Stories from around the globe show how a united world is already in motion. This platform highlights experiences, initiatives, and projects from people and communities working for unity and peace. Explore what’s happening and get inspired.
<p><em>Parliament chairman signed election decree.</em></p> <p><strong>Presidential elections will take place</strong> in Macedonia on April 13. The parliament chairman Trajiko Veljanoski signed today the election decree. It will be the fifth presidential election since Macedonia became independent in 1991, after the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.</p> <p><strong>Under the constitution, the current head of state</strong> Gjorgje Ivanov, who belongs to governing conservative party VMRO-DPMNE, has the right to run for another term of five years. None of Macedonia's political parties has so far indicated their candidate.
<p><em>Aproagro: three pilot companies thrive thanks to the resolve of the poorest community in Brazil</em></p> <p><strong>Today’s Brazil presents itself on the international scene</strong> with a growing awareness of its political, economic and cultural clout. However, it still suffers from many social wounds inflicted by the huge inequalities in the way the country’s immense wealth is distributed.<br />It was from this land, and more precisely from a community - which took its name from a former slave who had rebelled like the Spartacus of old - that an initiative was begun: one that marks a quantum leap for the EoC. This is an experience born “from the ground up,” with hardy roots deeply planted in the community and characterized by tenacity and resoluteness.</p>
<p><em>Improve the health of the child, involved with other civilians, in the bombing on 22 January in a village near Aleppo.</em></p> <p><strong>Fourteen-month-old Ghina Khalil is recovering</strong> in the Syrian city of Aleppo after being dramatically pulled from the ruins of her family’s home following an alleged air strike over a week ago.</p> <p><strong>An activist filmed the little gir</strong>l as rescuers dug her out from the rubble and dust, apparently with no obvious injuries.<br />The footage, which was uploaded to the internet by the Nour Media Centre, showed a group of men in the suburb of Maasraniyeh digging through rubble to reveal the dazed infant.
<p><em>Agreemente between parties for outsider observers and dialogue.</em></p> <p><strong>An accord on the presence of “external observers”</strong> and a commitment to resume talks resulted from a first meeting after months between government officials and representatives of the National Mozambican Resistance (Renamo), a former rebel movement that became the opposition party after the civil war.</p> <p><strong>Since March 2012, attacks and clashes</strong> between government forces and Renamo members left dozens dead.<br />The presence of external observers was among the key conditions posed by the former rebels for a negotiations, stresses the media today in Maputo.
<p><em>We reported a news of last september about the decision for Uzbekistan to open up its cotton fields to international monitors this autumn.</em></p> <p><strong>Giving in to sustained international pressure</strong>, Uzbekistan is opening up its cotton fields to international monitors this autumn.</p> <p><strong>The International Labor Organization (ILO)</strong> has confirmed to EurasiaNet.org that it is sending a mission to monitor the Uzbek cotton harvest, which starts in mid-September.</p> <p><strong>"The ILO will be involved in the monitoring</strong> of the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan with the aim of preventing the use of child labor," spokesman Hans von Rohland confirmed by email on September 12. Monitoring will start "in the next few days".</p>
<p><em>UN Secretary General message on the Internationa Day of the Victims of the Holocaust.</em></p> <p><strong>UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon</strong> has issued message on the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, the UN Office in Baku told APA. The message says:</p> <p><strong>“Every year on the anniversary of the liberation</strong> of the Auschwitz concentration camp, we commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. We recall the suffering of millions of innocent people, and highlight the perils of anti-Semitism and hatred of any kind.
<p><em>Egypt, Greece, Serbia and Georgia among winners</em></p> <p><strong>The second edition of the Egyptian</strong> and European Film Festival in Luxor has wrapped up, presenting to the local public 62 films from 19 countries. The festival opened on January 19 through January 25.</p> <p><strong>Award winners included Withereing</strong> (2013) by young Serbian filmmaker Milos Pusic; The enemy within (2013) by Yorgos Tsemberopoulos (Greece) and In bloom (2013) by Nana Ekvtimishvilli (Georgia).
<p><em>Blackfriars rail station secures half its power from 4,400 roof-mounted solar panel.</em></p> <p><strong>The installation of 4,400 solar panels</strong> has been completed on the roof of Blackfriars station, marking another milestone in the delivery of the £6.5 billion Thameslink Programme.</p> <p><strong>Described by Network Rail as the world’s largest solar bridge</strong>, Blackfriars’ new photovoltaic panels, which were installed by Solarcentury, will provide half of the station’s energy, cutting its carbon emissions by more than 500 tonnes a year.</p> <p><strong>Blackfriars has undergone</strong> a major renovation as part of the Thameslink Programme, with work now completed on new platforms, redeveloping the Underground station and creating a new south bank entrance.
<p><em>Despite their greater age, big, old trees remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, said a study Wednesday that explores how well forests slow global warming.</em></p> <p><strong>Despite their greater age, big old trees</strong> do more than small young ones to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, said a study that explores how well forests slow global warming.</p> <p><strong>The findings overturn the conventional view</strong> that old trees are relatively unproductive in absorbing heat-trapping greenhouse gases.</p> <p><strong>In more than 400 tree species studied</strong>, the bigger and older specimens grew fastest and trapped the most carbon, the scientists found.
Economy & Work
Thirty-five years ago a dream was born: the Economy of Communion. In late May Argentina will host an extraordinary celebration where people of all ages will come together to breathe new life into this project and write the future for a different kind of economy.
Lorna Gold, Executive Director of Laudato Si’ Movement, reflects on ten years of the encyclical, analysing how integral ecology is an essential path to global unity and tackling the climate crisis.
Operation Mato Grosso is working on over 100 missions across Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, all rooted in education, hard work, and solidarity. Jacopo Manara, who has been a volunteer for years, tells us their story.
An interview on communication with Michele Zanzucchi, journalist and writer, former director of Città Nuova, professor of communication at Sophia University Institute and at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and author of around forty books.
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