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Newly elected members of parliament of the Somali federal government attend their inauguration ceremony in Mogadishu on 27 December 2016.

A family carries humanitarian supplies on a donkey cart away from a distribution point in eastern Mosul, Iraq.

With 2017 just around the corner, it's time to start thinking about New Year's resolutions. One option could be to volunteer. Since 1996 the European Voluntary Service has enabled some 100,000 young people to volunteer in projects in and outside Europe.

As strong winds buffeted their tent and rain turned the surrounding land in this highland valley to mud, Syrian refugee Mohammed’s wife went into labour.

The final report by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on the 18 September 2016 State Duma elections in the Russian Federation recommends that national legislation concerning the freedoms of association, assembly and expression be aligned with international standards and that these fundamental freedoms be fully respected.

In May 2015, the World Bank Poverty team rolled out the “Listening to Tajikistan” (L2T) survey to monitor the impact of emerging trends throughout the country at high frequency. The survey rapidly clarifies the severity of the economic downturn, the evolution of vulnerabilities, and household responses to risk and deprivation over time. It enables a focus on poorer and more vulnerable households, and generates evidence for targeted policy-making.

President Obama, in the last press conference of his term in office, accused Russia and Russian President Putin personally of having manipulated the American presidential election through cyber-attacks, and announced that there would be reprisals—some explicit and open, and others so that Russia would recognize the author. This announcement of covert operations should cause alarm worldwide—what kind of operation does he mean? Drone strikes, “collateral damage” of all sorts? Obama apparently wants to use his remaining time in the White House for a confrontation with Russia, a confrontation whose end is signaled by Trump’s cabinet appointments. Clearly the neocons—in whose camp Obama belongs, given his continuation of the policies of Bush and Cheney—do not accept their loss of power.

Expressing concern over renewed violence in the Somali city of Gaalkacyo, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for the country, Michael Keating, has called on all parties to honor the ceasefire agreement.

Agreement on 23 December in Cyprus means that the EFSI guarantee is now helping to boost investment throughout the EU.