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Photo: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in the East Room of the White House on December 8, 1987. Credit: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

New U.S. Budget Threatens Nuclear Restraint Agreements

By J C Suresh

TORONTO | WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – As the U.S. Congress prepares to enact legislation "that could further imperil the global nuclear order," a disarmament expert has urged the lawmakers "to seek to preserve and strengthen the existing architecture of arms control and non-proliferation agreements" – instead of rushing to hasten their demise.

The "key pillars" of the agreements "have their origin in the vision of President Ronald Reagan," says Kingston Reif, director for disarmament and threat reduction policy at the Arms Control Association (ACA).

: J C Suresh; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 08 September 2017

Photo: Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. The camp is one of three, which house up to 300,000 Rohingya people fleeing inter-communal violence in Myanmar. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Suu Kyi Slams “Disinformation” As Information War Intensifies

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) - The information war on Myanmar’s Bengali/Rohingya problem has intensified as Myanmar’s de-facto leader and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung Sung Suu Kyi finally broke her silence on the issue on September 6 and slammed the international media and human rights organisations for spreading “misinformation” on the conflict.

One day earlier, the London-based Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) launched a report in Bangkok bashing Myanmar’s Buddhist majority. The following day India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi making his first official bilateral visit to neighbouring Myanmar pledged Indian support to fight cross-border Islamic terrorism.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 07 September 2017

Photo: People are evacuated by boats in southern Malawi. Credit: UNDA

Floods in Africa Go Unnoticed Despite High Death Toll

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | LAGOS (IDN) – “Floods in Africa in August killed 25 times more people than Hurricane Harvey did.” That was the headline of a recent story in Quartz online by Lagos-based writer Yomi Kazeem.

“Like severe floods in southern Asia, the disasters in Africa have been largely under-reported compared to similar events in Houston where Hurricane Harvey, a once in a '500-year storm' has wreaked havoc,” wrote Kazeem.

Across Texas, 50 people have been reported dead due to the tropical storm but across Africa, intense rains and mudslides killed at least 1,240 people in August, he pointed out.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 07 September 2017

Photo: Selous Game Reserve. Credit: UNESO | Evergreen

Tanzania Plans Hydroelectric Plant on World Heritage Site

By Global Information Network

PARIS | NEW YORK (IDN) - "The Selous Game Reserve, covering 50,000 square kilometres, is amongst the largest protected areas in Africa and is relatively undisturbed by human impact," says UNESCO, which decided in 2014 to include it in the List of World Heritage in danger.

Notwithstanding the prominent status given to Selous Game Reserve by including it among world's 54 properties of "outstanding universal value", and much to the dismay of environmentalists, Tanzanian President John Magufuli has invited bids for a 2,100-megawatt hydroelectric plant. The project would more than double the country’s power generation capacity, ending chronic electricity shortages.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 07 September 2017

Photo: Addis Ababa Financing for Development Conference 2015. Credit: climateobserver.org

Argentina to Host the Second UN Conference on South-South Cooperation in 2019

By Adriano José Timossi

The United Nations General Assembly adopted on 28 August 2017 a draft resolution calling for the organization of the Second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation to be held in Argentina in 2019. The Conference will mark the 40th anniversary of the first UN Conference on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries also held in Buenos Aires almost forty years ago, a milestone event in the history of the UN and multilateralism.

GENEVA (IDN | SOUTHNEWS) - The United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus on August 28, 2017 the draft resolution titled Second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation to be held in Buenos Aires from March 20 to 22, 2019.

: South Centre; UN INSIDER; 06 September 2017

Stop Trump From Abandoning the Iran Nuclear Deal

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - The big mistake, apparently about to be made by President Trump, in undoing the nuclear agreement made by President Barack Obama with Iran is not just that he intends to go backwards, it is that he doesn’t intend to go forwards. (To be fair, neither did Obama.)

What the Iranians negotiated about was not so much the “bomb” – to be or not to be – but about their pride and their position in the world and their right to become a thriving economic and political power inured from sanctions or military threats. (Sanctions were imposed before the nuclear issue came to the fore.)

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 05 September 2017

Two UN Agencies Hold First Ever Asia-Pacific Ministerial Summit on the Environment

By Shamshad Akhtar and Erik Solheim*

“Resource Efficient and Pollution Free Asia-Pacific” is the focus of the UN ESCAP- UNEP's First Asia-Pacific Ministerial Summit on the Environment from September 5-8 September 2017 in Bangkok, which is purported to motivate policy makers to embark on sustainable development pathways that will achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and contributions under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

BANGKOK (IDN) - The high-level meeting is a unique opportunity for the region’s environment leaders to discuss how they can work together towards a resource efficient and pollution-free Asia-Pacific.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 05 September 2017

Photo: People in Pyongyang watch Kim Jong-un on North Korean TV, 2015. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Use Sanctions Pressure and Diplomacy with North Korea: Expert

By J C Suresh

TORONTO | WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration have failed to competently execute their own stated policy of “maximum pressure and engagement” with North Korea, says the Arms Control Association (ACA), which is dedicated to promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies.

In a statement on North Korea’s 5.9 to 6.3 magnitude nuclear test explosion on September 3, ACA's Executive Director Daryl G. Kimball says: "Trump has greatly exacerbated the risks through irresponsible taunts and threats of U.S. military force that only give credibility to the North Korean propaganda line that nuclear weapons are necessary to deter U.S. aggression, and have spurred Kim Jong-un to accelerate his nuclear program."

: J C Suresh; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 04 September 2017

Photo: Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman (right) briefs the Security Council on 4 September 2017 on the latest nuclear test conducted by the DPRK. UN Photo/Evan Schneider

Security Council Debates Options To De-escalate Tensions on the Korean Peninsula

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – When Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping met at the Kremlin on July 4, 2017 they stressed the need for establishing a peace mechanism that would require North Korea to suspend its nuclear programme and the United States to halt military exercises and use of the anti-missile defence system in South Korea.

The Russian-Chinese Kremlin meeting came after North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), said it had successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of hitting Alaska, the largest and most sparsely populated U.S. state in the northwest of Canada.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 04 September 2017

Photo: The ministers of foreign affairs of the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, France, China, the European Union and Iran (Lausanne, 30 March 2015). Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Scrapping the Iran Nuclear Deal Will Create Yet Another Nonproliferation Crisis

By Daryl G. Kimball*

The author is the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. This article first appeared on August 29, 2017 in the Arms Control Today as a Focus Editorial with the caption Don’t Abandon the Iran Nuclear Deal, and is being republished by arrangement with that monthly journal on nonproliferation and global security. – The Editor

WASHINGTON (IDN-INPS) - Although his administration is already struggling with one major nonproliferation challenge – North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile capabilities – President Donald Trump soon may initiate steps that could unravel the highly successful 2015 Iran nuclear deal, thereby creating a second major nonproliferation crisis.