“Rape in war has been a crime for centuries. But it was a crime in the shadows. The two laureates have both shone a light on it,” Dan Smith, Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told Reuters. Dr. Mukwege, a past winner of the United Nations Human …
Read More »EU backs treaty to produce disabled-friendly books
UN agreement now expands to 70 countries The 28-nation European Union on Monday ratified the Marrakesh treaty to ease access to reading material for people who are print-disabled the world over. The coverage of the 2013 United Nations treaty now expands to 70 countries across the globe, according to a …
Read More »‘Enough lies!’: Bosnian village tells politicians to keep away
As politicians embark on their final days of campaigning for Bosnian elections on Sunday, there is one small corner of the country where they cannot pass: Podgora, a poor hamlet fed up with the government’s broken promises. “You’ve been lying to us for years. No party is welcome in Podgora,” …
Read More »U.S. commitment to NATO iron-clad, says Jim Mattis
Alliance to hold its biggest military exercises since Cold War U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday sought to reassure rattled European nations of America’s “iron-clad” commitment to NATO, as the transatlantic alliance announced its biggest military exercises since the Cold War. If U.S. allies have been unnerved by President …
Read More »Laser pioneers win Physics Nobel
Three scientists on Tuesday won the Nobel Physics Prize, including the first woman to receive the prestigious award in 55 years, for inventing optical lasers that have paved the way for advanced precision instruments used in corrective eye surgery. Arthur Ashkin of the U.S. won one half of the nine …
Read More »India wants trade deal to keep me happy: Trump
President Donald Trump on Monday slammed India for imposing “tremendously high tariffs” on American products and said that New Delhi wanted to have a trade deal with America to keep him happy. At a press conference on the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, Mr. Trump listed out the deals that are under …
Read More »Palestinians protest against Israel’s nation-state law
Palestinians joined Israeli Arabs on Monday in a general strike against Israel’s controversial Jewish nation-state law, while commemorating the deaths of 13 people killed in clashes with the police in October 2000. In the Arab Israeli community of Jatt in northern Israel, 1,500 participated in the central march in memory …
Read More »Quake-hit Indonesia seeks foreign aid
Indonesia’s President formally invited foreign donors to contribute to rescue and recovery efforts on the quake-and-tsunami-struck-island of Sulawesi on Monday, but his government was at pains to stress the situation was under control. “The President has decided to accept aid from abroad,” said Army General-turned-Minister Wiranto. Giving a less than …
Read More »Xi Jinping reaches out to new Maldives leadership
Offers to lift ties between the two nations to ‘a new level’ Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday congratulated Ibrahim Solih, Maldives’s President-elect. In his message, President Xi offered to “lift the comprehensive friendly cooperative partnership between China and Maldives to a new level”. Mr. Xi stressed that he “highly …
Read More »U.S.-Japanese pair win Nobel Medicine Prize
Lauded for their path-breaking research on cancer therapy Two immunologists, James Allison of the U.S. and Tasuku Honjo of Japan, won the 2018 Nobel Medicine Prize for research into how the body’s natural defences can fight cancer, the jury said on Monday. Unlike more traditional forms of cancer treatment that …
Read More »