This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.
Floods in Iran: worst damage in over 50 years, as UN supports recovery effort
Heavy flooding across Iran has caused what is probably the worst damage inflicted in more than 50 years, with 25 of its 31 provinces being affected by heavy-rains since mid-March, said the World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday.
According to latest Government figures, at least 78 people have lost their lives with around 1,140 people injured.
WFP said it would deliver 10,000 family emergency food packages to the Iranian Red Crescent Society to help meet the food and nutritional needs of at least 40,000 over the next month.
Here’s more from WFP’s spokesperson Hervé Verhoosel, speaking to reporters in Geneva.
“Additional funding is needed to support the population, as more food should be provided in the coming weeks. Two million people are in need of humanitarian support or some sort of assistance and about 10 million people have been affected by the floods.”
UN Resident Coordinator in Iran, Ugochi Daniels, announced an Iran Flood Response Plan on Monday, calling for US$ 25 million to cover the emergency and early recovery needs of around 115,000 highly vulnerable people.
Breastfeeding protects children from obesity, new UN studies confirm
According to two new studies from UN health agency (WHO), babies who have never or only intermittently been breastfed, “have an increased risk of becoming obese as children”.
The results released at this year’s European Congress on Obesity, also show that despite prevention efforts, childhood obesity across the continent remains a problem.
WHO spelt out on Tuesday, that “the longer a child is breastfed, the greater their protection from obesity”.
According to the study, breastfeeding practices in the region fall short of WHO recommendations for a number of reasons, including: a lack of policies to encourage breastfeeding, a lack of training for health professionals to support breastfeeding, and the intensive marketing of breast milk substitutes.
WHO recommends breastfeeding exclusively for the first 6 months of life. Thereafter, infants should be given complementary foods, with continued breastfeeding up to the age of two, or even beyond.
Story of Jazz celebrated worldwide with International Jazz Day
With the aim of raising awareness of the virtues of jazz as “a force for peace, unity and dialogue”, International Jazz Day was celebrated worldwide on Tuesday, with the support of UN cultural agency, UNESCO.
Speaking to UN News before participating in the main commemorations , held this year in Australia, Mexican jazz composer and drumer Antonio Sánchez, defined jazz simply as “freedom”.
Here’s more from the five-time Grammy award winner, who scored Alejandro Iñárritu's Academy Award-winning film, Birdman:
“I think Jazz is a very inclusive art forum, for some reason its nature is about bringing other elements and merging them into the music.”
Matt Wells, UN News.
