News headlines in 2022, page 9

The “climate of oppression” in Nicaragua has only intensified in recent months, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said on Thursday. 

A UN Security Council meeting on Thursday focused on terrorism began with a sobering reminder of the danger posed by this persistent threat to international peace. 

A UN peacekeeper from Ireland serving with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been shot and killed, reportedly while on patrol, and three other ‘blue helmets’ have been injured during the incident, the mission said in a statement on Thursday.

The United Kingdom should rewrite proposed legislation covering the 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the “Troubles”, because it fails to comply with the obligation to investigate serious violations and denies truth and remedy for the victims, two UN human rights experts said on Thursday. 

In Ukraine, the UN’s top emergency relief official on Thursday pledged solidarity with the embattled country and its people, as they try to rebuild their lives amid the ongoing war.

Communities must be empowered and appropriately resourced to lead the fight against HIV/AIDS and other pandemics, UNAIDS, the UN agency dedicated to tackling HIV/AIDS, stressed at an international meeting held in Thailand. 

MONTREAL, Dec 15 (IPS) - Created in 2016, the Mexican Caribbean Biosphere Reserve (MCBR) hosts 1900 species of animals and plants and contains half of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, the second largest in the world after Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

MADRID, Dec 14 (IPS) - The external debt of the world’s low and middle-income countries at the end of 2021 totalled 9 trillion US dollars, more than double the amount a decade ago. Such debt is expected to increase by an additional 1.1 trillion US dollars in 2023.

ROME, Dec 14 (IPS) - One of the knock-on effects of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is that European countries have embarked on a ‘dash for gas’ to find alternatives to Russian energy supplies.

NEW YORK, Dec 14 (IPS) - As COP27 was coming to a close, the leader of the Youth Constituency of UNFCCC declared in an emotion-choked voice that "Incredible young people from the global North and the global South are standing together in solidarity asking for action. We need to look for more than hope. We need those in power to actually listen and implement the solutions”.