Commentary / World Apr 27, 2020
COVID-19 threatens to starve Africa
by Jessica Fanzo
The continent has some unique strengths in the pandemic, but food insecurity is a special vulnerability.
World / Social Issues Nov 29, 2019
Zimbabwe is facing "man-made" starvation with 60 percent of the people failing to meet basic food needs, a U.N. special envoy said Thursday after touring the southern African country. Hilal Elver, special rapporteur on the right to food, ranked Zimbabwe among the four top countries ...
World / Social Issues Nov 29, 2019
UNHCR rejects claim it is 'starving migrants' at crowded Tripoli facility to get them to leave
The U.N. refugee agency said Thursday it was encouraging migrants to leave a severely overcrowded Tripoli center, but rejected as "offensive" a British daily report alleging it was "starving" asylum-seekers to force them out. "I find that accusation offensive," UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi told reporters ...
Asia Pacific / Science & Health Oct 3, 2019
India-Pakistan nuclear war could trigger global cooling and kill worldwide for a decade: researchers
The year is 2025 and militants have attacked India's parliament, killing most of its leaders. New Delhi retaliates by sending tanks into the part of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan. Fearing it will be overrun, Islamabad hits the invading forces with its battlefield nuclear weapons, triggering ...
World / Social Issues Nov 22, 2018
Over 80,000 Yemeni children may have died from hunger, aid group says
An estimated 85,000 children under five may have died from extreme hunger in Yemen since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in the civil war in 2015, an aid agency said on Wednesday, as the U.N. special envoy arrived in Yemen to pursue peace talks. Western countries ...
World Jan 10, 2018
Yemen's armed Houthi movement threatened to block the strategic Red Sea shipping lane if the Saudi-led coalition it is fighting keeps pushing toward the port of Hodeida it controls, the Houthi-run SABA news agency reported. Yemen lies beside the southern mouth of the Red Sea, ...
World / Social Issues Dec 14, 2017
400,000 children seen facing starvation in war-ravaged Congo as aid dries up
Hunger has surged in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 400,000 children at risk of starving to death due to conflict, displacement and funding shortages, aid agencies said. Militia fighting that broke out in Congo's central Kasai region last year has led to an eight-fold ...
National / Politics Nov 15, 2017
U.N. panel backs Japan-led resolution denouncing North Korea's human rights abuses
A United Nations committee on Tuesday endorsed a Japan- and European Union-led resolution that takes aim at North Korea's human rights violations against its citizens. "The human rights situation in the DPRK continues to be of great concern," according to a joint Japan-EU statement read ...
National Jul 24, 2017
Michiko Inukai, author, philanthropist and granddaughter of former PM, dies at 96
Michiko Inukai, an author and philanthropist who worked to help refugees and people facing starvation, died Monday at 96, according to people close to her. She was a granddaughter of former Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai, who was killed in an attempted coup in 1932 that ...
Asia Pacific May 14, 2017
Ex-North Korean propaganda artist turns his skills to satire
by Emma Batha
For seven years North Korean artist Song Byeok painted propaganda posters glorifying the world's most secretive regime. Today, having defected to South Korea, he uses his talents to satirize his repressive homeland. Growing up, Song says he revered North Korean founder Kim Il Sung as ...
World / Social Issues Jul 6, 2016
Amnesty report cites forced cannibalism, rape, death, trauma as South Sudan turns 5
Mass killings, rape, torture, abductions and forced cannibalism have led to an increase in mental illness in South Sudan, with patients routinely housed in prisons due to an "almost total" absence of mental health care, a rights group said on Wednesday. There are only two ...
World / Social Issues Jan 15, 2016
More aid trucked into besieged Syrian towns; U.N. brands starvation tactic war crime
A second batch of aid reached a besieged Syrian town and two trapped villages on Thursday and the United Nations accused rival factions of committing war crimes by causing civilians to starve to death. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, ...