Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Measles cases worldwide jumped more than 30 percent last year compared to 2016, with increases recorded in wealthy European countries like Germany where vaccination coverage has historically been high, the UN said Thursday. The World Health Organization said the worrying trend of resurgent measles cases …
Read More »Global warming outpaces efforts to slow it: UN
Paris, France | AFP | Humanity is falling further behind in the race against climate change, with the gap between greenhouse gas emissions and levels needed to achieve the Paris climate treaty temperature goals continuing to widen, the UN said Tuesday. With only a single degree Celsius of warming so …
Read More »Drought, conflict driving Afghans to marry off children: UN
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | With a devastating drought worsening an already horrendous humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, parents are increasingly compelled to “sell” young daughters into marriage to pay off debt or buy food, the UN said Tuesday. In the drought-hit Herat and Baghdis provinces of Afghanistan, the UN children’s …
Read More »Uganda rebels fire on UN helicopter in eastern DR Congo
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Ugandan rebels on Thursday fired on a UN helicopter in an attack in the volatile east of DR Congo, though there were no victims, UN sources said. “One of our helicopters was fired on in Semuliki valley by rebels — we reacted in legitimate …
Read More »No room for climate delay, UN chief tells online summit
Majuro, Marshall Islands | AFP | The world is not moving fast enough to curb global warming and needs immediate action to address the issue, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told an online climate change conference Thursday. Guterres issued the call to arms ahead of next month’s COP24 climate talks in …
Read More »Under-fire UN environment chief resigns
United Nations, United States | AFP | UN environment chief Erik Solheim resigned on Tuesday after an audit questioning his huge travel expenses triggered an outcry, UN officials said. The former environment minister of Norway had been at the helm of the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (UNEP) since June 2016. …
Read More »‘Worsening violence’ in Cameroon’s anglophone regions: UN
Libreville, Gabon | AFP | The United Nations on Tuesday warned of “worsening violence” in Cameroon’s restive English-speaking regions, where it said eight students and 13 nuns had recently been abducted and released for ransom. The francophone-majority central African country has seen a surge of violence in its anglophone Northwest …
Read More »US, China at odds over UN push to fund African peacekeeping
United Nations, United States | AFP | A push at the United Nations to secure financing for peace operations led by the African Union won strong backing from China on Tuesday but the United States poured cold water on the proposal. Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea and Ivory Coast – the three …
Read More »US fails at UN to weaken measure on sexual harassment
United Nations, United States | AFP | The United States failed on Monday to water down a UN resolution on combatting sexual harassment and violence against women despite backing from Russia, China, India, several Muslim countries and the Vatican. President Donald Trump’s administration sought to scrap language in the non-binding …
Read More »UN urges more efforts to integrate migrant children in schools
Paris, France | AFP | The United Nations on Tuesday called on countries to step up efforts to integrate the growing numbers of refugee and migrant children worldwide into their education systems. The number of school-age migrant and refugee children has risen 26 percent since 2000 to some 18 million, …
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