General News

It has been 18 years since the genocide in Rwanda, and on Wednesday the UN remembers the victims in its annual commemoration of this tragedy.

Rwandan playwright Odile Gakire Katese has compiled what she calls ‘The Book of Life.’ It features some 100 letters from widows and orphans to their lost loved ones, but also letters written by perpetrators to their victims. In this interview with UN Radio’s Cristina Silveiro, Odile Gakire Katese says ‘The Book of Life’ aims to reconcile Rwandans with life, hope and the future.

South Asia is a vast swath of land extending from Afghanistan to the west and Bhutan in the east and from the Himalayas to the Maldives. Covering 8 countries, it has a population of over one and a half billion inhabitants.

Over half a billion of them are poor and half a billion are young people. To take care of the growing needs of this population, South Asia has to create 1.2 million jobs every month for the next 20 years. How?

As the world population gets older, the number of people living with dementia is also growing.

That’s according to a new report entitled: “Dementia: a public health priority", published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Alzheimer's Disease International.

It says that nearly 35.6 million people are living with the brain disease that leads to loss of memory.

This number is expected to double by 2030 to over 65 million and more than triple by 2050 to over 115 million.

The United Nations is this week remembering the 1994 genocide in Rwanda when extremist Hutus massacred about 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

This year’s theme is “learning from history to shape a bright future”.

The United Nations Secretary-General says that Rwanda has learned from the appalling tragedy of 1994 and so has the world.

Eugenie Mukeshimana, a survivor of the genocide who now lives in the United States is founder of “Genocide Survivors Support Network”.

Many blame the financial sector for the current economic downturn, but in his new book “Finance and the Good Society”, Robert Shiller aims to change that way of thinking.

Following the 2008 global economic crisis, the financial industry came under fire. Complex financial instruments were blamed for causing the worst downturn in more than half a century.

The government of South Sudan is continuing to remove weapons from civilian hands.

The United Nations mission in South Sudan (UNMIS) says the disarmament programme, which started on 12 March, has been preceding well despite some reports of human rights violations.

UNMISS has been helping the new country since it voted to secede and declared independence from Sudan in July last year.

UNMISS spokesman Kouider Zerrouk discussed the disarmament process in South Sudan with Donn Bobb.

Duration: 2’27”

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says there are growing humanitarian needs in Syria because of the ongoing unrest and violence in several parts of the country.

The President of the ICRC Jakob Kellenberger was in Syria last week where he discussed with authorities the expansion of the agency’s humanitarian work in the country.

The ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent have been working in some of the hardest hit areas of the country.

ICRC spokesperson, Rabab Al-Rifai spoke with Derrick Mbatha about the aid agency’s presence in Syria.

The Central African Republic is making efforts to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate fighters into society but needs support from the international community.

That’s what the head of the UN Peacebuilding Office in the country (BINUCA) told a meeting of the Friends of the Central African Republic held at United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday.

Margaret Vogt said that $19 million dollars is needed for the programme of the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of combatants.

On 7 April, the international community remembers the horrific slaughter that took place in Rwanda 18 years ago.

From that day, and for approximately 100 days, extremist Hutus massacred around 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus, in the tiny east African country.

As part of efforts to help heal the wounds and forge a common identity of Rwandans, Hutus and Tutsis live side by side in a Reconciliation Village not far from the capital, Kigali.

In the next few years, and for the first time ever, there will be more people over 60 years of age than children less than five years old in the world.

That’s what the World Health Organization (WHO) is saying on World Health Day which is observed on 7 April each year.

The agency is calling for urgent action to ensure that people reach old age in the best possible health.