Amid clear signs that terrorists are trying to acquire nuclear material through criminal networks, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency today called for urgent and more coherent global action to minimize the uses of and commerce in high enriched uranium (HEU), a main ingredient in nuclear weapons production.

As the world reaches a fork in the road over nuclear weapons, it is up to the new generation to develop an alternative system of collective security based not on the build-up of armaments but on addressing root causes of insecurity ranging from poverty and repression to unresolved conflicts, according to the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Noting that many of the world’s ills could be eliminated for less than a third of the global annual expenditure on armaments, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency has dismissed the current global approach to security as dysfunctional and called for a new emphasis on universal freedoms to eliminate extremism and terrorism.

With cancer rates anticipated to increase in the Eastern Mediterranean by as much as 180 per cent in the next 15 years, the United Nations atomic watchdog agency - better known for its efforts to combat the spread of nuclear weapons - is teaming up with the UN World Health Organization (WHO) to fight the scourge on several fronts.