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United Nations, Oct 21 (IANS) The international community should step up efforts to promote women's participation in conflict-prevention and peacebuilding, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed has said.

The participation of women at all levels "has played a pivotal role in changing the way we approach peace and security over the last 20 years," Mohammed told a UN Security Council open debate on the theme of "Strengthening Women's Resilience and Leadership as a Path to Peace in Regions Plagued by Armed Groups" on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"When we open the door to inclusion and participation, we take a giant step forward in conflict-prevention and peacebuilding," she said.

Despite decades of evidence that gender equality offers a path to sustainable peace and conflict prevention, "we are moving in the opposite direction," Mohammed said, noting that "progress has been slow."

Between 1995 and 2019, women constituted on average just 13 per cent of negotiators, 6 per cent of mediators and 6 per cent of signatories in major peace processes, Mohammed said.

Women's participation in peace processes, and influence over decisions that affect their lives, continue to lag far behind, creating a real barrier to inclusive, durable, and sustainable peace, she pointed out.

The UN deputy chief called for dismantling patriarchal norms that exclude women from power, putting forward more women mediators and negotiators as well as securing greater and more predictable financing for women peacebuilders at the frontline.

"We need full gender parity -- including through special quotas to accelerate the inclusion of women -- across election monitoring, security sector reform, disarmament, demobilisation, and justice systems," she said.

--IANS
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Tehran, Oct 21 (IANS) The chief commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has warned some foreign countries against "interfering" in Iran's internal affairs.

Hossein Salami referred to "anti-Iran moves" by the US and the UK as well as "Saudi Arabia's anti-Iran campaign", urging those countries to end such measures against Iran, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a Tasnim news agency report.

"Stop meddling in our country's internal affairs," Salami said, warning that "whatever move you make against the Iranian nation, you will receive blows several times harder."

Salami's remarks came after the recent protests in Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in a Tehran hospital a few days after collapsing at a police station.

--IANS
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New York, Oct 21 (IANS) Diwali will be a public school holiday in New York City starting next year, Mayor Eric Adams announced at a press conference on Thursday with state assembly woman Jenifer Rajkumar.

They were joined by Department of Education chancellor David Banks.

The announcement comes two days before the festival of lights, which falls on October 24.

"We are going to encourage children to learn about what is Diwali," he added. "We're going to have them start talking about what it is to celebrate the Festival of Lights, and how do you turn a light on within yourself," Adams said.

The festival is celebrated by more than a billion people around the world, and signifies victory of light over darkness and good over evil.

"The time has come to recognise over 200,000 New Yorkers of the Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain faiths who celebrate Diwali, the Festival of Lights," Rajkumar, who introduced legislation to recognise Diwali, said in the press conference.

For over two decades, South Asians and Indo-Caribbeans in New York have been fighting for a school holiday on Diwali.

"People have said that there's simply not enough room in the New York City school calendar to have a Diwali school holiday," the assemblywoman said. "Well, my legislation makes the room," said Rajkumar, the first South Asian American woman elected to state-level office in New York.

The new school schedule will still have 180 school days, as is required by the state's education laws, Rajkumar added.

Adding Diwali to the school calendar replaces the little-known Brooklyn-Queens Day -- which originated as a Protestant holiday celebrated in the 1800s.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Oct 19 (IANS) UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for practising the values of Mahatma Gandhi - the Father of the Nation - to achieve all-inclusivity, protecting the rights of all sections in the richly diverse country to make it stronger.

He said that the country's voice can gain credibility on the world stage from a strong commitment to inclusivity, respect for human rights and dignity of all people, especially the most vulnerable, the freedom of journalists, activists, academics and students, by condemning hate-speech and ensuring the continued independence of India's judiciary.

Addressing students at the IIT-Bombay, Guterres pointed out that as an elected Human Rights Council member, India had a responsibility to shape up global human rights, protect and promote the rights of all individuals, including the minorities, and nurture and strengthen it in its diverse and pluralistic society.

Here, Gandhiji's principles would help by recognising the enormous values and contributions of the multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic societies, and unequivocal condemnation of hate-speech, he said.

Guterres urged Indians to be vigilant and step up investments in inclusive, pluralistic, diverse communities and societies besides doing much more to uphold women's rights and gender equality, in this country and all over the world.

Terming the issue of women's rights and gender equality as a "moral imperative", he said that it will also serve as a multiplier for prosperity and sustainability, as no society can achieve full potential without equal rights for all women, men, girls, and boys.

Guterres highlighted how India is among the biggest contributors of military and police personnel to various UN Missions, including the first all-women peace-keeping mission, and over 200,000 Indian security personnel have served in 49 similar missions in the past 75 years.

Dwelling on how the UN is also working to achieve gender parity, but could not succeed to have a woman Secretary General, though half the women at the top management levels in the world-body are women, heading the department of political affairs, and mission heads in Iraq and Afghanistan.

However, he frowned at violence against women as "a big cancer" which must be tackled in every nation with an emergency plan, besides how women activists and politicians are targets on social media with a "terrible campaign" run there.

Guterres confessed that we live in "a male-dominated world and a male-dominated culture", and hence gender parity is all the more necessary at the top levels so that decisions are taken in such a manner "which makes gender equality a downstream phenomenon".

Earlier on Wednesday, Guterres arrived to a warm reception in Mumbai and later attended a commemoration event for the victims of the 26/11 terror strikes at the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, as part of his 3-day visit to India.

--IANS
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Canberra, Oct 19 (IANS) Australia's death rate remained low in 2021 amid Covid-19 restrictions, new data revealed on Wednesday.

According to the data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), there were 171,469 deaths registered in Australia in 2021 at a rate of 507.2 deaths per 100,000 people, reports Xinhua news agency.

It marks a 3.2 per cent increase from the previous year but remained lower than any other year in the last decade.

Heart disease was again the leading cause of death in 2021, followed by dementia, stroke, lung cancer and chronic lower respiratory diseases.

However, the gap between heart disease and dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, continues to narrow.

In 2017, the mortality rate of heart disease was 38 per cent higher than that of dementia. In 2021, the gap was just 9 per cent.

Deaths from respiratory diseases including influenza remained low, which was attributed to Covid-19 restrictions preventing their spread.

"Deaths from respiratory diseases remained low in 2021, with the mortality rate of 39.1 deaths per 100,000 people being the second lowest on record. This included just two deaths from influenza. Covid-19 public health measures appeared to suppress the transmission of many common respiratory illnesses in 2020, and this continued in 2021," Lauren Moran, director of ABS mortality statistics, said in a media release.

In 2021, strict measures were taken in Australia to contain the spread of Covid-19, when cities including Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra had been in lockdown for months.

Alcohol-induced deaths increased by 5.8 per cent from 2020 to their highest rate in a decade.

--IANS
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Gaza, Oct 18 (IANS) The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has vowed to reach a prisoners' swap deal with Israel to release the Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails.

Hamas's pledge was made during a rally held before the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza city to mark the sole prisoner swap deal reached between the movement and Israel 11 years ago, Xinhua news agency reported.

In 2011, Egypt brokered a prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in which Hamas released Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit, who was taken captive by the movement in Gaza in 2006, in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.

During the rally, participants carried pictures of Palestinians still imprisoned in Israeli jails. Waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans, the participants called for the release of all Palestinian and Arab prisoners from Israeli prisons.

In 2016, Hamas announced that it was keeping four Israeli captives without specifying their fate. Israel said two of them were already killed.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club Association announced that the Israeli authorities had arrested 5,300 Palestinians in the West Bank since January, including 111 women and 620 children, and 1,610 under administrative detentions.

--IANS
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Ottawa, Oct 18 (IANS) Nearly 1.4 million Canadian adults indicated they had symptoms at least three months after a positive Covid-19 test or suspected infection, Statistics Canada said.

Of those who indicated a previous positive test or a suspected infection for Covid-19, 14.8 per cent experienced symptoms at least three months after their infection, the national statistical agency said on Monday, adding that this translated into about 1.4 million Canadian adults or 4.6 per cent of the Canadian population aged 18 years and older.

In partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada, the statistical agency released the first nationally representative insights on Canadians who experienced long-term symptoms after testing positive for Covid-19 or suspecting a prior Covid-19 infection, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the agency, a higher percentage of women reported prolonged symptoms compared with men. No significant differences by age group were found in the percentage of Canadian adults reporting prolonged symptoms.

Fatigue was the most reported unresolved symptom, followed by cough, shortness of breath and brain fog, said the agency.

--IANS
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United Nations, Oct 18 (IANS) The top UN envoy for Haiti has called on the Security Council to take decisive action to address insecurity in Haiti as gang violence is paralysing the Caribbean nation.

"To support Haitian institutions in their drive for civic order and accountability and to save thousands of lives that will otherwise be lost, members of this (Security) Council must act, and decisively so, to help address the persistent scourges of insecurity and corruption in Haiti," said Helen La Lime, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative and Head of the UN Integrated Office in Haiti, on Monday.

Any comprehensive resolution requires a Haitian-led political solution. But a political solution continues to be elusive, and on its own is no longer sufficient to address the current crisis, she added.

La Lime said she briefed the Security Council three weeks ago of three intersecting crises -- economic, security, and political, Xinhua news agency reported.

"A humanitarian emergency is now at our doorstep. Within four days of those remarks, the government confirmed the first case of cholera in Haiti in over three years," she added.

Within weeks, dozens more cases have been confirmed, more than half resulting in death, with hundreds more suspected in the West and Centre Departments, she said.

As undocumented cholera cases tear through parts of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, gangs continue to blockade the Varreux terminal where most of the country's fuel is stored. The consequences for Haiti's basic infrastructure have been severe, disrupting operations at the country's hospitals and water suppliers, impacting cholera response. Without fuel, waste is not removed from neighbourhoods, while torrential rains promote flooding, which mixes with refuse to create insalubrious conditions ripe for the spread of disease, La Lime added.

Neither the work of the police nor political efforts have succeeded in easing the situation. Without free movement of fuel, Haiti will be unable to get ahead of this current crisis, she said.

It is against this backdrop of insecurity and humanitarian crisis that on October 7, the Haitian Council of Ministers authorised the Prime Minister to request the support of a specialised international armed force to help secure the free movement of water, fuel, and medical supplies to prevent the situation from deteriorating further, she added.

"I can only reiterate the Secretary-General's call on Haiti's partners to consider this request as a matter of urgency for the immediate relief of those already most vulnerable."

As protests demanding the ouster of the Prime Minister and his government continue, some see in them yet another reminder of the role of entrenched economic and political interests to resist government efforts to reform state revenues and customs for the benefit of the state coffers and the population at large. Haitians are actively using both social media and radio debates to express support for serious targeted sanctions against those who are driving violence to prevent changes that threaten long-standing patterns of corruption, she said.

Economic deprivation is leaving the population more vulnerable than it has been in years. Gang violence is critically inhibiting a humanitarian response to a resurgent disease as well as to hunger, with a record 4.7 million people facing acute hunger. The urgency of the situation is tearing at the political and social fabric of the country, she added.

--IANS
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Moscow, Oct 18 (IANS) Three people were killed and 19 others were injured after a Russian Su-34 fighter jet crashed in the city of Yeysk in Russia's Krasnodar region, local state media reported.

The aircraft collapsed while it was gaining altitude during a training flight from an airfield of the Southern military district, and the pilots were able to safely eject before the crash, the state media reported on Monday, citing the Russian Defence Ministry.

The Su-34 crashed in the courtyard of a residential building, and the plane's fuel ignited following the crash, the Ministry said as quoted by Xinhua news agency reported.

"The cause of the plane crash was the ignition of one of the engines during takeoff," it added.

Fire engulfed several floors of the nine-story residential building where the aircraft crashed, and a total of 17 apartments were impacted. Ambulance crews were currently working at the site, according to Krasnodar region Governor Veniamin Kondratiev.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) Incidents of cybercrime and online child abuse are significantly underreported, and the global cost of cybercrime is expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025, said Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock in the Indian capital.

Addressing media ahead of Interpol's 90th General Assembly, which begins in New Delhi on Tuesday, Stock said on Monday that organised crime networks were making billions of dollars, and the fact that less than 1 per cent of global illicit financial flows were intercepted and recovered should be of greater concern to everyone.

The four-day Interpol event would see the participation of delegations from 195 Interpol members comprising ministers, police chiefs, heads of national central bureaus and senior police officers, Xinhua news agency reported.

The General Assembly is Interpol's supreme governing body and meets once a year to make key decisions related to its functioning.

The Secretary General also added that Interpol had developed its global stop-payment mechanism, the Anti-Money Laundering Rapid Response Protocol, which in the past 10 months alone had helped members recover more than $60 million in criminal proceeds from cyber-enabled fraud.

"Our Global Crime Trend Report also highlighted the massive increase in online child sexual exploitation and abuse, figures which are only set to increase. We know that cybercrime and online child abuse are significantly underreported, often because victims are ashamed or in cases of fraud, embarrassed, which means that the figures we see are just the tip of the iceberg," Stock said.

Police around the world are overwhelmed with data, and too often they do not have the capacity to deal with the volume of cases, and here Interpol is uniquely placed to provide the support they need, he added.

--IANS
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