General News

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is calling for the immediate release of dozens of young boys and six teachers who were abducted in South Sudan.

Eighty-nine boys, the youngest of whom were 13, were taken by an unknown group of armed men while they studied for exams in Wau Shilluk near Malakal in Upper Nile state.

The armed men then reportedly went from house to house, taking any boy aged above 13 years.

Sani Martin asked the chief of communication for UNICEF in South Sudan to describe what happened.

Duration: 2’51”

The fight against cholera in Haiti has been overshadowed by other health crises around the world according to the UN’s top envoy on the disease for the Caribbean island.

A cholera outbreak which began in 2010 has led to the deaths of over 8600 people.

Recently there has been a surge in cases.

Pedro Medrano Rojas is the UN Coordinator for Cholera Response in Haiti.

He’s due to undertake an international tour to raise awareness about the current situation in the country

He’s been talking to Jorge Miyares.

Duration: 4’34”

Japan has been praised by the UN’s atomic energy agency, for the progress it has made in shutting down a nuclear reactor which was damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

High levels of radiation were recorded around the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in the north of the country following the tsunami.

An expert team form the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has just completed a review of the decommissioning or deactivating process.

Daniel Dickinson has more details.

More young people need to be involved in radio production, according to several students from the National University of Samoa.

Tutuila Farao, a student of Journalism at the University interviewed his fellow classmates in a special feature on Campus Radio as part of an initiative by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to highlight youth unemployment around the world.

Several students agreed that radio is an important source of information in Samoa.

The major global companies are increasingly focusing on the importance of human rights issues in the workplace.

That’s according to a senior executive at the Coca Cola Company who’s been at the UN to speak about the private sector’s role in ending human trafficking and forced labour.

The International labour Organisation (ILO) estimates there are some 21 million people around the world who are victims of forced labour.

Unthinkable crimes continue to occur daily in Syria as conflict now approaches its fifth year, a group of independent human rights experts has warned.

On Friday, they were presenting their latest report on Syria to the UN Security Council.

It charts out the human rights violations that occurred over the course of the conflict from March 2011 until the beginning of this year.

Stephanie Coutrix reports.

Duration: 2'47

A short-term approach to global development has resulted in social injustice and terrorism, according to a leading UN human rights expert.

Speaking on The World Day of Social Justice, Special Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas has criticised governments for a “Band-Aid” approach to terrorism.

In an interview with Daniel Johnson, the human rights expert pins part of the blame on globalisation and free trade agreements which he insists do not respect workers’ rights.

Duration: 2'52"

Sharks may be able to swim the world’s oceans more safely one day thanks to a new digital technique developed by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

An increasing number of shark species are endangered as many are being fished just for the fin. The carcasses are then often discarded.

The carcasses of the fish are often found without the fin.

The iSharkfin software allows for a quick identification of various species by the fin.

The humanitarian situation of people in Ukraine affected by the ongoing conflict in the country has been described as “precarious” by the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP).

The food agency is scaling up its emergency operation in eastern Ukraine to feed close to 190,000 vulnerable people displaced by fighting.

It’s also trying to reach civilians trapped near the frontlines.

Abeer Atefa is based in the Ukrainian capital Kiyv, for WFP.

She’s been speaking to Nikola Krastev.

Duration: 3'41”

Four women and nine children have been released by rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and are returning to their families in South Sudan, Congo and Uganda.

One woman was only 12 years old when she was captured and taken to the Democratic Republic of the Congo by LRA rebels.

She bore three children during her thirteen years in captivity.

The women and children were recently handed over to South Sudanese authorities in an emotional ceremony, where they also mourned the loss of those who did not survive.

Felix Katie reports.

Duration: 4'02"