News headlines in January 2024, page 13

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jan 17 (IPS) - World Bank aid encourages governments to enable illicit financial outflows to offshore tax havens by reducing capital controls, thus draining precious foreign exchange and government resources.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is continuing to do all it can to deliver critical medicines, supplies and fuel to Gaza hospitals, where the health system is collapsing, an agency official said on Wednesday.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has appealed for restraint in the wake of protests and heightened tensions following Sunday’s presidential elections in the Comoros.

The head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Wednesday appealed for the international community to provide an urgent boost in funding and commitment to address Sudan’s escalating humanitarian crisis, now entering its tenth month.

The UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza visited Al-Arish, Egypt, on Wednesday in efforts to scale-up assistance to the enclave, where more than 100 days of war between Israel and Hamas militants have left most of the population in dire need of food, water, medicines and other basic items.

Unremitting conflict in Gaza has already sparked regional insecurity and is clear evidence that the international community needs to throw its weight behind a two-State solution in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to resolve the enduring crisis “once and for all”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Jan 16 (IPS) - Iran’s time of public rebellion has ended. The protesters marching, chanting and dancing under the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ banner have long stopped. And shifting regional dynamics may play to the regime’s favour.

Protest wave repressed

The wave of protest against the theocratic regime started on 16 September 2022 and lasted far longer than anyone could have predicted. But by the one-year mark it had all but died down, its unprecedented scale and reach superseded by the unparalleled brutality of the crackdown.

JAJARKOT DISTRICT, Nepal, Jan 16 (IPS) - Delivering humanitarian assistance in the form of cash sounds great: recipients get to choose exactly how to spend their money and aid organizations can respond faster and better track their giving.

NAIROBI, Jan 16 (IPS) - As hunger and food insecurity deepen, Africa is confronting an unprecedented food crisis. Estimates show that nearly 282 million people on the continent, or 20 percent of the population, are undernourished. Numerous challenges across the African continent threaten the race to achieve food security; research and innovative strategies are urgently needed to transform current systems as they are inadequate to address the food crisis.

WASHINGTON DC, Jan 16 (IPS) - We are on the brink of a technological revolution that could jumpstart productivity, boost global growth and raise incomes around the world. Yet it could also replace jobs and deepen inequality.