Eight former Secretaries of State serving both Democratic and Republican presidents signed a letter to members of congress today urging them to support President Obama's international affairs budget request. Last week the Senate Budget Committee proposed stripping $4 billion from the budget. Every living former Secretary of State apparently believes that is a wrong-headed move.
Last Friday, Laura Rozen reported that Iran had withdrawn its candidacy for the UN Human Right Council. This comes as very good news to the United States, which fought hard to keep Iran off the Council. It is also a boon for the Council itself and demonstrated that its process for electing member states--while flawed in some respects--can prevent known abusers from membership.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) announced today that it has temporarily moved some of its international staff in Kandahar to Kabul and instructed its national staff in Kandahar to stay at home. The announcement came after a spate of suicide bombings, attacks on supply convoys, and the fatal shooting of a young employee of a US-based development firm.
The news today brings us two optimistic articles on the African economy.
Since April 21, at least eighty Afghan schoolgirls at three schools in the increasingly violent northern city of Kunduz have mysteriously fallen ill after reporting a strange smell in their classrooms. Most of the affected girls have been hospitalized briefly and released, but the sudden, mysterious epidemic of fainting and nausea is raising fears of poisoning by opponents of girls’ education.
Members of the U.S. Congress are circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter to oppose the Obama administration's decision to participate in a conference of the International Criminal Court. Next month, an American delegation will attend the International Criminal Court's first "Review Conference" in Kampala, Uganda. At the meeting, countries that have ratified the treaty that created the ICC -- called the Rome Statute -- will decide whether or not to make certain amendments to it.
Last week the United Nations made its debut on American Idol when Ban Ki Moon offered a video message about the UN's work to Idol's sizable audience. The occasion was the charity event Idol Gives Back of which the United Nations Foundation was one of five beneficiaries. This is what millions of Idol viewers saw last week.