News headlines in 2022, page 17

Spiralling debt in low and middle-income countries has compromised their chances of sustainable development, the head of UN trade facilitation agency UNCTAD has warned.

Governments around the world pledged $1.13 billion on Tuesday to provide a lifeline to people displaced by war, violence and human rights violations, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday.  

The UN’s key biodiversity conference, COP15, began on Tuesday in Montreal, Canada, where negotiators will set new targets and goals aimed at arresting the alarming destruction of nature, due by human activity.

The torment being unleashed by Russia’s “senseless war”, on the people of Ukraine and beyond, is “colossal”, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council on Tuesday. 

Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter in recent weeks at Kenya’s Dadaab camps, forced from their homes by extremist violence in neighbouring Somalia and an “unrelenting” drought, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday.

VERACRUZ, Mexico, Dec 05 (IPS) - Mexico has more than 11,000 square kilometers of continental coastline and intense maritime traffic. This Latin American country received 12 045 vessels as of July, compared to 11 971 on that date in 2021.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 05 (IPS) - A head of state who presided over an authoritarian regime in Southeast Asia, was once asked about rigged elections in his country.

“I promised I will give you the right to vote” he said, “but I didn’t say anything about counting those votes.”

WASHINGTON DC, Dec 05 (IPS) - On September 1, 2022, debt-trapped Sri Lanka reached a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a 48-month Extended Fund Facility of $2.9 billionwhich hardly covers the country’s outstanding debt, nor its immediate survival needs.

MEXICO CITY, Dec 05 (IPS) - Peter Zimmermann owns a bar located in the German city of Cologne, which for thirty years has been a favorite for those who want to watch a soccer game.

A UN Spokesperson said on Monday that another wave of missile strikes in Ukraine has further damaged the country’s energy system, leaving millions of people without electricity and water as temperatures dip below freezing.