“I hardly ever watch the news on TV anymore,” my colleague said the other day. “All you hear about is killings, wars, crimes … I’m tired of sad and depressing news.” It may be a general trend, because the same phenomenon has been observed in France, where one of the comedy shows, Scenes de ménage, on the TV channel M6 has higher audience ratings than the 8 o’clock evening news. My colleague continues : “Every day I get hundreds of…
UNITAR was involved in the recent Middle East crisis through its operational satellite applications programme UNOSAT. Immediately after the beginning of hostilities, in July 2006, UNOSAT received requests for satellite imagery of the areas of Lebanon affected by the crisis. These requests came from both UN agencies and international NGOs that had previously used UNOSAT services for relief coordination and impact assessment. Satellite imagery is frequently used to support and organize emergency assistance in case of natural disasters because…
