News headlines in May 2022, page 25

Journalists in Ukraine have been targeted and continue to face unprecedented dangers carrying out their work in the wake of the Russian invasion, top independent rights experts said on Wednesday.

The “enormous challenges” faced by the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno, which include a continuing terrorist insurgency, need to be recognized by the international community to create what the UN Secretary-General has called a “state of hope and a state of reality”, in a region which he said did not live up to its reputation for “terrorism, violence, displacement or despair.”

Rows of temporary shelters covered in sheeting which has been blanched by the sun and sand blasted by winds blend into the grey, dusty and parched environment. It’s midday, and temperatures have reached a punishingly hot and dry 44 degrees Celsius (111 F).

Women’s rights do not end when wars begin, a senior UN official said in Ukraine on Tuesday, outlining measures towards ensuring justice and accountability for sexual violence committed during the conflict in the country. 

Clashes in Haiti between rival gangs in the capital, Port-au-Prince, have forced hundreds of people to flee their homes, the UN Deputy Spokesperson said on Tuesday.

CANBERRA, Australia, May 03 (IPS) - Before the pandemic emerged in 2020, health services in many Pacific Island countries were under-resourced, under-funded and under-staffed. Now following recent outbreaks of COVID-19, advancing the capacity and development of health and medical services in vulnerable nations, such as Tonga and Kiribati, is increasingly urgent.

Obesity rates have reached “epidemic” proportions across Europe and are still rising, the World Health Organization (WHO) Office for the region said in a report published on Tuesday.

Between 2010 and 2018, the rate of deforestation worlwide slowed by nearly 30 per cent compared to the previous ten years, according to a key report launched on Tuesday by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In Ukraine on Tuesday, UN humanitarians began to help the first evacuees arriving from Mariupol’s devastated Azovstal steel works, more than two months since Russia’s invasion began, and said that they would do everything possible to assist those still trapped.

NEW DELHI, May 03 (IPS) - When the Covid- 19 pandemic first broke out in Wuhan in 2020, no one imagined that it would wreak havoc on such a large scale. With over 6.2 million lives lost, countless infected and new variants emerging, the pandemic is still raging all around the world.