WTO : US holds decision on diagnostics & therapeutics hostage to ITC probe (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
The United States is apparently holding hostage the decision to extend the World Trade Organization's 12th ministerial conference (MC12) Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics until its International Trade Commission (ITC) has completed its investigation, said people familiar with the discussions on 16 March.

UN : "Pernicious evil" of racism, discrimination, hatred, inequality (PRIV)
(IPS, Madrid)
Three-quarters of a century ago, the world adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, emphasising that all human beings are born equal in dignity and rights.

Malawi : Belief in witchcraft costing lives of elderly women (PRIV)
(IPS, Blantyre)
In December last year, a video clip went viral of two elderly women surrounded by a charged-up crowd and engulfed in a cloud of dust as they filled up a grave in a village in the Mzimba district in northern Malawi.

UN : The Caribbean's role in transformation of agri-food systems (PRIV)
(IPS, Rome)
The global food security crisis reveals an increase in the under-nourishment prevalence, reaching higher than in 2015, when countries first agreed to eradicate hunger by 2030 as one of the SDG targets.