myanmar have been fleeing their villages over the past week after an evacuation order from officials due to clashes between the government and ethnic rebels. Read More »

Xinhua/UNB – US President Donald Trump and a number of officials were sued by Iran for their involvement in the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani. Read More »

Diplomatic Missions of Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and the USA in Myanmar have expressed deep concern over the reports of Myanmar Military’s clearance of operations in Rakhine and Chin States. Read More »

Slavery In conflict The United Nations Human Rights Council has taken an important step to investigate abuses by all sides in Libya — including human trafficking — by establishing a fact-finding body. Read More »

China has accused Indian troops of a “deliberate provocation” in its first official comments on Monday’s deadly clash at a disputed Himalayan border. Read More »

NEW DELHI, June 20 – Days after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a bloody clash with Chinese soldiers along their Himalayan border, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India has not lost any territory. Read More »

India has rebutted Chinese claims of ownership of the Galwan river valley, the site of a bloody brawl between the neighbours. Read More »

North Korea said Wednesday that it will send soldiers to now-shuttered inter-Korean cooperation sites in its territory and reinstall guard posts and resume military exercises at front-line areas, nullifying tension-reducing deals reached with South Korea just two years ago. The announcement is the latest in a series provocations North Korea has taken in what experts believe are calculated moves to ... Read More »

AP/UNB – At least 20 Indian soldiers have been killed in a border skirmish high in the Himalayas between the world’s two most populated countries – India and China. This is seen as the first deadly violence since the two nuclear armed neighbours faced off in a border dispute 45 years ago. Read More »

By Dr Ramzy Baroud Massive natural gas discoveries off the eastern coast of Israel and Palestine is slated to make Tel Aviv a regional energy hub. Whether Israel will be able to translate positive indicators of the largely untapped gas reserves into actual economic and strategic wealth is yet to be seen. Read More »

China and India agreed to step back from a confrontation along their shared border — the most serious tensions between the two powers in years — after military commanders from both sides met on Saturday near a lake in the Himalayas. Read More »

By El Hassan bin Talal GENEVA, Jun 4 2020 (IPS) – In these difficult times for the Palestinian people and for justice, the Government of Israel is proposing to add further to the turmoil by unilaterally absorbing large swathes of the Palestinian West Bank of the Jordan River. It might, therefore, be fitting to remind the world of the chronology ... Read More »

Demonstrators marched, stopped traffic and in some cases lashed out violently at police as protests erupted Friday in dozens of U.S. cities following the killing of George Floyd after a white officer pressed a knee into his neck while taking him into custody in Minnesota. Read More »

Sydney/Kuala Lumpur, 26 May (IPS/Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram) — With well over five million Covid-19 infections worldwide, and deaths exceeding 340,000, the race for an effective vaccine has accelerated since the SARS-Cov-2 virus was first identified as the culprit. Read More »

By Sheikha Hend Al Qassimi and Siddharth Chatterjee NAIROBI, Kenya, May 26 2020 (IPS) – Consider this. 24 women, children and babies were murdered at a hospital in Kabul, the Afghan capital. Even by standards of a country as accustomed to bloodshed as Afghanistan, the May 12 attack on a Kabul maternity clinic was an event of unmitigated horror. Read More »

Independent Inquiry Needed in Embattled Rakhine State Yangon – Satellite imagery shows that about 200 homes and other buildings were destroyed by fire on May 16, 2020, in Myanmar’s embattled Rakhine State, Human Rights Watch said today. An impartial investigation is urgently needed to determine responsibility for this mass destruction of residential property in the predominantly ethnic Rakhine village of ... Read More »

Taiwan’s president Tsai ing-wen promised to provide the people of Hong Kong with the “necessary assistance” as tension in the city rises over China’s new national security law. Read More »

ISLAMABAD – The Taliban have announced a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan during the three-day Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr starting Sunday, a move the United States hailed as “a momentous opportunity” to advance peace efforts in the war-torn country. Read More »

Ankara – As Turkey steps up to mobilize the international community against Israeli plans to annex West Bank, Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu on May 21 had phone conversations with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General Yousef Al-Othaimeen. Read More »

On Thursday, May 21, Refugees International launched a petition to urge U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to call the crimes committed against the Rohingya what they are: genocide. Read More »

North and South Korea have exchanged gunfire in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which divides the two countries. Read More »

Bangladesh has strongly condemned the recent missile attacks targeting Riyadh and the southern city of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jazan by the Houthi rebels. Read More »

Akij Group has postponed its ‘emergency’ project to set up a specialised emergency hospital in the city to treat Coronavirus-infected patients reportedly in the face of opposition from locals. Read More »