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UN Chief Appoints S/ Africa’s Tshilidzi Marwala Rector UN University

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UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has appointed Prof. Tshilidzi Marwala of South Africa as Rector of the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo.

The appointment was done following consultations with and and with concurrence of Audrey Azoulay, the Director-General, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

UN correspondent report that the Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq announced the appointment at a news conference at UN headquarters, New York on Monday.

Haq said Marwala would be the seventh Rector of the UNU, as of March 1, 2023, and the decision to appoint him was taken after an extensive international search process.

According to him, Marwala will succeed Prof. David Malone of Canada who has served as UNU Rector since 2013.

“Prof. Marwala is an accomplished scholar and thought leader with multi-disciplinary research interests that include the theory and application of artificial intelligence to engineering, computer science, finance, social science and medicine.

“He has an extensive track record in human capacity development and is committed to leveraging technology and global connectedness towards the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals.

“Currently, Marwala is the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg.”

Prior to this, he was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Internationalisation (2013-2017) and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (2009-2013) at the University of Johannesburg.

From 2003 to 2008, he progressively held the positions of Associate Professor, Full Professor, the Carl and Emily Fuchs Chair of Systems and Control Engineering as well as the SARChI Chair of Systems Engineering at the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand.

He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, University of California at Berkeley, Wolfson College of the University of Cambridge and Nanjing Tech University.

Furthermore, he has been a member of the International Consultative Council at the Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland, International Visiting Committee at Case Western Reserve University and a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Marwala holds a doctorate specialising in Artificial Intelligence and Engineering from the University of Cambridge, a Master of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pretoria and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (magna cum laude) from Case Western Reserve University.

He is a registered professional engineer, a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Science of South Africa, the African Academy of Sciences and the South African Academy of Engineering.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and a distinguished member of the Association for Computing Machinery. He is fluent in English, Venda and Afrikaans.

UNU is a global think tank with 13 institutes in 12 countries.

Through collaborative research and education, UNU supports efforts to resolve the pressing global challenges of human development and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations and its Member States.

UNU works in close partnership with other United Nations System organisations and leading research institutions to ensure that evidence-based research informs policymaking and generates solutions that improve the lives of people everywhere. (NAN)

Foreign News

Russian Army Fires Ballistic Missiles at Kiev from Crimean Peninsula

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The Russian Army has hit the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, with ballistic missiles, injuring four people and damaging an uninhabited three-storey building, according to officials.

Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said  that two of the injured  people were in a central neighbourhood and  had been taken to hospital.

Rocket debris also fell in two other neighbourhoods.

According to the Ukrainian air force, two ballistic missiles were fired at the city of millions, from the Russian-controlled Crimea Peninsula.

Both were shot down.

Half a dozen explosions from anti-aircraft missiles had previously been heard in the city centre.

The air raid warning was only triggered a few seconds beforehand, it said.

Ukraine has been facing  Russian invasion for over two years.

Since then, the Ukrainian air defence system has been massively reinforced with Western systems. (dpa/NAN)

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Cambodia Arrests 2 Foreigners for Smuggling 2.27 kg Narcotics

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Cambodian customs police at the Phnom Penh International Airport said they have arrested two South Korean nationals for an attempt to smuggle 2.27 kg narcotics to South Korea.

The duo, a man and woman, were caught Sunday night while they checked in for a ZA215 flight bound for Seoul.

The General Department of Customs and Excise of Cambodia said in a news release on Monday.

In their body searches, our customs officials found many packs of drugs wrapped around their waists, the news release said.

“As a result, some 1.29 kg of crystal methamphetamine and 0.98 kg of ketamine were seized from the two suspects’ possession.’’

The Southeast Asian country has no death sentence for a drug trafficker.

Under its law, someone found guilty of trafficking more than 80 grammes of illicit drugs could be jailed for life.

According to the country’s Anti-Drug Department (ADP), Cambodia nabbed 3,899 drug-related suspects, including 106 foreigners, in 1,659 cases from Jan. 1 to March 3, 2024.

According to the report they confiscated a total of 2.79 tonnes of narcotics.

Most of the seized drugs were ketamine, crystal methamphetamine, methamphetamine tablets, heroin, ecstasy, and cocaine. (Xinhua/NAN)

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February Ends with Extreme Heat – WMO

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The UN weather agency, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), says February saw more extreme heat and unusually high temperatures in both hemispheres.

Summarising the state of the climate, it said the month ended with extreme heat in the southern hemisphere where it is summer, while high temperatures atypical of the northern hemisphere winter prevailed.

Parts of North and South America, northwest and southeast Africa, southeast and far eastern Asia, western Australia and Europe all saw record-breaking temperatures, either on a daily basis or for all of February.

“The anomalous heat is consistent with the persisting warming observed since June 2023, with seven consecutive new global monthly temperature records, including January 2024,” Alvaro Silva, a climatologist working with the WMO, said in a statement.

Global sea surface temperatures were record high. While the El Niño weather pattern “has stoked temperatures in some parts of the world, human induced climate change is the long-term major contributing factor,” he added.

Conversely, a large part of northwestern Canada, central Asia – and from southern central Siberia to southeastern China – witnessed exceptional cold during the last week of the month.

The meteorological winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere finished officially at the end of February.

Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) raised increasing concern on Friday that more refugees would cross into Chad from Darfur in the coming weeks amid a worrying lack of food and other essentials.

Almost a year since the start of the civil war between rival militaries in Sudan, neighbouring Chad urgently needs more humanitarian aid and significant development investment, the agency reported, especially in its eastern areas which are hosting the refugee influx.

This investment will allow the country to continue its generous open-door stance towards refugees.

“Chadian officials are concerned that many more hungry Sudanese families will come in the next weeks,” said Kelly Clements, UNHCR’s Deputy High Commissioner, who is in the country to review the relief operation.

“The country is committed to keeping its borders open, despite the fragility of this region.

“But, doing so will put even more strain on Chad, which has so graciously been hosting refugees from Sudan’s war – now raging almost a year – and other refugees still here from earlier emergencies.” (NAN)

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