International issues

Washington DC – Christmas has receded. Wishes and gifts have been exchanged, groaning boards have been emptied. Those who associate Christmas not only with “happy holidays” but with their faith have attended church services where prayers were said, sermons were delivered, and some of the most galvanizing choral music composed in the West, would have been heard.

“For centuries, Uzbekistan was famed as a hub of trade and rich cultural exchange on the Silk Road connecting China to Western Europe. More recently, however, the Central Asian country has come to be known for something far darker: torture,”‘ says Human Rights Watch report “No One Left to Witness” on Uzbekistan’s record of rights abuses.

Iran has warned the United States it will take action if its fleet returns to the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile, France is pushing European countries to follow the US in freezing Iranian central bank assets and imposing an embargo on oil exports.

Geneva – The UN human rights office voiced alarm at reports that the Egyptian military has carried out raids against the offices of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in what would be the first documented incidents of their kind in the country’s recent history.

Since northern African nations gained independence in the late 50s and early 60s, and long before the Arab Spring, the dream of North African unity has existed amongst the peoples of the region. North Africans are naturally united by a shared history, culture and language.

The final pull-out of US troops from Iraq marks the end or perhaps just one stage of the end, of the biggest military disaster since Vietnam. Every US-UK goal behind the invasion has been lost, in some cases humiliatingly.

Nairobi – South Sudan -the world’s newest country– now faces the danger of a wide-spreading “inter-ethnic” war after increasing armed clashes between two major tribes that took around one thousand lives so far.

Rome – Damaged crops combined with conflict and insecurity are threatening to leave some 2.5 million people in South Sudan – the world’s newest country – in critical conditions unless food assistance is provided immediately, the UN warns.

New York – The UN General Assembly approved a budget of $5.15 billion for all its activities, including mostly humanitarian aid and peace missions, over the period of 2012-2013. Meanwhile, nuclear powers spend more than 90 billion dollars a year on atomic weapons. The U.S. alone spends over 50 billion dollars annually on this weapon of mass destruction.

New York – Two years have elapsed since the devastating earthquake destroyed a whole country—Haiti, killing over 200,000 people. Still, three quarters of the population earn less than two dollars a day, 70 per cent do not have stable jobs, more than half of children do not go to school, and the great majority –70 to 80 per cent– had no access to electricity.