Stories written by Sanjay Suri
Sanjay Suri has been chief editor since December 2009. He was earlier editor for the Europe and Mediterranean region since 2002. His responsibilities through this period included coverage of the Iraq invasion and the conditions there since. Some other major developments he has covered include the Lebanon war and continuing conflicts in the Middle East. He has also written for IPS through the period on issues of rights and development.
Prior to joining IPS, Sanjay was Europe editor for the Indo-Asian News Service, covering developments in Europe of interest to South Asian readers, and correspondent for the Outlook weekly magazine. Assignments included coverage of the 9/11 attacks from New York and Washington. Before taking on that assignment in 1990, he was with the Indian Express newspaper in Delhi, as sub-editor, chief sub-editor, crime correspondent, chief reporter and then political correspondent.
Reporting assignments through this period included coverage of terrorism and rights in Punjab and Delhi, including Operation Bluestar in Amritsar, the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the rioting that followed. This led to legal challenge to several ruling party leaders and depositions in inquiry commissions. Other assignments have included reporting on cases of blindings in Rajasthan, and the abuse of children in Tihar jail in Delhi, one of the biggest prisons in India. That report was taken as a petition by the Supreme Court, which then ordered lasting reforms in the prison system.
Sanjay has an M.A. in English literature from the University of Delhi, followed by a second master’s degree in social and organisational psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has also completed media studies at Stanford University in California. Sanjay is author of ‘Brideless in Wembley’, an account of the immigration experiences of Indians in Britain.
Any comparison of energy output from renewables to conventional energy sources must necessarily fail at the start. Renewables are new, they are a beginning, and it’s still too early to weigh such figures and to discount renewables.But despite significant advances in Abu Dhabi and Morocco, and promising commitments by the Saudis, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region was reminded it is still doing less than many others.
The frustrated energies of Arab youth that burst on to the streets over the past two years will need energy by way of electricity to calm them, Queen Rania of Jordan said at the launch of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week on Tuesday.
Campaigners from around the world have called upon the Arab League and on the African Commission on Human and People's Rights to explore the possibility of adopting regional protocols to abolish the death penalty.
The image endures of the death penalty in force across the Arab world because it is considered somehow Islamic, and because most regimes are undeniably autocratic. But campaigners on the ground say the death penalty might just be in place because the people want it. Which would make it in essence a democratic institution.
Islamic regimes look for provisions and precedents to carry out the death sentence in the name of Islam. But, says Dr. Mohammad Al-Habash, director of the Islamic Studies Centre in Damascus, they are not looking enough at 13 provisions within the Quran to commute the death sentence to a lesser punishment.
For Jany Chen from Shanghai, concern often-raised in Europe and North America about the Chinese invasion of Africa is a lot of wasteful talk that deserves to be flushed down the toilet. Efficiently.
The glass isn’t exactly half-full, but it certainly is not entirely empty either. Within the broad failure of the weeklong Fourth U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV) in Istanbul that concluded Friday, many delegates are taking heart in a strengthening South-South front that has emerged.
Upstairs in halls where the conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) is being held, all the right things were being said about the misery of poverty and the virtue of opportunity and development. Several floors below, what are called ‘market forces’ were at work.
Leaders from the Least Developed Countries are making a strong push in Istanbul for a mini trade deal for their 48 impoverished nations - ahead of any worldwide agreement under the Doha Round.
On the face of it, a rapidly rising population among the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) spells the usual doom about adequate resource distribution. But the least developed are also among the youngest in the world - and well channelled, they can be a valuable asset, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) head Babatunde Osotimehin told IPS.
Quite a treat Britain has on offer for the world these days. Or who would ever have been talking - in this day and age - about a prince and princess riding in splendour into a world of pageboys and palaces.
The population of migrants worldwide could rise above 400 million by 2050 if present rates of growth continue, says a report by the International Organisation for Migration released Monday.
There is the image of Africa, worse than Africa is, and then there is Africa, so much of it better than its image. It's the continent whose time has come, African civil society leaders emphasised at a meeting in Madrid Thursday.
The U.S.-led invasion and then occupation of Iraq brought a sharp setback to the rights of women in that country, UNFPA head Thoraya Obaid tells IPS in an interview.
Amnesty International is calling on the G20 to lead the world out of a crisis in justice, after the band of major industrialised and emerging nations has led a fair bit of the world out of economic recession, to some extent.
A high-level meeting in London of political and business leaders will consider this week ways of raising 100 billion dollars to fight climate change. And yet another one in Washington will search for ways of finding, and funding, more three-dollar stoves around the world.