News headlines in January 2024, page 14

The President of the General Assembly on Tuesday laid out his priorities for the rest of his term, as the UN body of 193 Member States finds itself increasingly in the public spotlight over the Gaza crisis, and inaction on the divided Security Council.

The imminent execution of an American prisoner by a new and untested method - suffocation by nitrogen gas - could amount to torture, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, warned on Tuesday.

COVID-19 vaccines saved at least 1.4 million lives in Europe – “irrefutable” proof of the power of these inoculations, the regional head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterreshas condemned the killing of a Cameroonian peacekeeper on Monday who was serving with the Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).

The world enters 2024 with soaring cases of cholera globally, with over 667,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths last year, UN agencies have reported.

Recent weeks have seen a steep increase in civilian casualties in Ukraine following an intensification of Russian attacks, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country, HRMMU, said in a new report issued on Tuesday.

The Israeli authorities have continued to block lifesaving aid from reaching northern Gaza 102 days since Hamas-led terror attacks triggered the war, UN humanitarians have insisted, just as UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “the long shadow of starvation” stalks the people of Gaza.

The number of people using tobacco continues to decline despite industry attempts to jeopardize progress towards stamping out cigarettes and other such products, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report published on Tuesday.

ISLAMABAD, Jan 15 (IPS) - The World Economic Forum is hosting world leaders in Davos from January 15-19 2024. One of the key themes for the forum this year is “Creating Growth and Jobs for a New Era” with a focus on creating economic gender parity.

SAN FRANCISCO, USA, Jan 15 (IPS) - Have you heard the one about the U.S. government wanting a “rules-based international order”?

It’s grimly laughable, but the nation’s media outlets routinely take such claims seriously and credulously. Overall, the default assumption is that top officials in Washington are reluctant to go to war, and do so only as a last resort.