International

By Jaya Ramachandran The increasing resort to drones by President Barack Obama will over the long term usher in “a new arms race and lay the foundations for an international system that is increasingly violent, destabilized and polarized between those…

Over 140 governments meeting at a United Nations forum in Geneva have agreed to a global, legally-binding treaty to address mercury, a notorious heavy metal with significant health and environmental effects. The Minamata Convention on Mercury – named after a…

This article can be found its entirety on the New Scientist website. It’s goodbye nuclear, hello renewables as Japan prepares to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm this July. By 2020, the plan is to build a total of…

Meticulous researchers have documented that U.S. drones are killing many innocent civilians in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.  Drones are making the world less stable and creating new enemies. Their remoteness provides those responsible with a sense of immunity. Weaponized drones…

The traditional incandescent light bulb is in the news again in Hong Kong where an outright ban was proposed by government but vetoed by a lack of interest in that extreme measure by the general population. Robert Hanson, who has…

In the humanist organisation that I work, World without Wars and Violence, it frequently becomes necessary to take a stand on a particular situation that’s happening in the world. In these days, of course, barely a week goes by without…

The first leaflet that caught my attention in life was signed by the “Mental Agitation Group”.  I immediately liked this theme of agitating the mind, the consciousness.  Consciousnesses seem a bit passive in these days, passive in the sense of…

IRIN* The World Economic Forum has released its eighth annual Global Risks Report, which lists top global threats identified by a survey of over 1,000 experts. As in last year’s report, 2013’s risks were topped by economic and financial concerns,…

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today issued a passionate call to countries to advance disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, as well as illegal arms, stressing that Member States should not delay on this issue. “Delay comes with a…

Dozens of Hong Kong-based migrant workers, including Sri Lankans; migrant and human rights groups, protested today the execution of Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan maid, in Saudi Arabia. Nafeek was executed on January 9 for the death of her employer’s…