The United Nations refugee agency warned Friday that 2013 is on track for some of the highest levels of forced displacement ever seen, owing to unusually large numbers of new refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs).
The first half of 2013 is described as "one of the worst periods for forced...
Uganda's parliament has passed a new law that sets life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for "aggravated homosexuality," media reports citing government officials said Friday.
The original version of the bill tabled in the parliament by MP David Bahati three years ago proposed awarding the death...
The United Nations human rights office on Friday called on Egyptian authorities to immediately release all individuals detained in relation to their work as human rights defenders, noting a "worrying escalation" in the harassment and intimidation of civil society in the country.
The call comes after...
The European Commission has approved additional funds to support the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, according to an EU press release issued Friday.
Following its announcement at the end of October to allocate at least EUR 15m under the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA) to address...
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) 0n Friday strongly condemned the assault on a United Nations compound in Akobo, South Sudan, in which some 20 civilians and two peacekeepers were killed.
The 15-member Council also called for calm in the two-year old country, which is grappling with a political...
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has held a telephonic conversation with Egyptian Defense Minister Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to provide an update on his recent visit to the Middle East and to discuss the United States-Egypt relationship, Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement.
According...
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Lenín Voltaire Moreno Garces, former vice-president of Ecuador, as his Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility.
In his new post, Moreno will help promote the rights of people with disabilities, who number more than one billion, and also...
A jury in the United Kingdom on Thursday convicted two Muslim men of killing and mutilating British soldier, Fusilier Lee Rigby, outside a military barracks in London in May.
The jury, comprising of eight women and four men, found 29-year-old Michael Adebolajo and 22-year-old Michael Adebowale guilty...
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has asked European nations to further develop their military capabilities and ensure greater cooperation and coordination between western military and the European Union, according to a press release issued Thursday.
Rasmussen made the remarks while addressing...
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Thursday that he would soon grant pardon to jailed former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and free two jailed members of the punk band Pussy Riot as well as Greenpeace activists standing trial for staging a protest at a Russian off-shore oil platform earlier...
The top United Nations envoy in Somalia has strongly condemned the attack on a medical convoy outside Mogadishu on Wednesday, killing at least six people.
"Somalia, still struggling to build up its health services, relies on the goodwill of NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and medical personnel...
At least fourteen people have been killed after a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of a group of Shiite pilgrims in Iraq's capital city of Baghdad, media reports citing local officials said Thursday.
The suicide bomber reportedly struck as the pilgrims were having refreshments inside a...
Enforced disappearances were widespread throughout Syria as part of a campaign of intimidation and as a tactic of war, according to a report published Thursday by the United Nations panel investigating human rights violations in the country.
"Without a trace: enforced disappearances in Syria," the...
Luxembourg on Thursday joined the European Union Children of Peace initiative, the lasting legacy of the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to the European bloc in 2012. The initiative funds humanitarian projects helping children in conflict zones to gain access to education.
According to a statement,...
Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has condemned the killing of newspaper editor and reporter Kawa Ahmed Germyani in Kalar, in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
"I condemn the murder of Kawa Ahmed Germyani," Bokova was quoted as saying in a...