Africa

The head of the Libyan rebels’ military operations against Col. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed in a targeted assassination. Abdel Fattah Younes was shot dead on Thursday as he headed to appear before a rebel-organized judicial committee.

According to United Nations, there have been no progress in Libya talks until now.

Mr. Pierre Galand, the international coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, confirmed at a Cape Town press conference on Thursday that the Tribunal´s third session will be held November 5-6 in Cape Town, South Africa. The Russell Tribunal on Palestine is an international people’s tribunal to promote peace and justice in Palestine and the Middle East.

Africa Youth Camp – promoting a culture of peace – is a project of World without Wars and Violence that aims to strengthen coordination among groups campaigning on issues of peace, non-violence, nuclear disarmament, small arms control, terrorism and human rights in Africa and the Middle East.The event will constitute a twelve day Africa Youth Peace Camp meeting in Nigeria.

South Sudanese population estimated in 9 million people, is overwhelmingly young, rural, poor and uneducated; only 4% of its vast arable land is cultivated; half the population does not have access to safe drinking water, and only one person in five uses a health-care facility in their lifetime.

‘No nuclear-armed country currently appears to be preparing for a future without these terrifying devices. In fact, all are squandering billions of dollars on modernization of their nuclear forces, making a mockery of UN disarmament pledges. If we allow this madness to continue, the eventual use of these instruments of terror seems all but inevitable.’

The UN Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development recognizes that the challenges inherent to the global water crisis can’t be met by governments alone. All key sectors of society have to be engaged and mobilized to collectively address the problem. Dr. Reza Ardakanian says the media can play an important role in mobilizing different players to respond to the water crisis.

Military expenditure amounted to 1630 billion dollars in 2010, i.e, 236 dollars per person in the world. Meanwhile, UN asks for 16 dollars to save each one of the over two million children needing urgent life-saving actions if they are to survive in drought-affected countries in the Horn of Africa. Half a million could soon die or suffer long-lasting mental or physical damage.

In addition to generating a series of environmental, social and cultural problems and making a quick buck under the protection of the Global Financal Institutions and local governments, mining companies, and as in the case of Barrick Gold on the borders of Latin American countries, have replaced the different roles and responsibilities of National States

Since July 9th, a new state, South Sudan, came to join the international community. As usual, mainstream media have both under-reported and under-informed about it. This is a standard practice–mainstream media mostly ‘tells about bleeding events such as wars and deadly attacks. But, what do we know about this new state?

The UN says that rape is used as a weapon of war, and as a mean of terror to ensure the enslave-ment of civilians. Inspite of this clear definition of such horrific crime, the UN now says that the rapes of hundreds of people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo“could be considered crimes against humanity and war crimes.”