Selected summary of United Nations related news and events
UN group meets to promote sports for peace and development
Audit criticizes Iraq's handling of oil sales after power transfer
UN agricultural agency proposes better targeted attack on poverty and hunger
Chancellor hails EU aid agreement
Lebanon Free of Syrian Troops
Iraq Can't Explain $69 Million in Fuel Oil From '04, Audit Says
"Former US president Bill Clinton will visit Sri Lanka this weekend on his second post-tsunami tour of the region and this time as a UN special envoy, the United Nations said." More...
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
CHRENKOFF: "Efforts to improve Iraqi health continue. "With funding from USAID, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is implementing a comprehensive package of activities designed to help Iraq meet Millennium Development Goals in public health."
DANIEL STARR: "In the Congo today, UN peacekeepers are simply called heroes.... UN troops are being sent against bad guys in the low-intensity wars that are too dull, too dangerous or just too prolonged for America and Europe to commit their own troops. They're not up to American or German standards, but the UN contingents are skilled and equipped enough to overwhelm thugs with guns, and "thugs with guns" is exactly who fights a lot of these nasty drawn-out wars. UN troops are shaping up to be a useful part of the "arsenal of peace" we'd like to have to keep another terrorist-haven Afghanistan from taking shape. They're getting better. And yes, we may even see UN troops in certain roles in Iraq."
OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY: "The Blue Helmets are seldom called in for "pure" peacekeeping mission in which, as the name implies, there is a peace to keep. Instead, UN forces are inserted between still-hostile factions in an attempt to create peace. That's a war fighting mission and forces must be trained, equipped, and led with that understanding."
SCRUTINY HOOLIGANS: "Remember George Galloway? The U.S. Senate website doesn't."
Selected summary of United Nations news and events
Secretary-General heading to Ethiopia and Sudan to seek help for Darfur
Post-tsunami recovery will take about a decade: UN agencies
Armed conflicts now leading cause of world hunger
Global health rules aim to halt disease spread
UN envoy's tour refocuses attention on drought, HIV/AIDS in southern Africa
"It is most obvious in Congo, which commands by far the largest deployment of United Nations troops in the world. Peacekeepers in armored personnel carriers, facing enemy sniper attacks as they lumber through rugged dirt paths in the eastern Ituri region, are returning fire. Attack helicopters swoop down over the trees in search of tribal fighters. And peacekeepers are surrounding villages in militia strongholds and searching hut by hut for guns." Full Story
CNN: "The United Nations on Sunday condemned as "utterly unacceptable" the alleged abuse of detainees at the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, and urged the U.S. military to allow a probe by Afghan human rights investigators."
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
LEFT COASTER: "US computer billionaire Bill Gates yesterday accused rich countries of turning their back on deadly diseases affecting millions of poor people, as he announced an additional $250 million (BD94.5m) (euro198 million) ($A330.73 million) (NZ$639 million) contribution for health research in developing countries."
FIRST DRAFT: "Paging Norm Coleman - Norm Coleman to the White Courtesy Phone Please: "U.S. officials are now unsure whether billions of dollars dispatched to Iraqi ministries to fund reconstruction projects ever reached their final destinations. Schools and hospitals refurbished with hastily issued contracts have again fallen into disrepair. The oil and power industries are in worse shape than during the Saddam Hussein regime."
WARREN ELLIS: "More than half of all humans will soon be living in cities, according to a prediction by the United Nations. "Psychologically it is an important step for mankind," Hania Zlotnik, director of the United Nations Population Division, told the BBC. "It's an increasing trend that is becoming more obvious. People do not realise how rural the world was until recently. That is changing." In 1900, only 14% of humanity lived in cities. By the century's close, 47% of us did so. This change is revealed in the growth of the number of medium-sized cities. In 1950, there were 83 cities with populations exceeding one million; but by 2000, this had risen to 411."
Selected summary of United Nations related news and events
AP: U.S. Bill Would Demand U.N. Reform
Togolese refugees in Ghana and Benin now number nearly 32,000
Tsunami damage helps UN to price the unseen value of ecosystems
UN Holds Seminar on the Use of Technology for Disaster Management
Annan requests extension and expansion of UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti
"The United Nations will end its peacekeeping mission in East Timor today, marking the country's transition to a viable and peaceful state, the international body said in a statement. East Timor President Xanana Gusmao and the UN's special representative Sukehiro Hasegawa held a ceremony in the capital, Dili, yesterday to bid farewell to the peacekeepers who have kept the country secure since 24 years of Indonesian rule ended in bloodshed and widespread destruction in 1999." More...