 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Business consultant Athol Williams said he witnessed high-level corruption under the presidency of Jacob Zuma—but a good portion of it emanated from a U.S. company with connections to U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, according to a new report.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — In one of the deadliest explosions in years, fire and blast shook south-eastern Nigeria, Imo state, possibly the result of illegal oil refining of stolen crude or “kpofire”.
News reports described charred bodies left scattered among burnt palms, cars and vans after the weekend explosion which killed more than 100 people at an illegal depot on the border of Nigeria's Rivers and Imo states.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Kenya's former president Mwai Kibaki leaves a mixed legacy of economic reforms and a new constitution alongside a controversial election which led to deadly violence and entrenched corruption.
His death at 90 years of age was announced by his successor, President Uhuru Kenyatta. A British-educated economist, Kibaki assumed the presidency after four decades as a lawmaker, government minister and then vice president to his predecessor, Daniel arap Moi.
By Jamshed Baruah
NEW YORK (IDN) — In the face of dramatic reversals in global progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), urgent action is required by the international community to improve developing countries’ access to affordable finance.
Inaugurating the four-day Forum on Financing for Development (FfD Forum) on April 25, ECOSOC President Mr. Collen V. Kelapile, Botswana's Permanent Representative to the UN said: “…The ambition of sustainable development for all is facing perhaps its greatest threat since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda seven years ago.”
By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK (IDN) — World military spending hit a new all-time high last year reaching a staggering $2.1 trillion—for the first time ever.
The five largest spenders in 2021 were the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and Russia, together accounting for 62 per cent of expenditure, according to the latest figures released on April 25 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
This is the second in a series of three articles. Please click here for Part 2.
Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake *
An Unsinkable Aircraft carrier? Asset stripping a strategic island
COLOMBO (IDN) — Former US Under Secretary for South and Central Asia, Alice G. Well, a few years ago called Sri Lanka a "valuable piece of real estate" in the Indian Ocean, and the country not long ago turned down a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact and a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).
This is the second in a series of three articles. Please click here for Part 1.
Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake *
Sri Lanka a theatre of US proxy war in the Indian Ocean Region?
COLOMBO (IDN) — Like Lebanon, once known as the Paris of the Middle East, Sri Lanka is a relatively wealthy country in South Asia and listed as a lower Middle-Income Country (MIC). The strategic island is ahead of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan on the SAARC regional poverty count.
This is the first in a series of three articles.
Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake *
Debt cancellation, not asset stripping is the need of the hour!
COLOMBO (IDN) — In Cherry Blossom lined Washington DC in the glare of global media April 18-23 Sri Lanka became the poster child of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF), Spring Meetings. The strategic Indian Ocean island’s pathetic plight featured on major media and television channels that craft the global narrative, with images of people in queues amid food, fuel, and medicine shortages due to its crashing currency, soaring cost of living and ‘Arab Spring’ style protests.
Viewpoint by P.I. Gomes
Dr P.I. Gomes is retired Ambassador of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana to the Kingdom of Belgium and the European Union and former Secretary-General of ACP Group of State, now the Organisation of African, the Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS).
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (IDN) — Recent events of the Russia-Ukraine war bring in their wake untold upheavals across Europe.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has joined other human rights groups in protesting plans by the United Kingdom to dump migrants and asylum-seekers who cross the Channel thousands of miles away to Rwanda as the government tries to cut the record numbers of people making the perilous journey.
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.