Civil society groups urge UN action against France over Islamophobia
Dozens of civil society organizations have urged the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to open formal infringement procedures against the French government for entrenching Islamophobia. In a written complaint to the UNHRC, some 36 groups from 13 countries outlined the “clear violation of a number of basic rights that are protected in legislation that is ratified by Paris.” The coalition said...
Global response to America’s new leadership
The world watched the power transfer and swearing in of the 46th United States president, Joseph Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, the first woman, Black and South Asian person to hold the post. Beyond the pomp and circumstance that accompanied the Jan. 20 inauguration, it was limited by the coronavirus pestilence and a heightened security lockdown of Washington, D.C.,...
Haiti braces for unrest as opposition demands new president
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—Flying rocks. Burning tires. Acrid smoke. Haiti braced for a fresh round of widespread protests starting Jan. 15, with opposition leaders demanding that President Jovenel Moise step down in February, worried he is amassing too much power as he enters his second year of rule by decree. “The priority right now is to put in place another economic, social and...
UN steps up support for thousands left homeless after fire at Rohingya refugee camp
UN agencies have stepped up efforts to help thousands of Rohingya refugees left without shelter after a devastating fire tore through a crowded refugee camp in south-eastern Bangladesh in mid-January. The fire erupted shortly after midnight on Jan. 14 (local time) in the Nayapara refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, gutting about 550 shelters and 150 shops. A community center is also said...
Japan urges South Korea to drop wartime compensation demands
TOKYO—Japan’s foreign minister accused South Korea on Jan. 18 of worsening already strained ties by making “illegal” demands for compensation for the sexual abuse of Korean women and use of forced laborers during World War II. Toshimitsu Motegi, in a diplomatic policy speech in parliament, said a recent South Korean court ruling ordering Japan to compensate 12 South Korean women...
‘Swift action’ needed in Tigray to save thousands at risk, UNHCR warns
Two months after conflict forced humanitarian workers to withdraw from the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), on Jan. 19, stressed the need for “swift action” to restore safe access to “save thousands of lives at risk.” Granted one-time admittance by the Ethiopian authorities to conduct a needs assessment, UNHCR led the first humanitarian mission to Mai Aini and...
Vaccine News from Cuba: Soberana 02 clinical trials expanded
(GRANMA)—Expanded phase II B clinical trials of Cuba’s anti-Covid-19 candidate vaccine Soberana 02 with volunteers between 19 and 80 years of age, began at the 19 de Abril and No. 1 Polyclinics, in the Havana municipalities of Plaza de la Revolución and La Lisa, respectively. For the purpose of evaluating reactions, safety and immunogenicity of the candidate, created by the...
Cuban drug Nasalferon administered to travelers arriving in Cuba
(GRANMA)—As a preventative measure, given the COVID-19 situation in the country, this immune system booster is being administered to travelers arriving in Cuba, as well as members of their households. Cuba began administering Nasalferon to travelers and their families on Jan. 7, a drug produced by the country’s biotechnology industry to prevent the transmission of SARS-COV-2 and strengthen the immune...
Dr. King civil rights leader or Pan Africanist?
Every year we in the United States celebrate the life and legacy of civil rights icon Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The celebrations frequently focus on Dr. King’s dream of ending discrimination in America. But those tributes rarely if ever mention Dr. King’s global, Pan African interests, which included attending the post-colonial inauguration in 1957 of Ghana’s newly...
Fifty years on the Nile dam that changed the face of Egypt
MANILA SULTAN, Egypt—Yassin Saeed remembers when the Nile’s annual flood drenched his village in the years before the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Now, former flood lands are green fields year-round. “Our lives were very hard,” said the 76-year-old Egyptian, recounting how his father, his brothers and other farmers had to use the traditional felucca sailboats to harvest the...