"The United Nations nuclear watchdog has voted to report Iran to the Security Council over its nuclear activities.
Twenty-seven states out of 35 on the IAEA board backed the move, with three against and five abstentions.
The decision follows days of intensive diplomacy and could lead to possible UN sanctions against Iran.
An Iranian official said Tehran would resume full-scale enrichment of uranium and Russia's compromise offer to enrich uranium on its own soil was in doubt." [Read More]
"Eastern European countries, which disproportionately produce greenhouse gas emissions, have taken a small but very significant step in tackling the problem thanks to a United Nations-backed project, a new report released today says.
With only 6 per cent of the world's population, the countries of Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) produce approximately 12 per cent of all greenhouse gases." [Read more]
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentaryHuffington Post (Michelle Pilecki): "US Media Ignore UN Study on Iraq 'Peace-Building' Methods Backfiring - The United States is avoiding widely recognised peace-building processes that involve external military powers quickly creating a basic security environment and then allowing domestic peace- and nation-building efforts to succeed," says the Inter Press Service News Agency, reporting on a new book, Security Sector Reform and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding, published by the United Nations University Press: "Instead of stabilizing places like Iraq, international efforts to centralize power are creating a more fragile security environment than ever before," the press release quotes co-editor Albrecht Schnabel, senior research fellow at swisspeace Swiss Peace Foundation, and a lecturer at the Institute of Political Science, University of Bern. "[A]lmost three years after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, Iraq is characterized by chaos, violence and disintegration. The methods used to rebuild Iraq's security sector are simply making matters worse."
Free Thinking: "The late Sergio Vieira de Mello said that intolerance is dangerous because it usually hides behind dishonesty and a false pretext. According to him, the best way of securing the rule of law is through human rights."
Dan McDermott: "AP - Polio has been stamped out in Egypt and Niger, leaving just four nations in the world where the deadly disease is endemic, the U.N. health agency said Wednesday."
Global Voices: "South Asia, Bangladesh - Unheard Voices on a Unicef study that indicates there aren't enough toilets for children in schools."
Murky View: "The BBC has an excellent service called BBC Monitoring that gathers information in over 100 languages around the world and translates them into English. Unfortunately, it's not free, but they do include information from those sources in many articles. Yesterday I ran across this article on Iranian bloggers who are discussing the nuclear issue between Iran and the West. As the tension mounts and the issue is sent to the UN Security Council. It is interesting, and I believe incredibly important, to hear what Iranians have to say on the issue. They are, after all, the ones who would be suffering most if a military strike were to proceed against Iran."
"With the international spotlight shining on Tehran's atomic ambitions, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appealed for a long-term and visionary approach to the problem of nuclear arms proliferation.
"Today's headlines concern Iran - rightly so, for basic treaty obligations and commitments are at stake," he said in London on Tuesday evening, stressing that for signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the right to develop nuclear energy is conditional on the obligation not to build or acquire nuclear weapons, and to comply with standards set and monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentaryPublic Diplomacy Watch: "Travel Weekly has a good story about Tim Wirth and Ted Turner's UN Foundation, and its efforts to enlist the travel industry in protecting places designated as "World Heritage" sites by the UN."
Sudan Watch: "A new detailed UN report warns that killings, rapes and indiscriminate attacks are still forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes in Darfur. Excerpt from Scotsman January 28, 2006: "A 42-page report said those carrying out the violence included soldiers who fired at civilians from helicopter gunships. The report criticised the government of coup leader Omar el-Bashir, saying promises to end centuries of discrimination and marginalisation of black African minorities were marked by "token gestures" while murder and torture went unpunished." UN News Centre January 27, 2006 reports that while noting some progress since peace accords were signed last year, such as the lifting emergency law in certain areas, the OHCHR report says other initiatives have been inadequate, especially in Darfur, where any positive political measures were "overshadowed by an ineffective judiciary, an ongoing conflict, and widespread human rights abuses."
Draconian Observations: "The battle over who will replace Kofi Annan as the next Secretary General of the UN is on: Annan's term expires at the end of the year, and several candidates either have or are perceived to have joined the ranks of contenders for one of the most influential and definitely important posts in the world. Financial Times has an interesting piece on the subject coming out of the World Economic Forum summit in Davos. As FT's people aptly summarize, the next UNSG faces several tough challenges."
"The United States and Europe, after hours of negotiations on Iran, won support from Russia and China early Tuesday to refer Iran's nuclear activities to the United Nations Security Council this week, but with a promise that the Council would not act on the question for at least a month." [Full story]
"Tony Blair has admitted that the risks of climate change may be more serious than previously thought. The Prime Minister's concern is revealed today in a book that contains compelling evidence from some of the world's leading scientists of the growing threat to the planet.
Reassessments of major risks to the Earth, such as the melting of the great land-based ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, which would raise sea levels disastrously, or the slowing down of the Gulf Stream, which would plunge Britain into a new ice age, show that they may be triggered by temperature rises well within those already predicted for the coming century.
The fresh appraisals indicate that the situation is far more dangerous than that set out in the last report of the main scientific body monitoring global warming, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). That study, the IPCC's third assessment report, known to scientists as the TAR, said there was "new and stronger evidence" that much of the warming already observed in recent decades had been caused by human activities, such as the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases from power stations and motor vehicles." [Read more]
Also see:
Corals and Mangroves in the Front LineFloods and Drought Boost Global DisastersGlobal Warming Study: Polar Ice Sheets Could Start to Melt this Century
"The senior United Nations envoy to Iraq today condemned a series of deadly explosions carried out in coordinated sequence in the vicinity of churches in Baghdad and Kirkuk.
The attacks, which caused the death and injury of many innocent Iraqis, constituted "a reprehensible act that can only exacerbate sectarian violence," Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, said in a statement issued in the Iraqi capital." [More]