NYT: "The United Nations warned nearly 90 countries including the United States and most of Europe on Thursday to prepare for more deaths from heroin overdoses because of surging opium production in Afghanistan. The 2006 Afghan Opium Survey, published by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, found production of the raw material for heroin hit a record 6,100 tonnes, almost 50 percent higher than last year. This accounted for more than 90 percent of the world's supply."
U.N. peacekeeping has surged to 93,000 troops, police and civilian personnel in 18 operations around the world, the most ever in the history of the world body, a U.N. official said on Wednesday.
But this figure, which includes nearly 70,000 military personnel, could jump to 140,000 within a year, Jean-Marie Guehenno, the undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, told a news conference.
As a high school student, the young Ban placed first in an English speaking contest and won a trip to meet President Kennedy. It was this meeting, he has said, that inspired him to become a diplomat. Needless to say, Ban achieved that goal and more. If Monday's Security Council consensus holds, the South Korean Foreign Minister will become the word's eighth Secretary General.
So who is Ban Ki-Moon? Below the fold is a list of useful resources that give you a sketch of the man and his work.
United Nations peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon to act as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah fighters are authorized to use force to stop "hostile activity" of any kind, the UN said. More
It's not yet official, but news outlets are reporting that it looks likely that South Korean Ban Ki-Moon will be the next Secretary General. In a straw poll yesterday, the South Korean Foreign Minister garnered 14 positive votes. Crucially, not one permanent Security Council member voted against him. Barring unforeseen circumstances, it looks increasingly likely that Ban will be the next Secretary General.
But with the ink barely dry on the straw-poll, a predicable cadre of anti-UN agitators on the right are already finding reasons to brand Mr. Ban a villain. Asking "Will the UN pick another crook?" the Director of Research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies alleges that "soft bribery" likely contributed to Ban Ki-Moon's success. The Foundation's Alykhan Velshi somehow finds a correlation between Ban's success in Monday's straw poll and South Korea's recent decision to increase its foreign development aid. Specifically, Velshi points to South Korean aid to Ghana and Tanzania, two rotating members of the Security Council, as somehow corrupting the selection process in a way that guaranteed Ban's success.
NYT: "North Korea announced today that it plans to conduct a nuclear test, in a sharp escalation of its standoff with the United States that set off ripples of alarm in Japan and South Korea.... American officials have said that if North Korea were to conduct nuclear tests, the United States would seek Security Council sanctions through a procedure that carries the threat of military action to enforce the council's vote."