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News for a Sustainable World
Published by The Non-profit International Press Syndicate Group
with IDN-InDepthNews as the Flagship Agency
Dear Reader,
We are pleased to send you Edition 37 | 2021. This weekly is the flagship news product of the Non-Profit International Press Syndicate Group with registered offices in Canada, Germany, Japan and Singapore, and correspondents around the world. Feel free to share and re-publish articles pro bono mentioning the source. Previous editions are available on https://newsletter-archive.indepthnews.net. Your feedback is most welcome.
Kind regards from the Non-Profit
International Press Syndicate
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene
The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.
ABUJA (IDN) — The guns of Nigeria’s three-year civil war were silenced 51 years ago, but in the battle for a truly federal state, the echoes of warfare have never been more resonant.
On August 10, Rivers State, which at an average monthly federal receipt of N12b, is the third richest by dole amongst Nigeria’s poor 36 states, started a war with the Federal Government over the collection of Value Added Taxes (VAT).
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UN News
NEW YORK (IDN) — The incoming President of the General Assembly says that hope is desperately needed for those billions around the world struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, devastation, and strife. In his first major interview, he told UN News that the General Assembly, as the UN’s most representative body, is ideally placed to give shape to that hope.
“The General Assembly is the only body which has the 193 countries represented and this body, when it speaks unanimously, when it decides on a matter, that is the international conscience,” Abdulla Shahid said, ahead of the 76th General Assembly session, which started on 14 September.
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Viewpoint by William N Kring
The writer is the Assistant Director for the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University. This article first appeared on EastAsiaForum on September 7, 2021.
BOSTON (IDN) — As the more lethal and contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 rips across the globe, the prospects of multilateral efforts to combat the virus, tackle the looming global debt crisis and mount a sustainable economic recovery are dim. Nowhere is the insufficiency of the multilateral response more apparent than on the issue of debt relief.
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By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) — One of the five winners of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awards—known as Asia’s Nobel Prizes—is Dr Muhammad Amjad Saquib the founder of Pakistan’s biggest community development network Akhuwat that is based on Islamic principles of sharing and brotherhood.
Launched in 2001, hundreds of thousands of poor families have been supported through Akhuwat’s interest-free microfinance loans. Islamic law prohibits interest on loans, but Islamic teachings that encourage followers to set aside a portion of one’s wealth to help the needy assist to finance this model.
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Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Once again the CIA and MI6 are publishing dire warnings of the vitality of Al Qaeda. Once again the Islamic world as a whole is being tarnished by association. Are we returning, as we sadly commemorate the destruction of New York’s Twin Towers on 9/11, to what the late U.S. presidential contender John McCain said: “America needs a leadership to confront the transcendent challenge of our time: the threat of radical Islamic terrorism".
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — A billionaire appointed by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, will lead a new government after long-ruling Islamists were defeated in parliamentary elections.
Businessman Aziz Akhannouch of the National Rally of Moroccan Independents (RNI), one of the country’s richest men with a fortune estimated at $2 billion, called his victory a win for democracy.
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Young military officers who ousted Guinea’s President Alpha Condé on September 5 are wasting no time taking on the duties of heads of state.
Meetings have been scheduled with leaders of political parties and religious groups to be followed by civil society organizations and representatives of diplomatic missions.
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By Amitava Chowdhury
KOLKATTA (IDN) — One of 2021 Ramon Magsaysay Awards—known as ‘Asia’s Nobel Prize’—has been awarded to the Bangladeshi scientist Dr Firdausi Qadri who has played a “key role” in creating more affordable vaccines to combat cholera and typhoid, the Manila-based award foundation said in a statement on August 31.
The 70-year-old female scientist has dedicated a lifetime to help the poor overcome sickness and disease with her research at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (ICDDR) at Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka.
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By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK (IDN) — When the last of the US troops pulled out of Kabul on August 31—after a prolonged 20-year military occupation of Afghanistan—they left behind a treasure trove of weapons but most of them abandoned by retreating Afghan forces who were American allies.
These weapons, including combat helicopters, armoured vehicles, battle tanks and transport aircraft, were apparently de-activated by the departing Americans, but some reportedly remain functional and battle-ready.
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By Reinhard Jacobsen
BRUSSELS (IDN) — The Elders address the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Tigray; refugees in Ethiopia approved for resettlement reportedly refused departure; UN urges opening of Tigray for aid; 29 Tigrayan bodies found between Sudan and Ethiopia; 5,000 Ethiopian migrants blocked in Yemen; Ethiopia is facing competing alliances; over 23,000 refugees returned to Libya this year, reports the Belgium-based Europe External Programme with Africa in its latest report on the Horn of Africa situation.
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Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*
COPENHAGEN (IDN) — Twenty years after the events of 9/11, 2001, and in the midst of the messy withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan, it seems appropriate to question the validity of the so-called “War on Terror”. The Costs of War project estimates that America's 20-years of wars, initiated with the supposed intention of fighting terrorism, have killed almost a million people, displaced 37 million, and have cost the US government 8 trillion dollars.
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By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN)— Dr. Sima Sami Bahous, 65, a former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, with links to the Royal family, has been appointed the Executive Director of UN Women. IDN reported on September 6 that she was the front runner for the post. UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced her appointment on September 10.
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By Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts
The writer is an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia.
VIRGINIA, USA (IDN) — North African pastoralism, an agricultural method used for centuries by nomadic people in the steppe highlands, is on the decline. Facing limited grazing land due to overuse and drought, pastoral nomads are favouring more sedentary farming methods like growing fruit or nut trees and crops.
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By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK (IDN)— Since its creation 76 years ago, the United Nations has been preoccupied with one of its primary mandates, namely, maintaining international peace and security.
But over the years, that mandate has been extended to include peacekeeping, peace-building, nuclear disarmament, preventive diplomacy, and more recently, a culture of peace.
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By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) — As the race for modernisation of cyber and nuclear technologies gains momentum, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) "the centrepiece of global efforts to eliminate nuclear tests once and for all". A statement delivered on his behalf by the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu said this Treaty has the power to protect future generations from the human suffering and environmental catastrophe produced by nuclear tests.
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Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene
The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.
ABUJA (IDN) — Zambia’s peaceful and orderly election in August offered a glimmer of hope that Africa’s story might be changing. For the third time in three decades, an opposition leader defeated the sitting president sending a message to the world that the continent may not be the incumbent’s lair after all.
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