ABC News is reporting that President Bush will nominate Zalmay Khalilzad, currently the United States Ambassador to Iraq, to be the next United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations. The news is not yet official, but moments ago CNN's Ed Henry confirmed the ABC report, saying that a senior US official told him that Khalilzad will in fact be nominated.
Most UN observers are waiting with baited breath as the new Secretary General forms his executive team. This is a delicate process. In choosing his staff, Ban Ki-moon must pay due regard to equitable geographic and gender distribution. He is also, no doubt, under intense pressure from various member states to appoint one of their own nationals to top posts.
Michele Montas, the newly appointed spokesperson to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said yesterday that the UN is "deeply concerned" by reports of sexual exploitation allegations concerning UN personnel in Juba.
"The UN standard on this issue is clear -- zero tolerance, meaning zero complacency and zero impunity." More
New SG Ban Ki-moon appointed John Holmes, a British diplomat, as the new UN humanitarian chief and Alicia Barcena Ibarra, a Mexican national and former Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), as undersecretary-general for management. More
The Nothing But Nets campaign travels to New York City this week for a series of promotional events intended to raise awareness for the grassroots anti-malaria campaign. The events kick off today with a panel discussion at Hunter College with malaria advocacy experts from the United Nations, the NGO community and philanthropic organizations. Tomorrow, Rick Reilly, the Sports Illustrated writer whose column inspired the Nothing But Nets campaign, will speak at the NBA store in Manhattan along with representatives from the UN Foundation and the NBA. Finally, on Friday, the New Jersey Nets-Chicago Bulls basketball game at Continental Airlines Arena will highlight Nothing But Nets, the first of many in-house promotions at NBA arenas throughout the country.
For those in New York interested in attending any or all of these events, more details are below the fold.
A report by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which outlines the work of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), recommends extending the mission until February 2008, citing "significant challenges." More
Newly-inaugurated Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced his first two appointments yesterday: Indian diplomat Vijay Nambiar--who was a special adviser to Kofi Annan--as his chief of staff, and Haitian journalist Michele Montas as his spokeswoman.
More appointments are expected in the coming days. More.