India’s top court hearing petitions challenging government’s removal of Kashmir’s special status
NEW DELHI—India’s top court Aug. 2, began hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the legislation passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2019 that stripped disputed Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, scrapped its separate constitution and removed inherited protections on land and jobs. The five-judge constitutional bench that includes the Supreme Court’s chief justice is simultaneously hearing...
Unprecedented child migration crisis across Latin America and Caribbean
Record numbers of children are on the move through Latin America and the Caribbean, facing perilous journeys marked by violence, exploitation and abuse, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned in Sept. 5. Children in the region driven from their homes by gang violence, instability, poverty and climate change represent around 25 percent of migrants said—almost double the global average of...
No-go for Kenyan troops to Haiti—at least for now
One thousand Kenyan soldiers will not be going to Haiti anytime soon. That’s the word from the High Court in Kenya freezing a UN Security Council-approved mission to the Caribbean nation to combat gang violence there. The mission was put on hold after a former presidential candidate, Ekuru Aukot, argued that the nation’s articles of the constitution denied President William Ruto...
World News in Brief: UN anti-corruption conference, global hunger ‘set to soar,’ healthy diets unaffordable in Asia-Pacific
This year, the anti-corruption conference, as the Conference of the States Parties (CoSP) is popularly known, marks the 20th anniversary of the landmark Convention. “Corruption not only robs resources, it robs people of hope,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a video message, urging all parties to use this opportunity to strengthen international cooperation to prevent, detect, and prosecute corruption—in...
UNICEF condemns air strike on schools in Myanmar
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has strongly condemned the Feb. 5 deadly airstrike on two schools in eastern Myanmar resulting in the deaths of at least four children and two teachers, with many more left injured. The children killed were boys between 12 and 14 years of age. “UNICEF strongly condemns any strikes against schools and places of learning, which must always...
The multi-dimensional challenges facing Haiti
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Who will rule Haiti in the midst of its worst lawlessness? Will the Haitian people decide or will international influence rule the day? A new report presented by William O’Neill of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) calls for 5,000 international police to enact “immediate and bold action” to tackle the “cataclysmic” situation in the...
Japan: Safeguarding a mother tongue and mother nature
When asked what might be the most beautiful word in Shimamuni, the Indigenous language variety spoken on Okinoerabu Island in Kagoshima prefecture of southwestern Japan, Nami Sao pondered for a moment before replying “mihedirodoo.” Her husband, Tomoyuki Sao, is quick to elaborate that its utterance is always enlivened with a smile and tends to make fellow Shimamuni speakers noticeably more...
Sanctions do more harm than good
AFRICA WATCH The sanctions concept has been around a long time. According to Foreign Policy global news publication, sanctions have a long history of use by nation states blockading their enemies, or by those that have come under the sway of Western imperialist powers. A case can be made, that for Africans and Africans of the Diaspora this form of...
Literary giant decries ‘language colonialism’
GINNEWS (GIN) - Nigeria's celebrated novelist Chinua Achebe has called on contemporary African writers to give priority to their mother tongue, in order to lessen the negative consequences of colonialism on African arts and culture. He also called for the revival of Africa's dying oral traditions of storytelling, which he considers unique. The Panafrican News Agency quoted the world famous...
Sudanese leader offers insight on politics, oil and Farrakhan
(FinalCall.com) - Prior to his recent arrest, The Final Call interviewed Dr. Hassan Al-Turabi, a Sudanese political leader, and discovered this constitutional scholar and Islamist, a former friend of President Omar Bashir and former House speaker in Sudan willing to openly and frankly speak his mind, not caring about possible consequences. As secretary general of the Popular Congress Party,...