News headlines in June 2009, page 3

Representatives of African States will meet in Addis Ababa (June 8-9) to "exchange views" on the International Criminal Court (ICC). Prompted by the war crimes indictment of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, the meeting will provide a platform for the Court’s dissenters in Africa, and aim to sew discord among ICC supporters, writes Wangari Maathai, Wole Soyinka and Desmond Tutu.

One of the most urgent problems of today's world is the danger of nuclear weapons. The unexpected nuclear test by North Korea on May 25 and the test-firing of a series of short-range missiles is the latest, frightening reminder, writes Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union from 1985-1991.

Burma's state-run media reported on 23 May that junta-appointed chief judge Thaung Nyunt found Aung San Suu Kyi had breached the terms of her house arrest because of the entrance into her compound in early May of an American man who swam across the lake in front of her house and stayed uninvited for two days, writes Zin Linn, a former political detainee in Burma who now lives in exile and is presently the media and information director of the National Coalition Government of Union of Burma.

For years the Cuban population has been undergoing a decline that is now, according to specialists, "evident and pronounced", and it will continue to decrease unless there is a shift in the three crucial areas that affect demographic growth: mortality, emigration, and birth rate, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into a dozen languages.

The specter of a swine flu pandemic has driven home the urgent need for more rapid and effective responses to a wide range of public health threats. But in order to respond more effectively, we need to create a more open system for the exchange of vital health information and research across sectors, disciplines, geographic, economic and cultural boundaries. In a world of increasingly global emergencies, we need all hands on deck, including the patients and publics most affected, writes Mark Sommer, host of the award-winning, internationally syndicated radio program, A World of Possibilities

Not long ago the people on this planet lived without the anguish of insecurity because they assumed that insecurity was the natural state of things, for everyone, rich and poor, powerful and weak. Now, and especially since the end of the Cold War and September 11, the landscape is different. The world lives in a state of tension and fear, writes Joaquin Roy, ''Jean Monnet'' professor and Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami.

An outside-the-box approach is needed for the worsening problems of Afghanistan and Pakistan. US official policy in its war in Afghanistan is to combat Al Qaeda and make sure there are no further attacks on the USA from their safe havens. Yet, on his recent visit to the US, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that there are no Al Qaeda members in Afghanistan. General David Petraeus, US Central Command Commander, also stated that no Al Qaeda members are in Afghanistan, writes Hazel Henderson, author of Beyond Globalization, Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy and other books.

If we wish to create a sustainable economic order for the 21st century, we will have to go beyond that which existed in the past. Because of this, we will have to base our actions on those tenets that have the broadest and clearest support and legitimacy in the eyes of society: human rights and the commitment to tear down the walls that prevent the equal access of all people, writes Jose Graziano da Silva, Regional Representative of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation for Latin America and the Caribbean.

While the world could probably agree on basic objectives for our agricultural systems, we still disagree on what global integration could bring to this process, writes Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The shaky amateur video shows the leader of Nepal's Maoist party, Prachanda, boasting how he tricked the UN into thinking his army was 35,000 strong when it had only 7,000 guerrillas and admitting he lied to everyone about his commitment to democracy and the peace process, and that his real goal is total control of the army and the state, writes Kunda Dixit, editor and publisher of the Nepali Times newspaper in Kathmandu.