Page 46 - United Nations

UN Chief Antonio Guterres calls for urgent action on climate change, AI

Guterres also went on to mention the Israel-Hamas crisis and reiterated his call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza

Russia's attacks on Ukraine increased civilian casualties in Dec: UN

Russia's intense missile and drone attacks across Ukraine in recent weeks sharply increased civilian casualties in December with over 100 killed and nearly 500 injured, the United Nations said in a new report on Tuesday. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said there was a 26.5 per cent increase in civilian casualties last month -- from 468 in November to 592 in December. With some reports still pending verification, it said, the increase was likely higher. Danielle Bell, who heads the UN's monitoring mission, said: "Civilian casualties had been steadily decreasing in 2023 but the wave of attacks in late December and early January violently interrupted that trend." The UN mission said it is verifying reports the recent intense Russian missile and drone attacks that began hitting populated areas across Ukraine on December 29 and continued into early January killed 86 civilians and injured 416 others. "These attacks sow death and destruction on Ukraine's ...

Time to rebuild trust, cooperation with each other: WEF Chair Klaus Schwab

As nearly 3,000 global leaders assembled here to discuss challenges and crises facing the world, the host World Economic Forum on Tuesday said trust and cooperation are a must in a connected yet divided world. It said the most challenging issues before the world including on security, climate and cyber fronts are not limited by borders and they travel without passports, but cooperation was still possible and was happening. WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab said this occasion should be used as an opportunity to rebuild trust in each other. At the first plenary of the WEF Annual Meeting 2024, Schwab said the world today may be more connected geographically but it is also a lot more divided and fragmented. "We are also seeing unprecedented risks on technology front," he said. "Let's use this meeting to rebuild trust in each of us for the future of humanity," he said. WEF president Borge Brende said, "We have nearly 3,000 participants from more than 125 countries here at

PM Modi to inaugurate apex training institute, visit Lepakshi temple in AP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN) institute in Andhra Pradesh's Sri Satyasai district on Tuesday afternoon and also visit the famous Lepakshi temple on Tuesday. Modi will reach Palasamudram on Tuesday afternoon to participate in the scheduled programmes, according to a state government press release. He will go around different departments at NACIN, plant some saplings there and also interact with construction workers. He will meet some trainee officers and release a book titled 'Flora of Palasamudram'. Further, the Prime Minister will present an accreditation certificate to NACIN and deliver an address. NACIN is an apex institute of the Government of India, which imparts capacity building in the field of indirect taxes, offer training to officers from various countries in customs, drug laws and environment protection. It is also the World Customs Organisation's (WCO) Regional Training Centre for ...

United Nations seeks $4.2 bn to help people in Ukraine, refugees this year

The United Nations appealed on Monday for USD 4.2 billion to help people in Ukraine and displaced outside the country this year, saying that people on the front lines have exhausted their meagre resources and many refugees also are vulnerable. About three-quarters of the total, USD 3.1 billion, is meant to support some 8.5 million people inside Ukraine. The remaining USD 1.1 billion is sought for refugees and host communities outside Ukraine. A recent wave of attacks underscores the devastating civilian cost of the war and a bitter winter is increasing the need for humanitarian aid, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the UN refugee agency said in a statement from Geneva. In front-line towns and villages, people have exhausted their meagre resources and rely on aid to survive, it said. Ukraine has been subjected to massive Russian barrages recently. More than 500 drones and missiles were fired between December 29 and January 2, according to officials in .

Gaza needs more aid to arrive faster to prevent famine, disease: UN

Gaza urgently needs more aid or its desperate population will suffer widespread famine and disease, the heads of three major UN agencies warned Monday, as authorities in the enclave reported that the death toll in the Israel-Hamas war had surpassed 24,000. While the UN agency chiefs did not directly point a finger at Israel, they said aid delivery is hobbled by the opening of too few border crossings, a slow vetting process for trucks and goods going into Gaza, and continuing fighting throughout the territory all of which Israel plays a deciding factor in. Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the militant group's Oct 7 attack on southern Israel, has prompted unprecedented destruction in the tiny coastal enclave and triggered a humanitarian catastrophe that has displaced most of Gaza's 2.3 million population and pushed more than a quarter into starvation, according to the UN. Civilians have become desperate. Video posted Monday to X by Al Jazeera showed hundreds of people

Global deaths from fungal disease twice previous estimate: Lancet study

The annual number of deaths from fungal disease worldwide has risen to 3.75 million, double the previous estimate, according to a study using data from over 80 countries, including India. The research, published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, calculated an annual total at about 6.55 million acute cases. The updated mortality figures of fungal disease dwarf deaths from other single pathogens, killing six times more people than malaria, and almost 3 times as many than tuberculosis, the researchers said. The work is the result of a collaboration of over 300 professionals across the world who contributed to published estimates for their country and individual fungal diseases. Previous estimates were imprecise as many fungal disease exacerbate an existing disorder, itself often severe, such as leukaemia or AIDS, said David Denning, a professor of infectious disease at The University of Manchester, UK. However according to the study, of the deaths linked to fungal disease, .

UN seeks $4.2 billion to help people in Ukraine, refugees this year

The United Nations appealed on Monday for USD 4.2 billion to help people in Ukraine and displaced outside the country this year, saying that people on the front lines have exhausted their meagre resources and many refugees also are vulnerable. About three-quarters of the total, USD 3.1 billion, is meant to support some 8.5 million people inside Ukraine. The remaining USD 1.1 billion is sought for refugees and host communities outside Ukraine. A recent wave of attacks underscores the devastating civilian cost of the war and a bitter winter is increasing the need for humanitarian aid, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the UN refugee agency said in a statement from Geneva. In front-line towns and villages, people have exhausted their meagre resources and rely on aid to survive, it said. Ukraine has been subjected to massive Russian barrages recently. More than 500 drones and missiles were fired between December 29 and January 2, according to officials in .

What is Genocide Convention, basis of South Africa's case against Israel

South Africa has contended that Israel violated the Genocide Convention as "it failed to prevent genocide and failed to prosecute direct and overt incitement to genocide" in its ongoing Gaza offensive

Israel to defend itself at UN's top court against genocide allegations

Accused of committing genocide against Palestinians, Israel planned to defend its war in Gaza in front of the United Nations' highest court Friday, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the allegations as hypocrisy that screams to the heavens. Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has vehemently denied the accusations brought by South Africa in one of the biggest cases ever to come before an international court. South African lawyers asked the court Thursday to order an immediate halt to Israeli military operations in the besieged coastal territory that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians. Israel often boycotts international tribunals and U.N. investigations, saying they are unfair and biased. But, in a sign of how seriously they regard the case, Israeli leaders have taken the rare step of sending a legal team and engaging with the International Court of Justice to defend their reputation. South African lawyers argued that the war is part of ..

ICJ opens hearing on Israel's 'genocide' in Gaza as toll mounts to 23,200

Gaza war: South Africa has initially asked the ICJ to order an immediate suspension of Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip

World needs India; Indian biz leading in investments in social causes: UN

The world needs India as the businesses in the country have been leading in terms of investing in social causes, a senior UN official said on Thursday and stressed that business is the key driver that will deliver the sustainable development goals. The United Nations Resident Coordinator in India Shombi Sharp also said that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is indispensable in India's journey, where businesses are at the forefront in the efforts of the country to become a USD 5 trillion economy. "The world needs business and the world needs India and as India leads, the world is following," he said at a conference on CSR in the national capital. He noted that India has been leading the world in CSR, especially with its recent leadership during the COP28 summit. Under the companies law, certain classes of profitable entities are required to shell out at least two per cent of their three-year annual average net profit towards CSR activities in a particular financial year. Beside

Bangladesh elections not free or fair, says US, UN also voices concern

A day after Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's party emerged victorious at the polls, the US and UN voiced concern over violence and reports of irregularities on the day of elections, with Washington noting that the polls were not free or fair and regretted that not all parties participated in the ballot. The US State Department, in a press statement Monday, said that Washington remains concerned by the arrests of thousands of political opposition members and by reports of irregularities on elections day in Bangladesh. The United States shares the view with other observers that these elections were not free or fair and we regret that not all parties participated, the State Department said. While noting that Hasina's Awami League won a majority of seats in the January 7 parliamentary elections, the State Department said that Washington condemns violence that took place during elections and in the months leading up to it. We encourage the Government of Bangladesh to credibly .

Bangladesh's main Oppn party calls train fire 'sabotage', demands UN probe

Bangladesh's main opposition BNP has demanded a UN-supervised investigation into a fire on a passenger train that killed four persons, calling it a "pre-planned" act of sabotage ahead of the general elections being boycotted by the party. The incident happened around 9 pm on Friday when four carriages of the Benapole Express that runs from Benapole, a town bordering the Indian state of West Bengal, were set on fire as it nearly reached its destination of the capital's Kamalapur Railway Station. Railway officials said that most of the train's nearly 292 passengers were returning home from India. Shahjahan Sikder, deputy assistant director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence Media Cell, said they recovered four bodies from the gutted coaches of the train. In a statement, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) senior Joint Secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi expressed concern over the "heartbreaking incident of casualties due to arson by miscreants on the Benapole Express train headed from ...

UN Chief Guterres to organise 2nd meeting of special envoys for Afghanistan

Meanwhile, the Taliban has called for the invitation of its representatives to the meeting of the special envoy

Gaza now 'uninhabitable' due to Israel-Hamas war: UN humanitarian chief

The U.N. humanitarian chief described Gaza on Friday as uninhabitable three months into Israel's war with Hamas, warning that famine was looming and a public health disaster unfolding. In a grim assessment of the devastating impact of Israel's military response to the horrific Hamas attacks on October 7, Martin Griffiths said that Gaza's 2.3 million people face daily threats to their very existence while the world just watches. He said tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured, families are sleeping in the open as temperatures plummet, and areas where Palestinians were told to relocate have been bombed. People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded (and) famine is around the corner, Griffiths said. The few partially functioning hospitals are overwhelmed and critically short of supplies, medical facilities are under relentless attack, infectious diseases are spreading, and amidst the chaos some 180 Palestinian women ar

Azerbaijan minister, state oil company veteran to lead COP29 climate talks

The country has an estimated 2.5 trillion cubic metres of natural gas reserves, according to the 2021 BP Statistical Review of World Energy, and it aims to double its gas exports to Europe by 2027

UN's world food price index ends 2023 around 10% below 2022 levels

The Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) price index, which tracks the most globally traded food commodities, averaged 118.5 points in December, down 1.5% from November

Indian economy outperforming peers, projected to grow at 6.2% in 2024: UN

India is projected to grow at 6.2 per cent in 2024, supported by robust domestic demand and strong growth in the manufacturing and services sectors, the United Nations has said. The UN World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2024 report, launched here on Thursday, said that gross domestic product in South Asia is projected to increase by 5.2 per cent in 2024, driven by a robust expansion in India, which remains the fastest-growing large economy in the world. Growth in India is projected to reach 6.2 per cent in 2024, slightly lower than the 6.3 per cent estimate for 2023, amid robust domestic demand and strong growth in the manufacturing and services sectors, the report said. India's GDP is projected to increase to 6.6 per cent in 2025. The report notes that economic growth in India is projected to remain strong at 6.2 per cent this year mainly supported by resilient private consumption and strong public investment. While manufacturing and services sectors will continue to ..

AI needs global rules that won't stifle innovation

The regulators in all the countries must get their acts together and pool their wisdom to evolve a uniform set of laws to manage the transition