The upcoming summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia ( CICA ) will promote preventive action , UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday .As far as CICA is concerned , UN is an observer , Ban said , stressing the principles enshrined in the UN charter , such as peaceful resolution of crisis , promoting dialogue and trust , promoting development and upholding human rights , which are fully respected by CICA .

Trafficking, forced labour and modern slavery are big business generating profits estimated at $150 billion a year, the UN labour agency said Tuesday.The report by the International Labour Organization finds global profits from involuntary workers — an estimated 21 million of them — have more than tripled over the past decade from its estimate of at least $44 billion in 2005. "We need to strengthen social protection floors to prevent households from sliding into the poverty that pushes people into forced labour," he said.

The World Health Organization declared a recent spread of polio to new countries to be an international public-health emergency, warning that it could undermine a lengthy and expensive eradication effort.

On April 22nd in Washington DC, the Diplomatic Courier, United Nations Foundation, and the Digital Diplomacy Coalition held an event exploring the future of public diplomacy in the digital age. People around the world joined the conversation through Twitter and Livestream, bringing questions and insights from countries such as Nigeria, Australia, Mexico, and Turkey.

This month, Brazil marks a particularly grim moment in its history. Fifty years ago, the country’s military took power in a coup that ushered in two decades of brutal dictatorship. President Dilma Rousseff, who as a young leftist guerrilla fighting the generals was jailed and tortured, marked the occasion with a speech at Rio de Janeiro’s Galeão airport earlier this month.

Sen. Ted Cruz’s bill to forbid an Iranian diplomat from entering the U.S. got President Barack Obama’s signature Friday, though the president noted he still considers the law “advisory.” The law spearheaded by the typically polarizing Texas Republican was a rare moment of consensus in D.C.: Obama’s sign-off follows unanimous passage in the Senate and House last week.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power on Thursday urged the Myanmar government to intervene in Rakhine State to stop violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid.

One of Pakistan’s leading women’s rights campaigners saysMalala Yousafzai is a victim of the West. Humaira Awais Shahid, a former politician, Harvard fellow, and newspaper editor, said the schoolgirl has been badly damaged by Britain and America, who are taking advantage of her survival story.