Section: Inter Press Service (Italy)
Why I Became a Disaster Expert
A man in northern Armenia remembers the victims of the Spitak earthquake. Credit: Jodi HiltonBy Armen GrigoryanNov 26 2018 (IPS)Thirty years ago, a powerful earthquake ripped through my home country of Armenia, leaving 25,000 dead, 500,000 homeless and annihilating an estimated 40 percent of the national economy.The northern city of Spitak and...
Authoritarian Govts Tighten Grip on Press Freedom
Journalists in Peshawar protest an attack on Dawn News near the Peshawar Press Club in November 2016. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPSBy Sopho KharaziROME, Apr 22 2018 (IPS)The 25th celebration of World Press Freedom Day will be led by UNESCO and the government of Ghana in Accra on May 2-3. The theme is “Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and The...
Six ‘Signature Solutions’ – New Development Plan for a New Era
The UN flag. Credit: Sriyantha Walpola/IPSBy Baher KamalROME, Nov 30 2017 (IPS)While the top priority of any development strategy is still the same – to leave no one behind – the new challenges that have emerged show the need to adapt the actions necessary to face them.This appears to be the key rationale behind the new 21 century development...
Lobbying & Sponsorships at COP23 Corrupted Climate Talks
Carbon Projects Waiting to Exhale. Credit : IPSBy Rabiya JafferyABU DHABI, Nov 20 2017 (IPS)The world’s nations got together in Bonn, Germany, for the 23rd annual Conference of the Parties (COP) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where nearly 200 countries and some 23, 000 delegates met to discuss and influence...
Lobbying & Sponsorships at COP23 Corrupted Climate Talks
Carbon Projects Waiting to Exhale. Credit : IPSBy Rabiya JafferyABU DHABI, Nov 20 2017 (IPS)The world’s nations got together in Bonn, Germany, for the 23rd annual Conference of the Parties (COP) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where nearly 200 countries and some 23, 000 delegates met to discuss and influence...
Why New US Cold War with Russia Now
Vladimir Popov is a Research Director with the Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute in Berlin. This op-ed is based on a recent DOCRI publication (https://doc-research.org/en/). By Vladimir PopovMOSCOW, Aug 9 2017 (IPS)Even before the imposition of new sanctions on Russia by Donald Trump and the ongoing fuss over Russian hackers...
Nikki Haley Grilled in US Congress on America’s Role in the UN and the World
Nikki Haley and the Egyptian ambassador to the UN, Amr Aboulatta, in the Security Council. Haley told Congress recently that Trump’s proposed budget for the UN put the world body “on notice.” Credit: RICK BAJORNAS/UN PHOTOBy Barbara CrossetteUNITED NATIONS, Jun 29 2017 (IPS)Five months into her stint as United States ambassador to the...
Naming and Shaming Human Rights Violators
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in his address to the 35th session of the UN Human Rights Council in GenevaBy Zeid Ra’ad Al HusseinGENEVA, Jun 6 2017 (IPS)Fifty years ago, this was the day I first heard the sound of war. I was three and a half years old and, while fragmentary, I can still remember...
Post-Soviet Russian economic collapse
Was the post-Soviet transition the greatest ‘man-made’ economic disaster ever?. Credit: IPSBy Vladimir Popov and Jomo Kwame SundaramMOSCOW and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 6 2017 (IPS)Wide-ranging economic reforms following the demise of the Soviet Union at the end of December 1991 mainly resulted in economic collapse in most successor states....
Fate of Earth Must Not be Decided by US & Fellow Nuclear States
Credit: UN photoBy Joan RussowVICTORIA, BC, Canada, Apr 24 2017 (IPS)When the United Nations continues its negotiations in June for an international treaty against nuclear weapons, there must be a treaty that should cover every single aspect of the devastating weapons — and leading eventually to their total elimination from the world’s...
