Missing American Austin Tice still can’t be traced among thousands of prisoners freed by Syrian rebels
When Ausitn Tice escaped, he was spotted by people living in the Mazzeh neighbourhood, wandering the street. He entered the house of a well-known Syrian family, the name of which is being withheld for security reasons, a person familiar with the escape said. Tice was recaptured soon after his escape, one current and one former US official said.
Israeli war crimes: Neutrality principle espoused by aid agencies is deathly complicity in rights abuse
International aid groups must do what their Palestinian colleagues have been doing for a long time, and speak out – in plain language – about Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. If not, history will judge this as moral cowardice or, worse still, complicity.
South Korea parliament impeaches President Yoon over martial law bid, constitutional court to decide his fate
President Yoon shocked the nation late on December 3 when he gave the military sweeping emergency powers in order to root out what he called “anti-state forces” and overcome obstructionist political opponents.
Africa deserves three permanent UN Security Council seats, say African Union chair candidates
Despite the continent’s young population of 1.4 billion that is set to double by 2050, regional trade has faced challenges that were addressed in the Friday debate.
Coming to Africa: Benin grants citizenship to slave descendants againt backdrop of indigenous religions revival
Benin is not the first country to grant citizenship to descendants of slaves. Earlier this month, Ghana naturalised 524 African Americans after the West African country’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, invited them to “come home” in 2019, as part of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in North America in 1619.
UN Security Council concerned Taliban’s ‘Islamic vision’ is eroding freedoms in Afghanistan
The Taliban de facto authority’s enforcement of the so called “Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” law amplified the erosion of basic freedoms, Ms Otunbayeva said, noting that monitoring by “inspectors” extended into public spaces, NGO offices, mosques, bazars and even weddings.
President-elect Trump’s pick for US health and human services is openly anti-Big Pharma, but will he rein in drugmakers?
After endorsing Trump, Robrt F. Kennedy Jr launched the Make America Healthy Again campaign, which focuses on combatting chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, and laid out a handful of policy ideas to do that in a September Wall Street Journal editorial. Some of those policy proposals take direct aim at the pharmaceutical industry, including reforming the Prescription Drug User Fee Act or PDUFA, and reviewing direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ad guidelines.
Russian missiles batter Ukraine’s embattled power grid to armtwist Kyiv into discussing peace
Russia launched 93 missiles, including one manufactured in North Korea and nearly 200 drones during the attack, Zelenskiy said. Air defences intercepted 81 of the missiles, including 11 shot down by F-16 fighter jets, he added.
Assad’s escape from Syria to Moscow was marked with deception, despair, flight and even left food cooking on the stove
Bashar al-Assad didn’t even inform his younger brother, Maher, commander of the Army’s elite 4th Armoured Division, about his exit plan, according to three aides. Maher flew a helicopter to Iraq and then to Russia, one of the people said. His maternal cousins, Ehab and Eyad Makhlouf, were similarly left behind as Damascus fell to the rebels, according to a Syrian aide and Lebanese security official. The pair tried to flee by car to Lebanon but were ambushed on the way by rebels who shot Ehab dead
Beyond zero tolerance: Expert views on sexual abuse accountability and supporting survivors
These systemic failures in response mechanisms, from cultural taboos to operational shortcomings, create significant barriers to survivors seeking justice. This was evidenced repeatedly in the CAR investigation – for example when Jeanne* shared her experiences, noting that “If I haven’t gone to see MINUSCA, it is because I don’t know who to turn to, but also because I am afraid.”
