News headlines in October 2023, page 4

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Oct 27 (IPS) - In response to lawsuits brought by LGBTQI+ activists, the Mauritius Supreme Court has issued two landmark judgments striking down the criminalisation of consensual sex between adult men as unconstitutional. Its reasoning turned upside down the argument used by anti-rights forces to attack LGBTQI+ activists in many African countries: it acknowledged that criminalisation is the foreign import rather than gay sex, and a relic of colonialism it’s high time to shake off.

PORTLAND, USA, Oct 27 (IPS) - Among the various troubling human addictions the one having the most worrisome consequences for humanity and planet Earth is population growth.

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday adopted a major resolution on the Gaza crisis, calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.”

Humanitarian operations continue to deliver life-saving assistance in Ukraine, amid ongoing attacks across the country, the UN said on Friday.

As the UN’s 193 Member States meet on how to address the ongoing Israel-Palestine crisis, we took a look at how the current rarely convened General Assembly emergency special session came about, what it means and why it matters.

As much needed aid starts to trickle into besieged Gaza, a war over facts is ratcheting up as conflicting narratives about the situation on the ground are being fuelled by social media.

With the humanitarian system in Gaza on the verge of "total collapse", UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday again appealed for greater aid access to the besieged enclave, where “misery is growing by the minute.”

The world cannot forget about Syria, the Head of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the country has said, while also highlighting how the war there is connected to the conflict raging in the Middle East.

Pakistan’s plan to deport “undocumented” foreign nationals will disproportionately affect more than 1.4 million Afghans in the country, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Friday, expressing alarm.

The UN’s top human rights official issued a new appeal on Friday for an end to the Israel-Palestine crisis and the release of all hostages, amid rising civilian deaths and reports that children's names have been written on their arms so that they can be identified in case they die in the rubble.