United Nations

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Bali Eco Summit Nears Collapse
Bali Eco Summit Nears Collapse
Dec 13, 2007 4:00 AM CST

Bali Eco Summit Nears Collapse

US, EU in standoff over new carbon limits

(Newser) - A face-off between American and European environment officials has pushed the Bali climate change talks to the breaking point, with United Nations officials warning that the summit could collapse "like a house of cards." Delegates in Bali are sharply divided over the guidelines for the next two years...

Algiers Searches for Missing
Algiers Searches for Missing
Dec 12, 2007 8:44 AM CST

Algiers Searches for Missing

Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for twin blasts that killed dozens

(Newser) - Rescuers worked though the night to locate missing UN workers and others trapped in the rubble left by yesterday's twin car bombs in Algiers, which a North African group linked to al-Qaeda claims to have detonated. Death counts vary, but the UN estimates that 45 were killed, including a dozen...

UN Chief Issues Urgent Plea for Warming Battle Plan

Ban: Action is 'moral challenge of generation'

(Newser) - Citing a "desperate urgency," United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called upon environmental ministers from over 120 nations to forge a new battle plan against climate change by 2009. The new treaty would attempt to improve on the Kyoto Protocol by including every country, and serve as a "...

US Race Record Is 'Abysmal'
US Race Record Is 'Abysmal'
Dec 10, 2007 9:42 PM CST

US Race Record Is 'Abysmal'

Katrina, profiling, education—minorities still lag, study says

(Newser) - From racial profiling to voting discrimination and Hurricane Katrina, US race relations are "abysmal," according to a new report. The Human Rights Network, an umbrella organization of some 250 nonprofits, found that minorities aren't given the same educational resources and are disproportionately represented in prisons. The findings counter...

UN Stepping Up Work in Iraq
UN Stepping Up Work in Iraq
Dec 10, 2007 5:18 AM CST

UN Stepping Up Work in Iraq

Four years after bombing killed 22, UN re-engaged

(Newser) - The United Nations is stepping up its work in Iraq in a bid to land a final peace—four years after a terrorist bomb in the UN compound in Baghdad killed 22 officials. "Three years of horror have led nowhere. It only produced tit-for-tat destruction and the displacement of...

Climate Reps at Odds Over Deforestation

Rich countries balk at paying poorer nations to stop hacking trees

(Newser) - The triumph of the Bali summit may be its plan to stop deforestation, but rich and poor nations are still clashing over details, the Washington Post reports. A dozen developing countries want incentives to stop tree-cutting, but some developed nations wince at paying them for actions not taken. "The...

Darfur's Displaced Battle Hunger, Disease, Raids

Sudan's 2.5M refugees struggle to survive

(Newser) - "It is unsafe for me to go back home and it's not safe here," a resident of Abu Chok, a refugee camp in Darfur currently home to 54,000, tells the Guardian. Residents endure endemic malnutrition, malaria, and typhoid in hopes of security—the camp is 4 miles...

Burmese Junta Downplays Protest Death Toll: Report

Government 'lying,' rights group says

(Newser) - The quashing of pro-democracy demonstrations in September was significantly bloodier than the Burmese junta claims, says a Human Rights Watch report released today. Although the government acknowledges only 10 deaths during the suppression of the protests, 20 killings have been verified by eyewitnesses in Yangon alone, and the rights group...

UN Food Aid Restored in Somalia
UN Food Aid Restored in Somalia
Dec 5, 2007 6:56 AM CST

UN Food Aid Restored in Somalia

Mysterious obstacles disappear as help is allowed again to devastated region

(Newser) - United Nations food aid has been restored to Somalia today after it was suspended yesterday, when the government hiked road tolls to $500 a truck and prevented two ships from delivering food to the problem-plagued Lower Shabelle region. UN aid teams were given no explanation for the trouble. But a...

Climate Talks Move Forward, But Slowly

Bali participants take baby steps toward fighting global warming

(Newser) - Sniping among the 190 nations in attendance isn't keeping the climate talks in Bali from inching forward, Reuters reports. Participants have succeeded in putting together a "special group" to look at post-Kyoto Protocol options, but "the devil's in the detail," cautioned a top UN official. Meanwhile, environmentalists...

Sudan Making Peacekeeping 'Impossible'

Top UN official says Khartoum demands will make forces worthless

(Newser) - The UN's head of peacekeeping operations blasted the Sudanese government for intentionally restrictive demands that "would make it impossible for the mission to operate." Khartoum is refusing to admit non-African soldiers, withholding permission for night flights, and insisting on advance notice of all troop movements, the BBC reports....

Climate Time Bomb Ticking, UN Says
Climate Time Bomb Ticking, UN Says
Nov 27, 2007 5:42 PM CST

Climate Time Bomb Ticking, UN Says

Ecological doomsday looms within 10 years unless world acts

(Newser) - Global warming will wreak devastation on economies and living standards around the world within 10 years unless nations take steps now to curb carbon emissions, a UN report warns. The report, the latest in a series of dire warnings from international agencies, is intended to spur action at next month's...

UN: Iceland Best Place to Live
UN: Iceland Best Place to Live
Nov 27, 2007 1:21 PM CST

UN: Iceland Best Place to Live

Sub-Saharan Africa, it turns out, not so great

(Newser) - Iceland has inched out longtime champ Norway as the best place in the world to live, and sub-Saharan Africa is the worst. The UN list, out today, ranks countries by real per-capita GDP, education, and life expectancy. The US ranked 12th, down from 8th last year, as relatively low life...

UN Slashes AIDS Estimate
UN Slashes AIDS Estimate
Nov 20, 2007 9:12 AM CST

UN Slashes AIDS Estimate

Agency admits it seriously overestimated spread of epidemic

(Newser) - The United Nations will publish a report admitting that it has greatly overestimated the scale and the progress of the AIDS epidemic, writes the Washington Post. The UN's AIDS agency now believes that the disease has been slowing for a decade and that the worldwide toll of people living with...

UN Agreement May Boost US Spectrum Bids

Google, Yahoo, Apple all seen jumping into Jan. 700 Mhz auction

(Newser) - Thanks to an agreement at a month-long UN telecom conference in Geneva, the cost for rights to use new US wireless spectrum going on the block in January may have just increased. Google, Yahoo and Apple are among the companies expected to a battle for licenses to the 700 Mhz...

UN Warns of 'Abrupt' Warming
UN Warns of 'Abrupt' Warming
Nov 17, 2007 6:18 AM CST

UN Warns of 'Abrupt' Warming

Earth at 'tipping point' of irreversible catastrophe: UN chief Ban Ki-Moon

(Newser) - The last and most forceful of a series of UN reports on climate change unveiled today urges swift action to avoid "abrupt and irreversible" damage to the environment. Melting glaciers will cause a rapid rise in sea levels, wiping out vulnerable species and destroying water and food supplies for...

Bengali Cyclone Toll Hits 1,100
Bengali Cyclone Toll Hits 1,100
UPDATED
Nov 16, 2007 2:31 PM CST

Bengali Cyclone Toll Hits 1,100

Relief slowed as power, phones remain out

(Newser) - The death toll from yesterday’s cyclone in Bangladesh has risen to 1,100, and widespread power and telephone shortages are slowing relief work. The full devastation may not be known for days. Relief agencies have descended on the impoverished nation, but blocked roads and rivers make reaching the worst-hit...

UN Visitor Not Keeping Burma From Arrests

US official calls junta's progress 'demonstrably inadequate'

(Newser) - Burma's military junta has continued to detain protesters even as a UN human-rights investigator visits to probe September's crushed uprising, the Guardian reports. Three men distributing pro-democracy leaflets in a Rangoon market were arrested today; a leading female activist was detained yesterday as she posted fliers near the investigator's hotel—...

Pope to Shun Boston on US Visit
Pope to Shun Boston on US Visit
Nov 14, 2007 7:52 AM CST

Pope to Shun Boston on US Visit

Omission of city at center of church sex abuse scandal raises ire

(Newser) - For his much-anticipated inaugural trip to the US this spring Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit the White House, the United Nations, the site of the World Trade Center—but not Boston, where the Church sex abuse scandal first erupted. The omission of Boston from the papal tour has infuriated...

US Control Over Domain Names Is Focus of UN Internet Forum

Critics say agency limits non-English suffixes

(Newser) - US control over assigning Internet domain names was a focus of discussions at the second annual Internet Governance Forum today, the AP reports. "The Internet is transnational. It can't be under the authority of one country," said Brazil's culture minister. Many argue that US sway over the Internet...

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