News headlines in April 2022, page 12

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 19 (IPS) - Once deemed a basic human needs success story, Sri Lanka (SL) is now in its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948. Nonetheless, SL’s ‘moment of truth’ now offers lessons for other developing countries.

Invading Russian forces have almost completely destroyed Mariupol, a port city in southern Ukraine. Former resident Alina Beskrovna recalled to UN News, a month-long ordeal sheltering in a basement there as she witnessed fierce fighting and obliteration, before her eventual escape. 

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 18 (IPS) - As the world is rocked by a confluence of crises, the global economic outlook for 2022 is becoming ever more uncertain and fragile. Prospects for sustainable development for all and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 are bleak, particularly for developing countries.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has again called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine to allow delivery of life-saving aid as well as evacuations, his spokesperson said on Monday.

On the heels of Black History Month in February, Women’s History Month in March and the appointment of the first Black female Justice to the US Supreme Court in April, one African woman has been talking to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, about her childhood experience of fleeing conflict in Liberia to become a leading refugee advocate in her new homeland, the United States. 

MÉRIDA, Mexico, Apr 18 (IPS) - At home, Isabel Bracamontes uses gas only for cooking. "We try to prepare food that doesn't need cooking, like salads," she says in the southeastern Mexican city of Mérida.

The United Nations commended on Monday a new signed Action Plan to safeguard children affected by armed conflict in Yemen.

One in three natural sites and one in six cultural heritage sites are currently threatened by climate change, the UN cultural agency, UNESCO, warned on Monday, the  International Day for Monuments and Sites.

Blantyre, Malawi, Apr 18 (IPS) - One polio case is one too many, global health experts say.

Bucha. Once a quiet dormitory town near Kyiv, it is now synonymous with the mass killing of civilians in the increasingly brutal war in Ukraine. Although Yuliia and her family escaped the bloodshed, and are receiving help form the UN migration agency (IOM), they are struggling to adapt to their new status as they join the ranks of the millions of people displaced from their homes.