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A top economic adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told African countries yesterday to refuse to pay their huge debts if rich countries did not cancel them. American economist Jeffrey Sachs made the comment to a conference on hunger on the eve of a summit of the heads of state of the African Union, which estimates sub-Saharan Africa has foreign debts of $US201 billion ($283 billion). "The time has come to end this charade. The debts are unaffordable," said Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and special adviser to Annan on global anti-poverty targets. "If they won't...

Kenya should set up a special tribunal to try those behind last year's post-election bloodshed or let the International Criminal Court step in to restore public confidence, Western diplomats said on Thursday. Kenya's coalition government is under pressure from Kenyans and foreign donors alike to punish those behind the violence, which was the worst in the nation's post-independence history, killing at least 1,300 people and displacing 300,000. In a statement, 25 diplomatic missions said that if the government was unwilling or unable to set up a special tribunal, it should let the International Criminal Court (ICC) take over. "A special...

August 14, 2005 -- LONDON — The $21.3 billion United Nations oil-for-food scandal has now widened to include the brother of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Kobina Annan, the Ghanaian ambassador to Morocco, is said by investigators to be "connected" to an African businessman at the center of the scandal. The probe into Kobina's dealings are at an early stage and he has not been interviewed. However, investigators are understood to suspect that Michael Wilson, an African businessman, and Kobina had a business relationship at the time of the scandal. A source close to the investigation said: "We believe Kobina Annan...

As Kenya swayed in the wind of post-election killings, displacements and dispossession in February, last year, a VIP ‘messenger’ in the person of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwetu met Mr Mwai Kibaki. The day was February 26 and the leader whose declaration as winner of disputed presidential poll by Electoral Commission had refused to cede more than he had to his rival Mr Raila Odinga. Raila’s Orange Democratic Movement, which claimed its victory had been stolen, had put its last card on the table — they had reached the ‘irreducible minimum’. With Government affairs being run by a half-Cabinet Kibaki formed...

Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says 'radical' policy changes may be needed to create jobs. The worldwide economic recession has exposed a "crisis of global governance" that can only be addressed by the radical reform of the United Nations, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday as the World Economic Forum got under way in Switzerland. "The current architecture of managing global affairs is broken and needs to be fixed," Annan said on the opening morning of the five-day annual meeting of global political and business leaders. "We have major new players coming on the scene and they need to...

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today said Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis was far worse than he could have imagined and expressed dismay that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his government refused to acknowledge the problem even existed. "The entire basic structure in education, healthcare, feeding people, social services and sanitation has broken down," Carter told a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. "These are all indications that the crisis in Zimbabwe is much greater, much worse than we had ever imagined." Carter was part of a delegation that was denied entry into Zimbabwe last week to assess the crisis. The delegation...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zimbabwe has barred former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and other prominent figures from visiting the country to assess the humanitarian crisis, the group said on Saturday. They said they were denied travel visas to Zimbabwe despite the intervention of former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who is mediating the political conflict between President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Zimbabwe has refused to let Kofi Annan and two eminent colleagues visit the impoverished African country for a humanitarian mission, the three said Saturday. The former U.N. secretary-general, ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter and rights advocate Graca Machel had planned to assess the country's needs. They are members of The Elders group, formed by former South African President Nelson Mandela to foster peace and tackle world conflicts.

I'm actually beginning to think had Hillary won there would be fewer Clinton retreads coming on-board. Where the change? The bold innovative thinking? Are former Clinton hacks the best you can do, Barry? Geez, at this rate I almost expect Lani Guinier to be nominated for something. It's almost as if they had some incriminating photos of the guy. No, instead of this mythical change, we get a guy who sent Elian Gonzalez back to hell. Craig, 63, is a partner at Williams & Connolly and a protégé of the late Edward Bennett Williams, the legendary Washington power lawyer. His...

Gregory B. Craig, a well-known Washington lawyer who quarterbacked President Bill Clinton’s impeachment defense, has been chosen White House counsel by President-elect Barack Obama, according to Democratic officials. Craig is intimately familiar with the president-elect’s record because he played the role of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in debate preparations. The officials said Obama has settled on Craig but were not sure when the appointment would be announced. The choice gives the president-elect both experience and loyalty. During the primaries, Craig was an early Clinton alumni defector to Obama. Columnist Robert D. Novak reported back in the winter of 2007 that...

Kofi Annan has urged the Kenyan government to set up a tribunal for people accused of involvement in violence after last year's elections. The former UN secretary general brokered a power-sharing deal which ended the violence in February. Establishing such a tribunal was a central recommendation of a commission headed by a senior judge, Philip Waki, which submitted its report last week. The commission found that politicians on all sides had stirred up violence. Mr Waki also said that the police had used excessive force against protestors. 'No impunity' The commission gave Mr Annan a sealed envelope containing the names...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The council of world leaders launched by former President Nelson Mandela is sending a three-person team to help ease tensions in the troubled Middle East, the organization known as The Elders said Friday. Former President Jimmy Carter, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and former Irish president Mary Robinson will visit Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia from April 13-21. Launched last year to celebrate Mandela's 89th birthday, the group of 12 world leaders is dedicated to fostering peace and resolving global crises. Annan noted his recent mission to Kenya in which...

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga have signed an agreement to end the country's post-election crisis. At a ceremony in Nairobi, the two men put their signatures to a power-sharing deal brokered by ex-UN head Kofi Annan. --snip-- Speaking after the signing, Mr Kibaki said: "This process has reminded us that as a nation there are more issues that unite than that divide us... "We've been reminded we must do all in our power to safeguard the peace that is the foundation of our national unity... Kenya has room for all of us." Political violence has ignited...

Kenya's political rivals agreed Thursday to write a new constitution within a year as part of a deal to end postelection violence ... In Washington, President Bush said he will dispatch Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Kenya... Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, who is mediating in the Kenya crisis, has hammered out a deal ... "The two parties agreed to write a new constitution," ... Opposition leader Raila Odinga ...

Gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows burned and hacked to death members of a rival tribe in western Kenya Sunday, as the number of dead from the latest explosion of violence over disputed presidential elections rose to 69. Houses were blazing in the tourist gateway town of Naivasha, torched by members of President Mwai Kibaki's tribe exacting revenge on their Luo rivals... The latest deaths raise the toll to nearly 800 killed in ethnic violence and clashes with police since Kibaki was declared winner of Dec. 27 balloting that international and local observers say had a rigged tally....

A former ABC News consultant fired last year because he couldn't authenticate academic credentials is at the center of a new dispute over apparently faked interviews with Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Bill Gates and others. The consultant, Alexis Debat, quit the Nixon Center, a Washington think tank, on Wednesday after Obama's representatives claimed an interview with the senator appearing under Debat's byline in the French magazine Politique Internationale never took place. The interview quoted the Democratic presidential candidate as saying the Iraq war was "a defeat for America." Pelosi, Gates, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, former United Nations Secretary-General...

Nelson Mandela (C), celebrating his 89th birthday, stands flanked by ex-US president Jimmy Carter (R) and former UN chief Kofi Annan (L), during the launching ceremony of the group known as The Elders in Johannesburg. A brains trust of elder statesmen such as Carter and former UN chief Kofi Annan was launched by Mandela Wednesday with a call to bring hope to a conflict-ridden world.(AFP/Alexander Joe) 'The Elders' Announcement, Johannesburg, South Africa. Graca Machel, Mary Robinson, Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, Li Zhaoxing, Kofi Annan, Muhammad Yunus, Desmond Tutu.

The United Nations' Cash for Kim Jong Il scandal is now six months old, so it's a good time to assess progress, if that's the right word. The evidence of misdeeds at the U.N. Development Program in North Korea continues to mount, but there's still no "urgent" and "external" inquiry, as ordered by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in January. Now the U.S. has uncovered evidence that in addition to transferring millions of dollars in cash that may have gone to help prop up Kim's grotesque regime, the UNDP also transferred dual-use technology. It did so without bothering to secure a U.S....

BOULDER — University of Colorado students paid $160,000 in April to hear former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan say the people of the world must work together to bring about peace. The amount came as a surprise Wednesday to several members of CU's board of regents, who saw the figure on a routine list of speakers and their fees for the school year that just ended. Annan was far ahead of the second-highest-paid speaker, liberal historian and activist Howard Zinn, who received $15,500. The amount for the one-hour speech brought calls from some regents for more frequent audits of student government,...

LONDON (AFP) - Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan was named as the chairman of the six-person committee that will judge the world's biggest prize on Sunday, awarded to departing African statesmen for promoting good governance. Annan will be joined on the committee for the annual Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership by the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari, former UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson, and the Special Adviser to the Director-General of UNESCO, Aicha Bah Diallo. Also on the committee are Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former finance and foreign minister of Nigeria, and...

Kofi Annan had a pet peeve – Israel. If only Israel would do this or that, terrorism would end, peace would come to the Middle East, harmony would reverberate around the world, and the reasons for hating the rest of us would wither away. It was, and is, a lie that has served the world's worst human rights violators well, allowing them to escape scrutiny since the UN is otherwise occupied. It therefore comes as no surprise to learn of the tally of condemnations coming from the General Assembly during the fall of 2006: Resolutions condemning Israel for human rights...

On his way out the door, Kofi Annan has signed new rules meant to curb corruption in UN procurement activities, which since the Feds began investigating last year have been sprouting indictments and guilty pleas pertaining to the abuse of enormous amounts of taxpayer money on Kofi’s watch. It’s thoughtful of Kofi to bequeath brand new rules to his successor, Ban Ki-moon, who takes charge Jan. 1. But this leaves the question of why Kofi, who worked in the UN system for more than four decades, and spent much of that time deep in the nitty-gritty of UN personnel and...

Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, has held his farewell press conference and is finally shuffling off into a plush Swiss sunset. So, while the laughter fades away, we're being told that there's an ongoing problem with the free lodgings once bequeathed the pirouetting little anti-American peacock by the US taxpayers as the curtains on his storied reign at the UN come down, thanks to an article in the New York Sun. The concern swirls around this heavily subsidized Roosevelt Island apartment, which was passed on to his brother and his family after the dapper little...

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday a negotiated settlement with Iran over its nuclear program should be sought, and he warned that military intervention would be "unwise and disastrous." Annan, who steps down as U.N. chief Dec. 31, issued the warning as the Security Council debated a resolution that would impose sanctions on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. The United States is considering sending a second aircraft carrier to Persian Gulf as a show of force against Iran. He addressed concerns about a possible military operation in Iran at a farewell news conference in response...

As Secretary-General Annan prepares to leave his post at the United Nations, a mystery is surfacing surrounding his apartment on Roosevelt Island, subsidized by New York taxpayers, which is still in use by the family of his brother, Kobina Annan. The apartment was where Mr. Annan and his wife lived before 1997, when he became secretary-general. The Roosevelt Island home is part of an estate of low-rent state-regulated housing. For years, the Annans saved considerable sums by occupying an apartment meant to help financially strapped low- to moderate-income New York families. One question Mr. Annan has never addressed is why...

As Secretary-General Annan prepares to leave his post at the United Nations, a mystery is surfacing surrounding his apartment on Roosevelt Island, subsidized by New York taxpayers, which is still in use by the family of his brother, Kobina Annan. The apartment was where Mr. Annan and his wife lived before 1997, when he became secretary-general. The Roosevelt Island home is part of an estate of low-rent state-regulated housing. For years, the Annans saved considerable sums by occupying an apartment meant to help financially strapped low- to moderate-income New York families. One question Mr. Annan has never addressed is why...

United Nation's Chief Kofi Annan's Legacy of Failure by Nile Gardiner (December 16, 2006) http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4867 United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan delivered his swan song last week at the Truman Presidential Library in Missouri.[1] It was a thinly veiled parting shot at U.S. foreign policy delivered by an embittered U.N. leader seething with self-righteous indignation and resentment. Annan's Missouri speech will go down in history as one of the most blatant assaults on a U.S. administration by a serving U.N. official. In his condescending remarks, Annan warned, with Washington clearly in his sights, that "no nation can make itself secure...

Outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan traveled to the Harry Truman Library yesterday to deliver his valedictory. It was yet another sanctimonious broadside against the Bush administration. Ho hum. As Truman himself once said, in a different context: "That's plain hokum. If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em: It's an old political trick." What Truman would say today about Annan himself, and the organization he has headed for the past 10 years, can only be imagined. But it would be, in a word, colorful. Annan, who leaves office in 19 days, said he chose the Truman Library in order to pay...

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[ed. note - found in a remodeling dumpster at 48th and FDR Drive: first draft of Kofi Annan's valediction] Nearly 50 years ago, when I arrived in Minnesota as a student fresh from Africa, I had much to learn. For example, the concept of “connecting flights,” because I was actually supposed to be going to California. My cab had already plowed through several miles of Minneapolis snowdrifts before I realized my horrible mistake, but I decided to make the best of it. Over the next few years I adapted to the quaint arctic customs of the indigenous Minnesotans -- wearing...

Phil Lindsey, left, and Pamela Smith, right, display signs from a designated area during U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's farewell speech at the Truman Library in Independence, Mo. They were among the demonstrators that appeared outside the Truman Library.

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations chief Kofi Annan demanded on Tuesday that the world body's human rights watchdog, meeting in special session on Sudan's Darfur, send a clear message that the "nightmare" of violence there had to stop. "The people in Darfur cannot afford to wait another day. The violence must stop. The killings and other gross violations of human rights must end," Annan said in a statement to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. The Council, launched last June in a plan to make the U.N. more effective, must decide on what kind of mission of inquiry to send to...

(2006-12-11) — Kofi Annan, just a day after delivering what was billed as his final speech before an American audience as U.N. Secretary-General, today gave what was billed as his “second final speech.” “My first speech was like a Security Council resolution, recommending policy changes to one of our member states,” said Mr. Annan to an audience of well-wishers at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. “My remarks had all the impact and power of a U.N. resolution. So, today I will make my farewell speech again, recommending policy changes to one of our member states.” Mr. Annan...

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his farewell address, criticized the Bush administration, warning that America must not sacrifice its Democratic ideals while waging war against terrorism. In remarks prepared for delivery Monday at the Truman Presidential Museum and Library, Annan also said the Security Council should be expanded. “Human rights and the rule of law are vital to global security and prosperity,” Annan’s text said. When the U.S. “appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives, its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused,” he said. Annan, who leaves the United Nations on Dec. 31 after 10...

Milton Friedman died recently at age 94. He was the most influential economist during the second-half of the twentieth century and was awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics. Among many things I learned from reading Prof. Friedman was his theory that most institutions established for some mission keep expanding their role long after the good they might have done has been accomplished. His standing advice was that the best thing such institutions could do was to declare the job done and shut down. HORROR FOR BUREAUCRATSThis "Friedmanian" advice generates horror among bureaucrats and their organizations, even as the good...

Annan urges inclusion of Iran in talks By SARAH DiLORENZO, Associated Press Writer Fri Dec 8, 2006 U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday that Iran has a vested interest in a peaceful Iraq and should be part of discussions to resolve the conflict there. Speaking to Human Rights Watch, Annan said all of Iraq's neighbors, but especially Iran, have a role to play and praised Iran's past cooperation in discussions on Afghanistan. "If one were able to work with them in Afghanistan, why don't we try in Iraq, where they even have perhaps bigger influence?" the U.N. chief asked, noting...

Elections have consequences. The Democrats will control the US Senate, so, the President had to choose between either getting Robert Gates confirmed for Secretary of Defense or John Bolton confirmed for Ambassador to what is officially, if erroneously, called the United Nations. Interestingly, it was Senator Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island who was defeated last month in his re-election bid, who doomed Bolton's confirmation. Bolton is officially, if erroneously, a Republican. But he determined he would not vote to confirm Bolton which effectively killed any chance of confirmation because the Democrats in the Senate were not going to be helpful....

Harsh criticism of Annan's Iraq statements Berlin (DPA) - the statements of UN secretary general Kofi Annan to Iraq have bumped in Berlin into harsh criticism. Core of contention is the remark, the people in Iraq have been better under Saddam Hussein as today. To say this is "cynical and dangerous", said the CDP-foreign politician Eckart von Klaedenof the Bild newspaper. His SPD colleague Hans-Ulrich Klose recommended to Annan to look at the position from the point of view of Saddam's victim. The FDP-outside expert Wolfgang Gerhardt called the comparison simply out of question.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Iraq was in the grip of a civil war as U.S. and Iraqi forces attacked insurgent bases in a bid to shore up the authority of a government itself riven by factional rivalries. In Washington, outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was revealed to have acknowledged in a memo just before he lost his job that U.S. strategy was not working and it might be better to reduce troop numbers. President George W. Bush has repeatedly rejected recent assertions in the mainstream media that Iraq is now embroiled in a civil war. Annan's...

The U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution on Darfur yesterday, its first on the region in its five-month existence. The resolution faulted no one for violating human rights and was so noncommittal that Europe and Canada opposed it. On more familiar ground, the council also passed two new anti-Israeli resolutions. The Geneva-based rights council's record - six resolutions condemning Israeli violations; none criticizing any other country - was criticized even by Secretary-General Annan yesterday. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty, and other independent organizations have also expressed disappointment with the council recently. "Hallelujah," the American ambassador to the United Nations, John...

Excerpt - GENEVA (AP)--U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday that the U.S. was "trapped in Iraq," and urged Washington to carefully consider when would be the best time to pull out of the country so the withdrawal doesn't lead to a further deterioration of security. "The United States in a way is trapped in Iraq," Annan said. "It cannot stay and it cannot leave. There are those who maintain that its presence is a problem and there are those who say that if it leaves precipitously, the situation will get worse." (MORE TO FOLLOW)

NAIROBI, Kenya - Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the U.N. conference on climate change Wednesday that those who would deny global warming or delay taking action against it are "out of step" and "out of time." "Let no one say we cannot afford to act," Annan declared. The United States is among those who contend that reducing global-warming gases would set back economies too much. The U.N. chief lamented "a frightening lack of leadership" in fashioning next steps in reducing global emissions. "I would want leaders around the world to really show courage and to know that if they do, their...

The United States and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan openly disagreed Friday on the cause of rising violence in Gaza. Annan's office said in a statement the escalation and rising death toll were caused by the Israel Defense Forces operation in northern Gaza. At least 34 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and Gaza since Wednesday, including 19 fatalities Friday. Most of the casualties were in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun, where the IDF launched an operation Wednesday aimed at preventing Qassam rocket strikes on southern Israel. The State Department, however, said "the reason why all...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Lebanese authorities on Thursday to take a lesson from the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah and quickly agree on a plan for disarming Hezbollah. Hezbollah's transformation into a purely political party "is a key element in ensuring a permanent end of hostilities and in the full restoration of Lebanon's sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence," Annan said in a report to the U.N. Security Council. "It is my deep hope that the opportunities borne from conflict will be seized upon and that Lebanon may once again rise from the...

Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General, welcomed the release of Russian officers in Georgia and called on all sides to come together and engage constructively to address existing problems. Meanwhile his latest report on the Caucasus country speaks of new tensions in the long-running dispute between Georgian authorities and Abkhaz separatists stemming from an operation by Georgian Special Forces, and he warns that only dialogue can resolve differences. "The Secretary-General is pleased that Georgia and the Russian Federation have been able to resolve the issue of the recent arrest of Russian officers in Georgia in a peaceful and constructive manner,"...

Annan's financial form to be secret By Betsy PisikTHE WASHINGTON TIMESOctober 4, 2006 NEW YORK -- U.N. officials said yesterday that they will not publicly release a financial disclosure form filed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan last month -- 10 months after he ordered all senior U.N. officials to file the forms.     A spokesman said Mr. Annan submitted the questionnaire -- under a policy implemented in response to international outrage over U.N. involvement in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal -- on Sept. 22.     "The secretary-general has filed the forms," Stephane Dujarric confirmed yesterday. But, he said, "We will not be making it...

Annan Files Financial Disclosure Form Oct 02 4:21 PM US/Eastern Secretary-General Kofi Annan has submitted a form disclosing his financial records to the U.N. Ethics Office after initially refusing to do so, the United Nations said Monday. Annan decided to fill out the new U.N. financial disclosure form earlier in the month, days after his refusal to do so became public. "The Secretary-General has filed," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday. He said Annan's completed forms were delivered on Sept. 22 to the United Nations' Ethics Office. The U.N. unveiled new rules last year that tightened staff financial disclosure requirements...

SOUTH Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon may be formally confirmed as the UN secretary-general-elect as early as next week, when the permanent five members of the Security Council vote in a fourth and possibly final straw poll of the candidates.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday was trying to settle a flap over a potentially damaging claim made earlier in the day by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad said Annan had told him Iran could ignore a Security Council resolution requiring the country to cease enriching uranium by Aug. 31 or face economic sanctions. The Security Council sought the resolution in the face of rising fears over Iran's possible moves toward building nuclear weapons: Uranium enrichment is one of the key factors in that process. But in its most recent report, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy...

NEW YORK, September 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Tuesday,  Secretary General Kofi Annan delivered his final address to the United Nations General Assembly before he retires at the end of the year.  During the speech, which comes on the heels of the media-generated controversy regarding Pope Benedict XVI’s quoting of a text on Islam, Annan said, “insensitivity towards other people’s beliefs or sacred symbols –- intentional or otherwise -- is seized upon by those who seem eager to foment a new war of religion on a global scale.”“Moreover, this climate of fear and suspicion is constantly refuelled by the violence...