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Photo: Frail Dalai Lama being supported by two monks. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne

Ageing Dalai Lama Attracts Huge Crowds to Buddhist Sacred Site

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 51st in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate.

BODHGAYA, India (IDN) — The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, has just concluded a three-day speaking engagement here at Bodhgaya, known as the 'land of enlightenment' that has attracted over 100,000 mainly Tibetans from across the world. This huge response surprised the organizers, as the event coincided with the Indian media talking about a new wave of Covid sweeping the country.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 01 January 2023

"In 2023, We Need Peace, Now More Than Ever"

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.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 01 January 2023

Photo: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Syria's Bashar Assad in Aleppo in February 2011. Source: DAILY SABAH

Russia Mediates Turkish-Syrian Reconciliation Process

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.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East; 31 December 2022

Photo: Australian PM Anthony Albanese (left) and Indian PM Narendra Modi. Credit: WION Web Team

India and Australia to Boost Ties Through Unity Agreement

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.

: Shastri Ramachandaran; THE WORLD; South Asia; 31 December 2022

Photo: Then U.S. President Trump announcing withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal in May 2018. Credit: The White House Flickr.

Is the Iran Nuclear Deal Dead or Alive?

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.

: Thalif Deen; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 30 December 2022

Image credit: Ben Buckland | Association for the Prevention of Torture

UN Concerned About 10 Million People Detained Worldwide

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”.

: Thalif Deen; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 29 December 2022

Photo: Major General Lucky Irabor, Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff. Credit: Twitter/@BashirAhmaad

Nigerian Military Performed "Forcible Abortions on Thousands"

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.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 28 December 2022

Photo: A Ukrainian soldier firing a Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon. Credit: AP

The Ukraine War: Paving the Road to a World War with 'Peace Plans'?

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.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 28 December 2022

Photo: A photo shared on Twitter by the US Embassy in Zambia on April 27 shows Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema flanked by Brigadier General Peter Bailey (R) and US Embassy Zambia Chargé d'Affaires Martin Dale. The US Embassy was announcing its Africa Command had established an Office of Strategic Cooperation in Zambia. Credit: US Embassy in Zambia.

Zambian Leader Cancels Death Penalty but Welcomes A US Base

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.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 27 December 2022

Photo: Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan. Source: Global Information Network

Only Three Africans on Forbes List of 100 Most Powerful Women

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.