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30 Mar 2023; MEMO: Israel's government is "on a rampage" against human rights, the new head of Human Rights Watch said on Thursday, and urged the United States and other allies to do more to hold it accountable for alleged abuses and persuade it to change course, Reuters reports.

A planned overhaul of the judiciary by Israel's religious-nationalist government would be "a disaster" for human rights, HRW Executive Director, Tirana Hassan, told Reuters.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 30 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday expressed his deep concern over the Myanmar military regime-controlled Union Election Commission’s decision to abolish 40 political parties, including the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

“Any attempts to undermine democratic institutions and processes will only deepen the crisis and delay the return to a fully democratic and inclusive Myanmar,” a statement read out by his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said.

UNITED NATIONS, March 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN General Assembly took a major step towards urgent global climate action Wednesday as members adopted a resolution calling for the world body’s top court to outline nations’ legal obligations related to curbing warming.

Cheers rang out as the measure — hailed as a victory for the climate justice movement which hopes it will increase pressure on polluting countries failing to address the global warming emergency — was greenlighted by consensus.

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Fighting in two provinces of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has disrupted the education of some 750,000 children, a UN spokesman said on Wednesday.

New figures released by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) showed that between January 2022 and the present, in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri at least 2,100 schools were forced to close because of a worsening security situation, said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on Wednesday to seek opinion of the world body's principal judicial organ on countries' obligations to address climate change.

The resolution, put forward by Vanuatu and adopted by consensus, requests for non-binding advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the obligations of states in respect of climate change.

NEW YORK (AP) — North Carolina-based First Citizens will buy Silicon Valley Bank, the tech industry-focused financial institution that collapsed earlier this month, rattling the banking industry and sending shockwaves around the world.

The deal could reassure investors at a time of shaken confidence in banks, though the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other regulators had already taken extraordinary steps to head off a wider banking crisis by guaranteeing that depositors in SVB and another failed U.S. bank would be able to access all of their money.

NEW YORK (AP) — The actor Jonathan Majors was arrested Saturday in New York on charges of strangulation, assault and harassment, authorities said.

New York City police said that Majors, star of the recently released “Creed III” and “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania,” was involved in a domestic dispute with a 30-year-old woman. Police responded around 11 a.m. to a 911 call inside an apartment in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 25 (APP): The UN 2023 Water Conference has wrapped after a breakthrough response to the global water crisis, with governments, businesses and civil society making almost 700 commitments to advance the water agenda, a dealmaker for accelerating sustainable development overall.

Pakistan’s 4-member delegation, led by Hasan Nasir Jamy, took part in the historic conference’s intense deliberations on water-related challenges over the past thee days. The conference drew more than 2,000 participants.

UNITED NATIONS, March 24 (Xinhua) -- As the three-day UN 2023 Water Conference came to a close on Friday, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reaffirmed its commitment to actively follow up on agreed actions included in the new Water Action Agenda.

NEW YORK, March 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks fell sharply on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve raised rates by a quarter of a percentage point.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 530.49 points, or 1.63 percent, to 32,030.11. The S&P 500 dropped 65.90 points, or 1.65 percent, to 3,936.97. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 190.15 points, or 1.60 percent, to 11,669.96.

All the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in red, with real estate and financials down 3.64 percent and 2.37 percent, respectively, leading the slide.