French police found guilty of racist brutality, but sentence is light
Three officers who received suspended jail sentences over their violent assault of a French Black man are symbols of out-of-control racist police violence tolerated by the government in France. The officers were convicted on Jan. 19 of “voluntary violence” towards the youth worker in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a working-class suburb with a large immigrant population. The victim, Theodore Luhaka, was left disabled with...
Kenya: Severe drought fuels malnutrition, reduces hospital-delivery births in Turkana County
Following four successive failed rainy seasons, Kenya is amid the worst drought in 40 years, the UN’s women’s health agency, UNFPA, said on Dec. 27, shining a light on 134,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women who are reported to be acutely malnourished and in need of treatment. “I have never experienced a drought as bad as this in my life,” 28-year-old Akure...
Congo Brazzaville president elected African Union Chairman
President Denis Sassou Nguesso succeeds Obasanjo as AU chairman African Union opens with plea for peace, economic development (FCN, 01-23-2006) Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - African leaders Tuesday elected President Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo Brazzaville as the next African Union (AU) chairman, to succeed Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who led the Union for 18 months. Nguesso's election on the second day of...
More than 850,000 Syrian, Turkish children displaced by earthquakes
One month on from the two catastrophic earthquakes that struck Türkiye and Syria, more than 850,000 children remain displaced after being forced from their damaged or destroyed homes amid millions in dire need of aid, UN agencies said. “Families forced from their homes by the earthquakes have spent the past four weeks focused on survival, their lives on hold while aftershocks...
Around two million facing food insecurity across Lebanon
Some two million people in Lebanon, including 1.29 million Lebanese residents and 700,000 Syrian refugees, are suffering some form of food insecurity as a result of the multiple crises afflicting the country, with the situation expected to get worse in the months ahead, UN agencies said in mid-January. Lebanon’s first ever Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Acute Food Insecurity Analysis predicts that the...
Baby formula marketing ‘pervasive, misleading and aggressive’ – UN report
Parents and pregnant women globally are exposed to aggressive marketing for baby formula milk, according to a report launched jointly by two UN agencies on Tuesday. How marketing of formula milk influences our decisions on infant feeding, the first report in a series by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), draws on interviews with parents,...
UK maternity scandal review finds 200 avoidable baby deaths
LONDON—A review into a scandal-hit British hospital group concluded March 30 that persistent failures in maternity care contributed to the avoidable deaths of more than 200 babies over two decades. The review began in 2018 after two families that had lost their babies in the care of Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust in western England campaigned for an inquiry. Former senior...
Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee publishes report on UK prisons
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), in a new report, highlights deleterious effects of chronic overcrowding and poor living conditions in prisons across Britain. The report published by the CPT following a targeted visit to the country in June 2021 notes that the underlying structural causes of overcrowding and violence...
Why is Obama going to Africa but not the OAU/AU Summit?
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Organization of Africa Unity-African Union (OAU/AU). Three issues–Pan Africanism, which includes continental integration, sustainable development and the empowerment of women, according to African Union Chair Nokosazan Klamini-Zuma “loom the largest,” for the group's meeting planned for May 25-27 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The AU's predecessor, the OAU, came into existence as...
Zimbabwe sanctions resolution fails
UNITED NATIONS (FinalCall.com) - A draft resolution calling for sanctions on Zimbabwe, including a travel ban and freezing the assets of President Robert Mugabe and 12 other individuals, was not adopted by the 15-member UN Security Council on July 11. Permanent Security Council members China and Russia vetoed the text with South Africa, Libya and Vietnam voting against the resolution. The...