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By António Guterres, UN Secretary-General
NEW YORK (IDN) — Every New Year is a moment of rebirth.
We sweep out the ashes of the old year and prepare for a brighter day.
In 2022, millions of people around the world literally swept out ashes.
From Ukraine to Afghanistan to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and beyond, people left the ruins of their homes and lives in search of something better.
Erdogan Avenges the American Betrayal
Viewpoint by M.K. Bhadrakumar*
This article was produced in partnership with Indian Punchline and Globetrotter.
NEW DELHI (IDN) — The curtain is coming down on the brutal 11-year-old Syrian conflict, which former US President and Nobel Laureate Barack Obama initiated as the Arab Spring swept through West Asia two decades ago. The United States has suffered yet another big setback in West Asia as the year 2022 draws to a close. The unfolding Turkish-Syrian reconciliation process under Russian mediation is to be seen as a saga of betrayal and vengeance.
By Shastri Ramachandaran
MELBOURNE (IDN) — The unprecedented benefits expected to flow both ways from the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), which came into force on December 30, are by now well-known in the two countries.
Both India and Australia are upbeat about the ECTA, called the Unity Agreement, as a ground-breaking measure for intensifying bilateral commerce across a range of sectors and taking economic cooperation to an altogether new level.
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — U.S. President Joe Biden's off-the-cuff remark, describing the nuclear deal with Iran as "dead", has led to widespread speculation about the future of the landmark agreement—and of the potential emergence of new nuclear powers in the horizon.
"It is dead, but we're not going to announce it," Biden said before adding, "long story".
Biden's quote was on a video circulating on social media filmed during an election event in November—and disclosed in December.
They are Threatened with Torture & ill-Treatment
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — According to a joke that was circulating in Washington political circles in a bygone era, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s notorious torture chamber in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad—once held up as a symbol of barbarity—was never shut down.
After the US invasion and occupation of the country (2003-2011), a signboard outside the prison chamber apparently read: “Under New Management”.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — U.S. security assistance and cooperation programs with Nigeria are facing a review after an investigation by a Reuters news team found evidence of a secret illegal abortion program carried out by the Nigerian military during its war against an insurgency in the largely Muslim northeast since at least 2013.
It was estimated that thousands of illegal abortions were carried out by soldiers in the belief that the women had been kidnapped and raped by the militants.
Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies*
NEW YORK (IDN) — On December 27, 2022, both Russia and Ukraine issued calls for ending the war in Ukraine, but only on non-negotiable terms that they each know the other side would reject.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kuleba proposed a "peace summit" in February 2023 to be chaired by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, but with the precondition that Russia must first face prosecution for war crimes in an international court.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema recently announced on his Facebook page that he officially abolished both the death penalty and the offence of criminal defamation of the president.
The Penal Code of 2022 repeals the mandatory death sentence in the absence of extenuating circumstances. The provisions of Section 69, which pertain to criminal defamation of the president, have also been repealed.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is the current Director General of the World Trade Organization, and Nigerian media mogul Mosunmola Abudu are the only African women featured in the list of the World’s Most Powerful 100 Women by Forbes.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the top-ranked African woman at position 91. The Director-General of the World Trade Organization since March 2021, she is the first woman and first African to lead the World Trade Organization as Director-General.
Catastrophic Consequences Feared
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) — The United Nations has warned that the Horn of Africa is facing an unprecedented drought emergency, which will unleash catastrophic consequences. Communities in the region are in the midst of a likely fifth consecutive failed rainy season. They may face a sixth failed season in March-May 2023.
Across the Horn of Africa, at least 36.4 million people will be affected by the most prolonged and severe drought in recent history in the last months of 2022, including 24.1 million in Ethiopia, 7.8 million in Somalia and 4.5 million in Kenya.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.