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HAVANA - Cuban television showed brief video footage of ailing President Fidel Castro standing to greet UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and chatting with the visiting dignitary. ‘You look very well, your handshake is strong,’ Annan told Castro during the meeting in a hospitAl like room. The Cuban leader, clad in a dressing gown, stood up to greet Annan, and then sat down as the two chatted. ‘Let me tell you, you look very well, after traveling so much ... around the world,’ Castro said in a soft voice. Castro gave the UN chief a copy of ‘100 Hours with...

HAVANA (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan visited with ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the Juventud Rebelde daily reported publishing a photograph of the meeting. Castro, wearing a dressing gown, is seen shaking Annan's hand in the picture taken late Thursday, soon after the UN chief arrived in Havana for the September 11-17 Non-Aligned Movement meeting. "During the friendly meeting, the Cuban president and the top UN representative exchanged opinions on the relevance of the Non-Aligned Summit and other major international issues such as the Middle East situation and current events in Africa," Juventud Rebelde said Friday. Annan was...

UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Kofi Annan has refused to fill out a newly minted U.N. financial disclosure form, rejecting advice of his inner circle that doing so would send a good signal as the U.N. seeks to counter allegations that it is closed to public scrutiny, U.N. officials said Thursday. The U.N. unveiled new rules last year that tightened staff financial disclosure requirements in effect since 1999. Annan is not required to fill out the form because he is technically not a staff member. Nonetheless, two U.N. officials told The Associated Press that several of Annan's top aides had recently urged...

UNITED NATIONS — Most leaders in the Middle East told U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan during his recent trip to the region that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and its aftermath were "a real disaster," Annan told reporters Wednesday. Annan said many leaders believed the United States should stay until Iraq improves, while others, such as Iran, said the United States should leave immediately. That means that the United States has found itself in the difficult position where "it cannot stay and it cannot leave." "Most of the leaders I spoke to felt the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath has...

“It was the longest and most strenuous and most demanding trip that I have done in my 10 years in office,” Secretary General Kofi Annan said last week of his just-ended 11-day Middle Eastern marathon. The trip was the kind of shuttle diplomacy that American secretaries of state used to do but could not now, given that there has been such a plunge in American credibility over Iraq and that two places Mr. Annan visited, Iran and Syria, are no-go zones for American officials. At the same time, Mr. Annan and his aides had to struggle against their own perception...

Israel backs Annan bid to secure freedom for soldiers By Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 05/09/2006)Kofi Annan said he would appoint a secret negotiator to mediate between Israel and Hizbollah for the release of two Israeli soldiers Kofi Annan announced yesterday that the United Nations would mediate to secure the release of the two Israeli soldiers held by Hizbollah in Lebanon in a fresh attempt to defuse tensions in the area. The abduction of the soldiers by guerrillas in a cross-border raid in July provoked an Israeli offensive and led to 34 days of bloody fighting. Until yesterday's announcement by...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - 0903dv-iran-holocaust The U.N. chief got little satisfaction Sunday at the close of his trip to Tehran, snubbed by Iran's leader over international demands to stop enriching uranium and ignored in warnings not to incite hatred by questioning the Holocaust. In a provocative move on the final day of Kofi Annan's two-day visit, Iran announced it would host a conference to examine what it called exaggerations about the Holocaust, during which more than 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis. The move was sure to draw new international condemnation of Iran's stance on Jews. Hours after...

TEHRAN, Iran — U.N. chief Kofi Annan said Sunday that the Holocaust was "an undeniable historical fact" after Iran said it would sponsor a conference to question what it said was Holocaust exaggerations, in a provocative move timed during his visit. The decision came as Annan raised concerns with Iranian officials over an exhibition of cartoons about the Holocaust in Iran's capital, Tehran. Hard-line President Ahmoud Ahmadinejad has called the Nazis' slaughter of 6 million Jews a myth... "God willing, a conference on the Holocaust will be held in the autumn. The Holocaust is not a sacred issue that one...

Iran Snubs Annan Over Nuclear Program Sunday September 3, 2006 9:46 PM By NASSER KARIMI Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The U.N. chief got little satisfaction Sunday at the close of his trip to Tehran, snubbed by Iran's leader over international demands to stop enriching uranium and ignored in warnings not to incite hatred by questioning the Holocaust. In a provocative move on the final day of Kofi Annan's two-day visit, Iran announced it would host a conference to examine what it called exaggerations about the Holocaust, during which more than 6 million Jews were killed by the...

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Sunday afternoon following a meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Iranian leader had expressed willingness to cooperate with the international community to reach a solution to the escalating crisis around Iran's nuclear enrichment program. However, Annan stressed, Iran remained steadfast in its refusal to cease enrichment ahead of talks.

TEHRAN, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in Tehran Sunday he now understands Iran's position on its nuclear enrichment program. Annan, speaking to the reporters alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, said he would explain his new understanding to the countries involved in discussions about Iran's nuclear ambitions, reported IRNA, Iran's official government-run news agency. Annan said good dialogue had already been established between Iran and the U.N. Security Council about the country's nuclear program. He said his meetings with Iranian officials would help push discussions forward

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syrian President Bashar Assad told the U.N. secretary-general Friday that his government is prepared to establish formal diplomatic relations with Lebanon and delineate the border, steps Syria has resisted for six decades. Many in Lebanon expressed skepticism, saying Assad's promises to U.N. chief Kofi Annan would likely remain just talk unless international pressure mounted on Damascus. For Syria, the step would be seen as recognition that its decades-long domination of its smaller neighbor is truly over after crumbling the last year. Many Lebanese suspect Syria has never really accepted Lebanon's independence and remains angry that parts of...

Excerpt - DAMASCUS (AP)--U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday Syria has promised to "take all necessary measures" to implement an arms embargo on Hezbollah. Syria will increase its patrols along the Lebanon-Syria border, and establish joint patrols with the Lebanese army "when possible," Annan said after meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus. ~ snip ~

UNITED NATIONS — In a departure from language used by the U.N. Security Council, Secretary-General Annan yesterday linked the issue of releasing Israeli soldiers to freeing Lebanese terrorists held by Israel. Hezbollah demanded a prisoner swap when it kidnapped the two soldiers on July 12, launching a month-long war. Mr. Annan, speaking to the press in Beirut, retreated from several demands the Security Council made on Hezbollah and went as far as to equate the conduct of Israeli army soldiers with that of terrorists serving the Taliban regime. "You have to talk with those with the guns to stop shooting,...

HARET HREIK (Lebanon), Aug 28: UN chief Kofi Annan was booed by a crowd chanting pro-Hezbollah slogans on Monday as he toured Beirut’s southern suburbs devastated by Israel’s war against the militant group. Dozens of men, women and children angrily waved pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and shouted ‘Allah, Nasrallah and all of the suburbs’ as the UN secretary general emerged from his car to survey the destruction in the heart of the Haret Hreik area, a Hezbollah stronghold. Others booed and shouted ‘death to Israel’ and ‘long live Syria’ as they surrounded Mr Annan’s convoy of vehicles which...

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan demanded on Monday that Hezbollah release two captured Israeli soldiers to the international Red Cross, and that Israel lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon. Visiting Beirut on the first leg of an 11-day Mideast tour, Annan said he was renewing his "call for the abducted soldiers to be free," and urged Hezbollah to transfer them to the Lebanese government "or a third party" under the auspices of the international Red Cross. "We, the U.N., will be prepared to play a role if we are required to do so. And I...

What could possibly make the Lebanon situation worse today than it was yesterday? Only yesterday the hapless Israeli defense minister, Amir Peretz, said that Israel expected the "international community" to take control of Lebanon's border crossings. Peretz's pointless whine was in response to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's statement on Saturday that the new UN force in Lebanon won't either disarm Hizballah terrorists or try to interdict shipments of weapons to Hizballah from Syria. But what Peretz said changed nothing. The Son of UNIFIL force won't do anything to inconvenience Hizballah or its Syrian and Iranian suppliers. But yes, today,...

As the November election approaches and Democrats from John Murtha to John Kerry to Howard Dean to Ned Lamont claim that the Bush administration’s policies to combat terrorism and to conduct the war in Iraq have failed, we still don’t know what exactly the Democrats would do. While Democrats constantly claim that the administration doesn’t have “a plan,” it doesn’t appear that they have a plan either. Maybe theirs is a “secret” plan. As a regular viewer of the O’Reilly Factor, I’ve watched time and time again as Bill O’Reilly has asked Democratic strategists, operatives and politicians just what, specifically,...

I understand that the movie 'Old Yeller' is available for sale on DVD. I saw 'Old Yeller' as a kid and it made me cry when Tim Considine's character shot Old Yeller at the end. I think I'll buy it and watch it again. Maybe THIS time, it will have a happy ending. If not, I'll go buy another copy from a different store and try watching that one. Maybe he won't shoot the dog. If not, there are other stores . . . I know it sounds silly, but if I do it often enough, and talk about how...

Sudan warns Britain that intervention could turn into another Iraq By George Jones, Andrew Sparrow and Rachel Sylvester (Filed: 23/07/2004) British troops are welcome to enter the Darfur region, Sudan's foreign minister said yesterday, but they would rapidly find themselves in an Iraq-like situation. Responding to a British newspaper report suggesting that Tony Blair was considering options to send troops to the region, Mustafa Ismail said his government was willing to withdraw from Darfur. Children at Abu Shok refugee camp "We will give him the chance if he can give security to Darfur," Mr Ismail said in Paris. But he...

The United Nations has described the situation in Darfur as the world's gravest humanitarian crisis. In 2004, then-secretary of state Colin Powell called it genocide. On Tuesday, a US Congressional delegation that had visited Sudan told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, "The issue of Darfur challenges the conscience of our country." So what is being done about it? Darfur is a province in the southwest of Sudan, an Arab country. The area had a population of about 6 million - about 2 million have fled to neighboring Chad, while about 400,000 were killed by the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed militias...

UNITED NATIONS -- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has decided to vist the Middle East and head to Iran, says his spokesman Stephane Dujarric. At the end of week, Annan will leave for Lebanon and Israel. He will follow that with stops in Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Qatar, the Palestinian territories, and Jordan. Annan's office added that the secretary-general "also intends" to visit Damascus and Tehran. The U.N. chief is under increasing pressure to place a U.N. military "peacekeeping" force in southern Lebanon that is acceptable to the Lebanese government and Israel. Annan is also working against an Aug. 31 deadline...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that his country was ready to help restore sustainable peace in the Mideast region, the Fars news agency reported. Ahmadinejad made the remarks in a phone conversation with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the presidential press office said in a statement. According to the statement, in the phone conversation initiated by Annan, the two discussed the latest developments in the Mideast region, UN Security Council Resolution 1701 on the Lebanon crisis and ways to achieve a ceasefire on the Lebanese soil. Ahmadinejad and Annan also stressed the need to establish stability, sustainable and fair...

UNITED NATIONS - Jay-Z boycotted premium champagne Cristal at his clubs after the brand's owner made some remarks he didn't like. Now the rap superstar has a new favorite drink: water. - - - - - Snip - - - - "I figure that once I stumbled upon that, if the information was out and young people knew that these problems exist while we're having Poland Springs at Cipriani and things like that, that we'll get involved," said the 36-year-old rapper, referring to the high-class restaurant chain.

NEW YORK - The National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Abraham Foxman, yesterday accused United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan of demonstrating "blatant one-sidedness" in his comments about Israel's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. "I am stunned that the UN secretary general cannot find his tongue except to criticize and denounce Israel, and is unable to raise his voice to denounce Hezbollah's daily firing of hundreds of rockets that are specifically intended to hurt civilians," Foxman said yesterday in an exclusive interview with Haaretz. "In addition, [Annan] has not bothered to mention the loss of life in Israel as...

American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is on the brink of handing President George W. Bush the worst diplomatic disaster of his presidency. She is poised to agree to UN resolutions that will tie the hands of both Israel and the United States in the war on terrorism and, in particular, inhibit future action on its number one state sponsor - Iran. The catastrophe is the brainchild of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has effectively turned the United Nations into the political wing of Hizbullah. Rice and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns are working furiously to satisfy...

UNITED NATIONS - Israel's air raid on in the Lebanese town of Qana, which killed 28 people, may be part of a larger pattern of violations of international law in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report Monday. In that light, Annan said that the July 30 attack was sufficiently serious to merit a more comprehensive investigation. The attack should be seen "in the broader context of what could be, based on preliminary information available to the United Nations ... a pattern of violations of international law, including international humanitarian law and international...

Like soft drinks and poison, anti-Semitism comes in various flavors and strengths. It is easy and tempting to wax cynical about Mel Gibson, the once-famously outraged-for-being-called-an-anti-Semite Hollywood powerhouse who recently, under the revealing effects of alcohol, proved his erstwhile accusers to have if anything underestimated the depth of his animus for Jews. And, indeed, cynics abound. I am not among them. Not that I am beyond cynicism, unfortunately. But Mr. Gibson's apology, in which he disowned his drunken diatribe and asked the Jewish community to help him in "the process of understanding where those vicious words came from," cannot be...

Tony Blair's isolation over the Middle East crisis deepened last night after it emerged that Kofi Annan privately told Jack Straw of his anger at Britain's refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire. The UN secretary general's office denied last night that he had urged Mr Straw to put pressure on Mr Blair to abandon his close alliance with President George W Bush over not condemning Israeli military action. But two days later, Mr Straw, who was foreign secretary until May, issued a statement condemning some Israeli strikes as "disproportionate". His criticism led to a major Cabinet split over Middle...

July 28, 2006 -- What's this? Another scandal at the United Nations? Alas, it is so. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is so busy hectoring the United States and its allies on their supposed moral shortcomings, he cast a blind eye to the international drug-trafficking operation that was being run out of his mailroom. Say this for Annan: On his watch, the United Nations has become an equal-opportunity corrupter of the first order: Fraud, sleaze and criminality

Kofi Annan's knee-jerk accusation that Israel appeared to have deliberately targeted a United Nations post on the country's Lebanese border is being exposed for what it was: a provable, damnable calumny.] What the secretary general ignored in issuing his rash condemnation is that Hezbollah has made a regular habit of stationing its terrorist forces hard up against UN bunkers so as to turn the world body's observers into human shields. And such had clearly been the case at the post that was destroyed by Israeli munitions. It turns out that one of the four UN observers killed in the strike,...

In the past three days UN observers have reported frequent attacks close to their positions. Heavy shelling around Khiam on Tuesday had forced the four observers into the bomb shelters. At about 1.20pm, officials say, a jet dropped a bomb only 300 metres away. The observers contacted the Unifil headquarters. The observers warned Israel that their aircraft were dropping bombs dangerously close to a UN position. The Israelis said that they would check the situation and make any necessary adjustments, UN officials say. But jets then dropped ten bombs between 100 and 300 metres from the UN position and fired...

It is difficult at times, and perhaps today impossible, to fathom how UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan assesses events involving Israel. On Tuesday, four members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were killed when their position was hit by IDF fire. Annan reacted by declaring that the incident was "an apparent deliberate targeting by the Israeli Defense Forces of a UN observer post." Yesterday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert conveyed to Annan Israel's "deep regret" over the incident, as well his "reservations" over Annan's "inconceivable" decision to accuse Israel of deliberately targeting UN forces. Reservations? Perhaps Olmert had to...

Sometimes it seems as if United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan isn't really of this world. For a head of the United nations he seems to exhibit a surprising otherworldliness. Today, a direct strike against a UNIFIL post in southern Lebanon by an Israeli shell killing four UN military observers has been lambasted by Anan as a deliberate attack. This accusation is without any foundation and Israel has rightly demanded an apology. UNIFIL began as an opportunity for peace, but the UN Interim Force in Lebanon has never made good on its promise. It looked on as Hizballah fortified southern...

So then Hezbollah drags mindless newsmen and women to the scene and screams, “Look what the bloodthirsty Jews are doing to us!!” And Kofi Annan agrees that the U.S. or Israel is to blame? More at: http://peace-and-freedom.blogspot.com/

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton on Monday criticized the timing of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's reported decision to fire the U.N.'s highly regarded electoral chief, just 10 days before critical elections in Iraq. "The U.N.'s role in previous elections has been quite helpful and important to the Iraqi people," Bolton said. "This is a major election ... leading up to the return of full sovereignty to Iraq and I don't think anybody should do things that disrupt that." Bolton criticized the fact that the decision was coming at this time, almost a year after a consulting firm was asked to conduct a...

Israel's Ambassador to Washington Danny Ayalon said Wednesday that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan should apologize to Israel for saying that dropping a bomb on a UN post in south Lebanon was a deliberate act. Speaking to CNN Ayalon said Annan's comments are "scandalous," and demanded he apologize.

Israel's United Nations (UN) ambassador says he is "shocked" by accusations from UN chief Kofi Annan that the Jewish state may have deliberately targeted a UN post in Lebanon in an air raid. Four UN military observers have died in the strike on the post in the border town of Khiam. Mr Annan describes the strike as a "coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long-established and clearly marked UN post". But Israeli ambassador Dan Gillerman says the secretary-general has judged the incident too soon. "I was shocked and deeply distressed by the hasty statement by the secretary-general insinuating that...

Annan succession: first white vote Monday with the Security Council New York (the United Nations) - the Security Council of the United Nations was to hold Monday a first white vote on the four official candidates at the post of secretary-general of the Organization, who aim at succeeding Kofi Annan in January, one learned from diplomatic sources. The result of this white vote, envisaged towards 16H30 (20H30 GMT) in camera, was to be the subject the no official communication of, specified one of these sources. The four official candidates all are originating in Asia, of many countries estimating that...

War on terrorism's most idiotic phrase to date: "Proportionate response to terrorism." How do Kofi and the friends of terror manage to say it with a straight face? It follows the same logic as being a little bit pregnant.

Al AP is reporting that Bush was overheard expressing his frustration with Kofi Annan and liberal world leaders during the G8 summit. He was unaware that the microphone was still on when he told Tony Blair, "see the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this (expletive) and it's over." Bush also said that he felt like telling Annan to get on the phone with Assad instead of calling for a "cease fire". This clearly proves that it was Bush's hand that turned the tide of world opinion at the...

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan call for deployment of international forces to stop bombardment of Israel.

New York - A renewed controversy erupted Friday before next week's UN conference on small arms and light weapons, as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan insisted organization has no plan to take away Americans' right to bear arms. The US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, charged that the conference may infringe on Americans' constitutional right to bear weapons. He vowed to defend that right when the two-week conference opens on Monday, saying that some UN members may have a 'larger agenda' aimed at the US Constitution's Second Amendment, which protects the right to own weapons. 'The message is clear: to...

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan implicitly weighed into a raging political debate in the United States over illegal immigration, insisting that "Migrants have a moral right to leave the misery, impoverishment and oppression that is all-too-common among our member states." In an article published in The Wall Street Journal, Annan showcased what he saw as general benefits of worker migration, arguing that "Migrants want to survive--something that is hard to do in the corrupt kleptocracies that rule most third world nations. Migrants from poor countries are just trying to grab a piece of the wealth being hoarded by rich Americans."...

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe, who is coming under growing pressure to resolve the current crisis or quit, is expected to meet United Nations (UN) secretary-general Kofi Annan and South African President Thabo Mbeki in the Gambia in a fortnight. Diplomatic sources said yesterday a meeting has already been organised for the three leaders in Banjul on the sidelines of the African Union (AU) summit from June 25-July 2. Heads of state usually meet during the last two days of the summit. "The three leaders are expected to meet in Banjul, the Gambia, to discuss the Zimbabwe situation and map the way...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Following unprecedented criticism of U.S. popular and governmental attitudes toward the United Nations, the world organization's second-ranking official ended his June 6 speech in New York with this rhetorical question: "Who will campaign in 2008 for a new multilateral national security?" Unbelievably but unmistakably, U.N. Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown was injecting himself into the next American presidential election."He was shamelessly pandering to partisan interests," Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, who has led congressional pressure for U.N. reform, told me. Malloch Brown's remarkable speech was delivered under the auspices of two left-of-center think tanks, one of them...

The United Nations appears to have postponed a financial crisis that threatened to dim the lights at the end of June, as the United States and other key governments have agreed to extend its spending authority. Washington had imposed a spending cap, set to expire at the end of the month, in an effort to ensure that difficult management reforms were not delayed until the end of the usual two-year budget cycle. But U.N. officials and diplomats say that the United States, Japan and other nations are not willing to see the lights go out -- yet. "The cap on...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan predicted on Thursday the United Nations would avert a budget crisis threatened at the end of the month over the slow pace of U.N. reforms and implicitly warned the United States against trying to "pull the plug" on the world body. "The reform will proceed, and the cap on the budget will be lifted. There will be no crisis as far as I can see this month," Annan told a news conference. Rich nations, pushed by the United States, imposed a cap on the U.N. budget in December in hopes of increasing pressure...

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan retracted remarks he made on Israel after the incident in which seven Palestinian family members died in Gaza. Annan said Israel's position on the incident is "very strange." Following a meeting Thursday with Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Gillerman, he told reporters that he had responded to "media speculations." Annan added that he is waiting for Israel's final report on the incident. 'Israeli citizens under daily threat' Israel officials condemned Annan's comments which came in response to a journalist's question about Israel's findings: "Finding an explosives device on the beach is strange." Prime...

The US use of “the power of the purse” to force through reforms at the United Nations is lessening the chance of those reforms succeeding, secretary-general Kofi Annan warns in Monday’s Financial Times. At the same time, however, he calls on all countries, including the developing world, to “turn down their rhetoric” and take a constructive attitude towards this month’s UN budget negotiations, which threaten to pit rich against poor in a battle with potentially damaging consequences. “The UN faces a moment of truth,” writes Mr Annan. He notes that the main contributors of UN funds, led by the US,...