News headlines in October 2022, page 9

African leaders gathered in Mauritius on Thursday, to mull solutions to the education gap highlighted by a new UN education agency report which shows children on the continent are five times less likely to learn the basics, than those living elsewhere.

Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful under international law due to its permanence and the Israeli government’s de facto annexation policies, a UN-appointed Commission of Inquiry said in its first report, published on Thursday. 

Pune, Oct 19 (IPS) - Fourteen-year-old Priti Pyne was returning from school in Basra village in South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, when she and a friend came across a cold-drink seller selling an attractive-looking drink. The moment the girls sipped it, however, they felt dizzy. When they woke up, it was on a Delhi-bound train at Sealdah station in Kolkata. With the help of other passengers, the girls managed to get off the train.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 19 (IPS) - Developing low- and middle-income economies are taking hard hits from global economic developments outside their control. Monetary tightening in advanced economies coupled with increasing fears of a global recession have weakened currencies, sent interest rates soaring, and investors fleeing.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is in India, and he began his official visit on Wednesday by attending a tribute to the victims of the 2008 terrorist attacks that took place at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai.

Progress on the 2018 peace agreement for South Sudan has been “extremely slow”, UN human rights experts said on Wednesday, calling for urgent action to save lives. 

The Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) urged the international community and the media on Wednesday to give the crisis in Ethiopia “the attention it deserves”.

Support from UN peacekeepers serving with the mission in the Central African Republic, MINUSCA, has proven decisive in protecting civilians alongside Government efforts and amid widespread continuing insecurity, said the UN Special Representative for the country on Wednesday, briefing the Security Council.

A lack of global supply has prompted the international body which distributes oral cholera vaccines during outbreaks and emergencies to temporarily suspend the standard two-dose regimen.

Almost 500 million people will develop heart disease, obesity, diabetes or other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) attributable to physical inactivity, between 2020 and 2030, if governments worldwide don’t take urgent action to promote the benefits of exercise, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday.