International issues

As the World March for Peace and Nonviolence is due to arrive in New York on Monday November 30th, it has issued a statement regarding President Obama’s speech on Tuesday at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York which is widely expected to be an announcement of an increase in troop numbers in Afghanistan of anything up to 40,000.

Mazdak Ali Nazari, a journalist and editor of the website Khabar Negaran-Solh (‘Peace Reporters’), was arrested a few days ago at his private home in Iran. His whereabouts and the reasons for his arrest are currently unknown. Before he was detained, Nazari had planned to take part in the World March for Peace and Nonviolence on its way through his country.

Israel is coming under widespread international criticism for its plan to engage in a new round of illegal settlement expansion on occupied Palestinian land. Israel says it will build 900 new housing units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Gilo. Palestinian Authority leaders began a renewed effort for endorsement of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders.

Japan, the only country to be the target of atom bombs, and the U.S., the only country to drop them, firmly committed themselves to working towards a nuclear weapons free world, when President Barack Obama visited Japan during his first presidential tour of Asia. Both governments reaffirmed their “determination to realize a world free from nuclear weapons”.

In a historical ceremony, a Peace Torch was passed from the Liberian delegation of the World March for Peace and Non Violence, to the delegation of the same World March of Sierra Leone on the Mano River Union Bridge, the border between the two countries, were participants gathered on both sides to allow this important gesture.

IDN-InDepthNews Service – Desperate for “the lack of concrete action on hunger despite all the promises made”, the United Nations has called for a world hunger strike on Nov. 14-15. The call has been launched in Rome by Jacques Diouf, director general of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), on the eve of the Nov 16-18 World Summit on Food Security in Rome.

“Thank you very much. May God bless you all.” These were the words of Benedict XVI as he received the gift delivered to him by the delegation of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence, which, having left Wellington in New Zealand on October 2, with numerous legs in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, arrived at Vatican City to be received by the Pope.

Silo, the founder of Universalist Humanism and the inspiration behind the World March for Peace and Nonviolence, addressed the 10th Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. His talk, “The Meaning of Peace and Nonviolence in the Present Moment,” spoke to the possibility of constructing a Universal Human Nation founded upon a culture of active nonviolence.

Numerous volunteer organizers promoting the World March for Peace and Nonviolence arrived in Berlin from throughout Europe and the world to attend the Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. These World March promoters will participate in an international meeting, November 10 from 5 to 11 pm in beautiful Café-Restaurant *Kalkscheune*, at Johannisstraße 2, the city center of Berlin.

A novel idea favouring children has become a reality now that the Namibian Ministry of the Interior and Immigration has established an office in the maternity wing of Windhoek’s main public hospital. This initiative, supported by UNICEF, is designed to ensure that every child born in the hospital receives a birth certificate.