India’s announcement that it would ratify the 2015 global agreement on climate change increases the chances that the pact will go into effect this year.
Source: What India’s Decision to Ratify Paris Climate-Change Pact Means – India Real Time – WSJ
21/06/2016
Yoga Takes Over the World on Second International Day of Yoga – India Real Time – WSJ
A year after the first International Day of Yoga was celebrated the world over, yoga enthusiasts were back again Tuesday morning lunging forward, raising and stretching their arms, and slowly inhaling and exhaling.
The day was introduced when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi successfully lobbied the United Nations to dedicate 24 hours to the ancient discipline in September 2013.This year, Mr. Modi joined thousands of people in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh as they pulled their mats out for a massive demonstration. World over, 173 countries will celebrate the discipline Tuesday.
“We are disconnected from ourselves in today’s times. Yoga helps us reconnect with ourselves,” Mr. Modi said, addressing participants at his event.
On Monday, Mr. Modi also released a set of commermorative postal stamps showing the various steps of the “surya namaskar,” or sun salutation.In India’s capital city, President Pranab Mukherjee conducted a Yoga class at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, his residence-cum-office located in the heart of Delhi.
Images of different Yoga postures were displayed at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York in the build up to Yoga Day.
“Practicing yoga can help raise awareness of our role as consumers of the planet’s resources and as individuals with a duty to respect and live in peace with our neighbours,” said Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General.
Source: In Pictures: Yoga Takes Over the World on Second International Day of Yoga – India Real Time – WSJ
10/06/2014
China Takes Dispute With Vietnam to UN – ABC News
China took its dispute with Vietnam over its deployment of an oil rig in contested waters to the United Nations on Monday, accusing Hanoi of infringing on its sovereignty and illegally disrupting a Chinese company’s drilling operation.
China’s deputy ambassador Wang Min sent a “position paper” on the rig’s operation in the South China Sea to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday and asked the U.N. chief to circulate it to the 193 members of the General Assembly.
China sent the rig into disputed waters on May 1, provoking a confrontation with Vietnamese ships, complaints from Hanoi, and street protests that turned into bloody anti-Chinese riots. Hundreds of factories were damaged and China said in the paper that four Chinese citizens were “brutally killed” and over 300 injured.
The oil platform is located about 32 kilometers (20 miles) from the China-controlled Paracel Islands, which Vietnam also claims, and 278 kilometers (173 miles) from the coast of Vietnam.
According to the paper, the state-run China National Offshore Oil Corporation has been conducting seismic operations and well site surveys in the area for the past 10 years and the drilling operation “is a continuation of the routine process of explorations and falls well within China’s sovereignty and jurisdiction.”
China accused Vietnam of “illegally and forcefully” disrupting the rig’s operation by sending armed ships and ramming Chinese vessels.
“Vietnam also sent frogmen and other underwater agents to the area, and dropped large numbers of obstacles, including fishing nets and floating objects, in the waters,” it said.
The paper said Vietnam’s actions violated China’s sovereignty, posed “grave threats” to Chinese personnel on the rig and violated international laws including the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
It cited numerous references to back its claims that the islands “are an inherent part of China’s territory, over which there is no dispute.”
via China Takes Dispute With Vietnam to UN – ABC News.
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