News headlines in August 2024, page 4

The head of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) raised serious concerns on Wednesday about a tanker carrying one million barrels of crude oil that was attacked in the Red Sea.

Thirty months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, human suffering continues to worsen amid alarming reports of attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, including nuclear facilities, a senior UN political affairs official told the Security Council on Wednesday.

The World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Wednesday a pause in the movement of its employees in Gaza until further notice following an attack on a team returning from an aid delivery mission on Tuesday evening, just metres from an Israeli-controlled checkpoint.

More than 2,000 nuclear tests have been conducted at over 60 sites around the world since testing began on 16 July 1945, resulting in uninhabitable lands and long-term health problems, Secretary General António Guterres said in his message marking Friday’s International Day to end testing once and for all.

Senior UN officials warned the Security Council on Wednesday that the world cannot afford to lose focus on Syria, as the humanitarian and political crisis continues to wreak havoc on the country more than a decade after civil war erupted.

Nigeria received 10,000 doses of mpox vaccines on Tuesday, becoming the first African country to obtain vaccines aimed at combating the spread of the new strain of mpox virus.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres received a warm welcome in the capital of Timor-Leste on Wednesday where he hailed the 25th anniversary of its vote for independence, praising the national unity of the past, and pledging the UN’s unwavering support in the future.

Amid further raids, airstrikes and settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, warned that the Israeli military’s actions risked further enflaming an “already explosive situation”.

SYDNEY, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON DC, Aug 27 (IPS) - Bangladesh bleeds as over US$3 billion drains from Bangladesh annually through offshore accounts. According to a recent report, close to US$150 was siphoned off the country during 15 years of kleptocratic Hasina regime's mis-rule. Nearly US$50 billion went out of the country in the first six years (2009-2015) of the Hasina regime.

WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (IPS) - At least 55 governments in the past decade have restricted the freedom of movement for people they deem as threats, including journalists, according to a Freedom House report published last Thursday.