News headlines in March 2023, page 9

With the converging Ramadan, Easter and Passover holidays now beginning, Israelis and Palestinians must urgently crystalize agreements reached at several recent diplomatic meetings – the first of their kind in nearly a decade – the senior UN official for Middle East peace told the Security Council on Wednesday, while warning of escalating violence and inflammatory rhetoric on both sides.

The UN political affairs chief has underlined the critical need to ensure funding for the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), warning that a shortfall could threaten plans to transfer security to the national forces by the end of next year.  

Although COVID-19 is disappearing from view, access to medicines that treat non-communicable diseases, or NCDs, remain out of reach for millions across the world, said the World Health Organization (WHO) in a new report published on Wednesday.

Tanzania confirmed its first-ever cases of Marburg Virus Disease after conducting laboratory tests in the country’s northwest Kagera region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement on Wednesday.

The world’s precious water resources are “in deep trouble” and leaders are meeting at UN Headquarters this week to address what has become a multifaceted global crisis, before it is too late. 

The adoption by Uganda’s parliament of new legislation targeting lesbian, gay and bisexual people is “devastating” and could “erode gains made over years”, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said on Wednesday.  

KIGALI, Mar 21 (IPS) - Against a brutally painful historical backdrop, a story of hope and resilience unfolds in Rwanda.

TBILISI, Mar 21 (IPS) - Since the war in Ukraine started in February last year, at least 1.5 million Russian citizens have crossed the Russia-Georgia border, official data states. However, as of today, it needs to be clarified how many of them stayed in the country, but walking the streets of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, the presence of Russian nationals can be seen almost everywhere.

MADRID, Mar 21 (IPS) - Shockingly, the human suicidal war on Nature not only continues unabated but is also set to become even more virulent. Just to start with, please be reminded that groundwater accounts for 99% of all liquid freshwater on Earth, according to the 2022 UN World Water Development Report.

WASHINGTON DC, Mar 21 (IPS) - It’s one of the great injustices of this era that countries contributing negligible amounts to global carbon emissions are now feeling the most harrowing impacts of climate change.