The theme of this year’s International Day of Families, “Men in Charge?”, highlights the importance of gender equality and children’s rights in contemporary families, said United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his message.
A local aquarium in New Zealand reported that a giant washed-up squid has been found on a beach at South Bay in Kaikoura. Reportedly, a man—who was out with his dog for a stroll at the beach—accidentally stumbled upon the marine creature with long tentacles.
The hull bears the scars of a 10,483 kilometre journey from the Falkland Islands in the south Atlantic, through the Southern and Indian Oceans to the shores of Esperance in southern Western Australia, according to reports in the Australian media.
The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition voiced its disappointment over the lack of any significant new provisions in Part II of the Polar Code that would adequately protect the Antarctic environment from shipping. The London-based UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) on Friday adopted Part II of the Polar Code concerning pollution prevention.
A retired army general is poised to become Guyana’s new president after a multi-ethnic opposition ¬coalition defeated a party that has been in power for 23 years, officials said. Preliminary results show David Granger and his Partnership for National Unity-Alliance for Change Coalition got nearly 207,000 votes in Monday’s ¬general elections.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff saw allies and members of her own Workers’ Party challenge her in Congress by voting in favor of boosting pension benefits.
Brazilian Finance Minister Joaquim Levy said he expected the country’s economic slowdown to be temporary and that fiscal discipline remained central to ensuring the recovery as a commodity price boom waned. Addressing investors in London, Levy said fiscal discipline was needed to cushion the economy against the inflationary effects of the falling Real currency.