United Nations

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China Raises Profile in Africa
China Raises Profile in Africa

China Raises Profile in Africa

UN peacekeepers, volunteers, economic efforts reflect Beijing's new commitment

(Newser) - China is increasing the number of UN peackekeepers it sends to Africa and raising its profile on the continent, creating a kind of "peace corps" to address problems from job shortages to health care, the Christian Science Monitor reports. China, itself a developing nation, appears determined to both do...

Sudan OKs Darfur Peace Talks
Sudan OKs Darfur Peace Talks

Sudan OKs Darfur Peace Talks

Foreign minister backs UN-AU initiative

(Newser) - Months of negotiations over the crisis in Darfur have culminated in agreements by the Sudanese government to participate in peace talks and to admit a joint UN-African union peacekeeping force to the region. Security Council reps visited Khartoum yesterday and nailed down details that addressed the government's concerns, Reuters reports—...

Ex-UN Head Waldheim Dead at 88
Ex-UN Head Waldheim
Dead at 88

Ex-UN Head Waldheim Dead at 88

Military service under Nazis shadowed Austrian president

(Newser) - Haunted by his World War II German army service to the end, former UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim died yesterday at 88. Reports that he served in a German army unit that committed atrocities during the war emerged in 1985, during his successful campaign for the Austrian presidency; at his death,...

Lebanese Mourn MP Slain by Bomb
Lebanese Mourn MP Slain by Bomb

Lebanese Mourn MP Slain by Bomb

Unrest builds; White House condemns assassinations of anti-Syrian politicians

(Newser) - Lebanon observed a national day of mourning today as a prominent anti-Syrian MP was buried in Beirut. The assassination yesterday of Walid Eido further destabilized the shaky situation in the country. President Bush condemned the "clear pattern of assassinations" of prominent Lebanese critics of Syria; Eido was the sixth...

UN Memo Rips US on Mideast
UN Memo Rips US on Mideast

UN Memo Rips US on Mideast

Palestinian boycott exacts 'devastating consequences'

(Newser) - The UN's former Mideast envoy condemns US policy toward Israel in a secret report that rips America for having "pummeled the UN into submission," rendering it powerless as a negotiator on Mideast matters. The report, leaked to the Guardian, also labels the boycott of the Palestinian government a...

UN Will Try Accused Assassins of Ex-Lebanese PM

Divided Security Council OKs tribunal

(Newser) - A UN tribunal will try suspects in the 2005 assassination of the ex-PM of Lebanon, raising fears of worsening unrest in the unstable country. Five members abstained from yesterday's Security Council vote, signaling a serious rift. And Syria, which has been implicated in the suicide truck-bomb attack that killed Rafik...

Bush Tightens Sudan Sanctions
Bush Tightens Sudan Sanctions

Bush Tightens Sudan Sanctions

Toughened economic measures thwart UN negotiators, draw China's ire

(Newser) - President Bush ordered new, tougher sanctions against Sudan today, ratcheting up pressure on Khartoum to end violence in the Darfur region. In an effort to keep the government from exploiting US resources to carry out genocide, the measures beef up enforcement and increase the number of companies and individuals barred...

Bush Prepares Iraq Plan That Includes UN

With troop surge faltering, new strategy spreads responsibility

(Newser) - Four years after the US went into Iraq without Security Council support, the administration may be ready to ask the UN for help. The Guardian reports that a plan to "internationalize" the peace process reflects President Bush's concern about the 2008 elections and the apparent failure of the troop...

Ethiopia Pushes for Somalia Pullout
Ethiopia Pushes for Somalia Pullout

Ethiopia Pushes for Somalia Pullout

UN calls refugee crisis worse than Darfur's; skirmishes continue

(Newser) - Ethiopia wants its troops out of Somalia, where the UN says the refugee crisis is now worse than the situation in Darfur, the BBC reports. But a pullout now could spell disaster for the estimated 300,000 Somalis displaced by recent fighting between the Ethiopia-backed government and the Islamist resistance,...

Amnesty Faults Sudan for Arming Darfur

Planes disguised as U.N. aircraft to foil arms embargo

(Newser) - Amnesty International accuses Sudan of violating the UN arms embargo with the help of  Security Council members Russia and China. The human rights group claims the Khartoum government is using planes disguised as all-white UN aircraft to move military equipment into the embattled region where 200,000 people have already...

UN's Take On Climate Change Grows Sunnier

Some measures may enhance global GDP

(Newser) - Policy and behavior changes can help limit greenhouse-gas emissions and slow climate change, say experts at a UN conference in Bangkok—and at a reasonable price. Some curbs on emissions may even enhance global GDP, but time is short. Within 10 to 20 years, global emissions should begin dropping to...

Sudan OKs U.N. Peacekeepers
Sudan OKs U.N. Peacekeepers

Sudan OKs U.N. Peacekeepers

Sudanese government assents to international intervention

(Newser) - Sudan agreed to allow 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers into its devastated Darfur region yesterday, but American and British officials were quick to say that it's not enough to stem genocide. They're calling for a force of 17,000 to 20,000, as agreed to in a peace accord signed...

Iran Raises Nuclear Stakes
Iran Raises Nuclear Stakes

Iran Raises Nuclear Stakes

'Can Produce Uranium on Industrial Scale'

(Newser) - Iran claims to have scaled up its nuclear capability by enriching uranium "on an industrial scale, " the Guardian reports, in defiance of U.S. and U.N. pressure to dimantle the program. The announcement from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  is sure to heighten conflict with the White House and...

East Timor Holds Guarded Elections
East Timor Holds Guarded Elections

East Timor Holds Guarded Elections

Fears of violence hover over country’s first presidential vote

(Newser) - East Timor is holding its first presidential elections since independence from Indonesia five years ago, with voters choosing between Nobel Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta and seven other candidates. It's hoped that the elections will stabilize the volitile country, where clashes between factions exploded in carnage last summer. International troops—mostly...

UN Report: Climate Change Will Hit Poor Hardest

Poorest will be hit hardest

(Newser) - Expect floods, droughts, fires—and resulting starvation, conflict, and mass migration—as climate change becomes more pronounced, says a U.N. report released today. And expect the poor to get hit the hardest, as deserts get drier, deltas flood more often, and small islands are overwhelmed.

Crisis Shows Isolated Iran
Crisis Shows Isolated Iran

Crisis Shows Isolated Iran

Tehran isolated - tries to push back

(Newser) - Iran’s abduction of the British sailors and its subsequent belligerence may actually be evidence that international sanctions against the rogue nation are working. Fareed Zakaria argues in Newsweek that Iran’s posturing reflects its growing isolation, after both Russia and China backed U.N. condemnation of its nuclear program....

U.N.'s Worthless If It Can't Get Tough on Iran

U.N. Lawyers outraged at anemic repsonse to hostage-taking

(Newser) - Iran's taking hostages, and the the United Nations is merely "gravely concerned"? Two U.N. lawyers, writing in the LA Times, are disgusted. "The international community's failure to show immediate outrage at Iran's action is deafening," say David Rivkin and Lee Casey. "Ancient legal principles...

British Captives Standoff Stiffens
British Captives
Standoff Stiffens

British Captives Standoff Stiffens

Experts say there is no clear border between Iran and Iraqi waters

(Newser) - London and Tehran and ratcheted up the rhetoric over the 15 British soldiers being held captive in Iran yesterday, the LA Times reports: Britain got the UN Security Council to issue a statement of "grave concern," while Tehran released more video of sailors professing guilt and issued charts...

UN Urges Mass Circumcision
UN Urges Mass Circumcision

UN Urges Mass Circumcision

Mass circumcisions in AIDS-stricken region could reduce infection

(Newser) - Mass circumcision should be urged in AIDS-devastated regions to cut infection rates, the UN said yesterday. With trials demonstrating that circumcised men are 60% less likely to contract HIV, such programs could prevent 5.7 million new HIV cases in the next two decades, the Guardian reports.

Iran Promises Female Soldier's Release

Britain steps up pressure by freezing business activity

(Newser) - Iran promised to release by Friday the female sailor captured along with 15 men in a British patrol boat last week. England stepped up pressure to free  the soldiers by cutting off "bilateral business" and publicizing secret documents which mark its boat nearly two miles from Iranian waters at...

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