Claudia Rosett, who has already declared Ban Ki-moon's "half-life of integrity" to be "less than a week," is trying to gin up controversy about the appointment of the new Deputy Secretary General from Tanzania, Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro.
The United Nations is taking some hits over a disturbing Daily Telegraph report alleging that some peacekeeping officials in the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) have sexually exploited children in southern Sudan.
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.
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.
I've often wondered how Claudia Rosett, the "Journalist in Residence" of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, will cope with Kofi Annan's departure. After all, she has earned her name tarring and feathering a man who is about to abandon his pulpit. Once Annan leaves office, those who actually follow her attempts to stir controversy are sure to lose interest.
Three separate events this week provide a good case study of the international community's struggling non-proliferation strategy.
In Washington today, President Bush signed into law the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Act. The bill, passed by Congress before it adjourned for the year, rescinds American prohibitions against civilian nuclear technology exchanges with India. These sanctions had been in place since 1974, when India first detonated a nuclear weapons and officially became an atomic weapons wielding nation.
Yesterday, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) told the Security Council that by February, his office will hand over evidence of war crimes in Darfur to a set of ICC pre-trial judges. This will set in motion a series of events that will likely lead to indictments of Sudanese government officials for crimes against humanity in Darfur.