1. Syria has suffered $143.8-bn economic loss due to civil war: UN
i. Syria has suffered $143.8 billion in economic losses due to the continuing civil war in the country, according to a new UN report.
ii. The joint report by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research and the UN says that even as the death toll from Syria’s three-year civil war continues to rise, the country’s human development has also suffered immense collateral damage -- the economy has been gutted, the healthcare system is in ruins, and education facilities are "teetering".
iii. According to the report, titled 'Squandering Humanity', covering the last two quarters of last year, three out of four Syrians now live in poverty, with more than half the population - 54.3 percent in 2013 - living in extreme poverty.
iv. Syria is now blighted by joblessness and overwhelmed by unemployment," said Alex Pollock, director of micro-finance for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which worked with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Syrian Centre for Policy Research to compile the report.
2. Congress appoints Capt. Amrinder Singh as its deputy leader in LS
i. Congress today appointed Captain Amrinder Singh as its deputy leader in the Lok Sabha. Giving this information to media persons in New Delhi, party spokesperson Shobha Ohza said Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia has been appointed as the Chief Whip of Congress in the House. Mr Venugopal and Mr Dipender Singh Hooda will function as whips, she said.
3. UN & IOC sign historic agreement on sport for peace & economic development
i. The United Nations and the International Olympic Committee has signed a historic agreement to use the power of sports to promote peace and economic development.
ii. The move is described as one which strengthens collaboration between two of the world's major organizations
iii. IOC President Thomas Bach yesterday told a UN event celebrating the strengthened relationship that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was right when he said Olympic principles are United Nations principles.
iv. Both the UN and Olympic charters, call for international cooperation to promote peace, a better life for people around the world and preserving human dignity.
v. Secretary-General Ban said the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the IOC was a logical and historic step after years of ever closer collaboration in using sport to promote development and peace.
v. The agreement calls for joint sporting initiatives between the IOC, national Olympic committees, international sports federations, organizing committees and international athletes and the 193 UN member states, UN agencies, envoys and goodwill ambassadors.
4. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Anja Niedringhaus shot dead in Afghanistan
i. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Anja Niedringhaus on 4 April 2014 shot dead by a policeman in Afghanistan. She was 48. She was killed while covering the 2014 presidential election in Afghanistan.
ii. Anja Niedringhaus was a German photojournalist working for the Associated Press. She was the only woman on a team of 11 AP photographers that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for coverage of the Iraq War. That same year she was awarded the International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism prize.
i. Syria has suffered $143.8 billion in economic losses due to the continuing civil war in the country, according to a new UN report.
ii. The joint report by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research and the UN says that even as the death toll from Syria’s three-year civil war continues to rise, the country’s human development has also suffered immense collateral damage -- the economy has been gutted, the healthcare system is in ruins, and education facilities are "teetering".
iii. According to the report, titled 'Squandering Humanity', covering the last two quarters of last year, three out of four Syrians now live in poverty, with more than half the population - 54.3 percent in 2013 - living in extreme poverty.
iv. Syria is now blighted by joblessness and overwhelmed by unemployment," said Alex Pollock, director of micro-finance for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which worked with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Syrian Centre for Policy Research to compile the report.
2. Congress appoints Capt. Amrinder Singh as its deputy leader in LS
i. Congress today appointed Captain Amrinder Singh as its deputy leader in the Lok Sabha. Giving this information to media persons in New Delhi, party spokesperson Shobha Ohza said Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia has been appointed as the Chief Whip of Congress in the House. Mr Venugopal and Mr Dipender Singh Hooda will function as whips, she said.
3. UN & IOC sign historic agreement on sport for peace & economic development
i. The United Nations and the International Olympic Committee has signed a historic agreement to use the power of sports to promote peace and economic development.
ii. The move is described as one which strengthens collaboration between two of the world's major organizations
iii. IOC President Thomas Bach yesterday told a UN event celebrating the strengthened relationship that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was right when he said Olympic principles are United Nations principles.
iv. Both the UN and Olympic charters, call for international cooperation to promote peace, a better life for people around the world and preserving human dignity.
v. Secretary-General Ban said the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the IOC was a logical and historic step after years of ever closer collaboration in using sport to promote development and peace.
v. The agreement calls for joint sporting initiatives between the IOC, national Olympic committees, international sports federations, organizing committees and international athletes and the 193 UN member states, UN agencies, envoys and goodwill ambassadors.
4. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Anja Niedringhaus shot dead in Afghanistan
i. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Anja Niedringhaus on 4 April 2014 shot dead by a policeman in Afghanistan. She was 48. She was killed while covering the 2014 presidential election in Afghanistan.
ii. Anja Niedringhaus was a German photojournalist working for the Associated Press. She was the only woman on a team of 11 AP photographers that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for coverage of the Iraq War. That same year she was awarded the International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism prize.
