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Green groups and activists for the developing world on Thursday accused rich nations of tiptoeing away from vows to seal a binding, far-reaching UN treaty on climate change in Copenhagen next month. Their bitter response came after European Union (EU) negotiators in Barcelona spelt out the likelihood that the much-trumpeted pact would be concluded in 2010, not at the December 7-18 meeting as planned. The talks, launched under a two-year "road map" in Bali, call for a global accord to curb emissions of heat-trapping carbon gases beyond 2012 and channel funds to poor countries most threatened by drought, floods, storms...

Death: Timothy Hampton was involved in monitoring nuclear activity A British nuclear expert who fell from the 17th floor of a United Nations building did not commit suicide and may have been hurled to his death, says a doctor who carried out a second post-mortem examination. Timothy Hampton, 47, a scientist involved in monitoring nuclear activity, was found dead last week at the bottom of a stairwell in Vienna. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1224377/British-nuclear-experts-17th-floor-UN-death-plunge-suicide.html#ixzz0ViLg5dUu

Tomorrow millions of children across America will be putting on their scariest costumes and going door to door asking for candy. Its that Halloween time of the year once again. An whether you are a parent or not, or whether your children go "trick or treating" or not, I guarantee that your house is going to be swarmed by lots of little ghosts, goblins, spider-men and Pink Power Rangers. Many of the visitors will be carrying the little orange UNICEF boxes, when you see them give up the candy, but please DON'T GIVE ANY MONEY TO UNICEF !! UNICEF money...

UNITED NATIONS -- Canada will boycott Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the United Nations on Wednesday, saying his outbursts about the Holocaust and Israel are "shameful." Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon will be at the world body to attend the opening of the UN General Assembly's annual debate, but officials signal he and other members of the Canadian delegation will vacate the Canadian seats when the Islamic republic's President approaches the podium. Walking out of the chamber is seen as a strong diplomatic show of disgust at the UN -- and since the chamber is generally packed on the first...

Obama to seal US-UN relationshipBy Harvey Morris at the United Nations Published: September 8 2009 19:59 | Last updated: September 8 2009 19:59 Barack Obama will cement the new co-operative relationship between the US and the United Nations this month when he becomes the first American president to chair its 15-member Security Council.The topic for the summit-level session of the council on September 24 is nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament – one of several global challenges that the US now wants to see addressed at a multinational level. EDITOR’S CHOICE Norwegian criticises UN chief’s performance - Aug-20 UN criticised over...

In a radical report, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has said the system of currencies and capital rules which binds the world economy is not working properly, and was largely responsible for the financial and economic crises. -snip- "Replacing the dollar with an artificial currency would solve some of the problems related to the potential of countries running large deficits and would help stability," said Detlef Kotte, one of the report's authors. "But you will also need a system of managed exchange rates. Countries should keep real exchange rates [adjusted for inflation] stable. Central banks would have...

It has the makings of the opening sequence in an apocalyptic thriller. A ship enters the Gulf, carrying a secret, illicit cargo of munitions, bound for Iran from North Korea. The ship is seized by the United Arab Emirates, where authorities discover that instead of the oil boring equipment listed on the manifest, the cargo includes some 10 containers filled with rocket launchers, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and detonators. The UAE seizes the cargo and notifies the United Nations Security Council. But for weeks, the public is told nothing about it – not by the UN, and not by Washington. The...

The United Nations, which aspires to protect human rights around the world, is struggling to deal with an embarrassing string of sexual-harassment complaints within its own ranks. Many U.N. workers who have made or faced accusations of sexual harassment say the current system for handling complaints is arbitrary, unfair and mired in bureaucracy. One employee's complaint that she was sexually harassed for years by her supervisor in Gaza, for example, was investigated by one of her boss's colleagues, who cleared him.

Obama backs the U.N. and their agenda and guidelines on dictating to all children's rights and how to raise our children. Click Here

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has issued a warning to employees in Gaza who belong to Fatah, Hamas and other terrorist groups, according to Haaretz. Employees' open political affiliation with terrorist groups is “worrisome” and must stop, said UNRWA's Gaza director, John Ging.

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The State Department says the United States will seek election to the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Obama administration's latest reversal of President George W. Bush's foreign policies. The department says the Obama administration wants to participate in the council's activities as part of a new era of U.S. engagement with the world.

The tinpot dictators who dominate the so-called UN Human Rights Council are at it again -- squawking about "defamation of religion" in a seedy attempt to undermine freedom of expression. If this band of political bandits has its way, criticism of religious dogma would be virtually banned as an affront to human dignity. Curiously, only Islam is specifically mentioned in the draft resolution, released by UN Watch last week. Could this have anything to do with the fact that there are so many Muslim countries on the Human Rights Council? Want a laugh? The resolution includes the usual remarks about...

Gaddafi, addressing a meeting on ways to expand cooperation between the United Nations and African Union, urged the Court to stop its proceedings against Bashir: "Why do we have to hold President Bashir or the Sudanese government responsible when the Darfur problem was caused by outside parties, and Tel Aviv [Israel], for example, is behind the Darfur crisis?"

A high-ranking human rights worker with ties to the United Nations was nabbed at Kennedy Airport Tuesday with kiddie porn in his suitcase, officials said. Clarence Dias, 65, president of the International Center for Law in Development, whose offices are located at the UN, had the smut in his carry-on bag as he passed through security on his way to a flight bound for Bangkok, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. Transportation Security Administration officials doing a random bag check around 8:20a.m. allegedly found a DVD whose cover featured an apparently underage nude boy and an adult male in

The AP buried the information after the fifth paragraph, where it would not get picked up by tomorrow’s World News sections in your local newspaper, but they have independent confirmation that Hamas terrorists were firing from the UN school that got hit by Israeli tank fire yesterday. Israel’s military said its shelling at the school - the deadliest single episode since Israeli ground forces invaded Gaza on Saturday after a week of air bombardment - was a response to mortar fire from within the school and said Hamas militants were using civilians as cover. Two residents of the area who...

Put the case of a war between a genocidal, terrorist dictatorship, with its origins in Nazism, that attacks a neighbor that is a democracy, that has been seeking peace, and that is an island of human rights in a region dominated by tyrants. Then ask yourself who the world will be rooting for? You would think the answer would be the democracy fighting in self-defense for its survival against a genocidal, terrorist aggressor. But you would be wrong. Most of the world, almost all of the media, and the United Nations are supporting the genocidal, terrorist, dictatorship. Where Does The...

Does the United Nations knowingly and willfully give material support to Hamas terrorists? It is now a proven fact that Hamas terrorists were using a United Nations (UNRWA) school in the Gaza Strip as a position from which to shell Israel. When the Israeli Defense Forces returned the terrorists' fire, a shell struck the terrorists' booby traps and the resulting secondary explosions killed thirty or more civilians who had taken refuge at what they believed to be a noncombatant or neutral building. The information that we have is that there was the launching of a mortar from the school's yard...

A group comprising survivors and relatives of the victims of the massacre in Srebrenica have called on a court in The Hague to lift the United Nations' immunity. The six thousand Bosnians want to bring charges against the UN and the Netherlands for their role in the fall of the Muslim enclave. But that can only happen if the judge in The Hague makes legal proceedings against the UN possible. The judge will consider the request and deliver a ruling in mid-July. The Muslim enclave in Srebrenica fell on 11 July 1995 into the hands of Bosnian Serb troops who...

John McCain has proposed that the US should sponsor the creation of a new multilateral organization that includes the world’s legitimate democracies. This League of Democracies would act in the interest of freedom and liberty and would act when the UN gets bogged down in its impotence, especially on Iran and Darfur. Initially rejected, the idea has lately begun to appeal to other democracies, as the AP reports: Gaining ground this political season is a proposed League of Democracies designed to strengthen support for the next president’s overseas agenda and ensure a global leadership role for the United States. John...

A new U.N. Human Rights Council official assigned to monitor Israel is calling for an official commission to study the role neoconservatives may have played in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

He has fought against foes ranging from the Green Goblin to Doctor Octopus, but Spider-Man now faces an even more formidable challenge: improving the battered image of the United Nations. In a move reminiscent of storylines developed during the second world war, the UN is joining forces with Marvel Comics, creators of Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, to create a comic book showing the international body working with superheroes to solve bloody conflicts and rid the world of disease. The comic, initially to be distributed free to 1m US schoolchildren, will be set in a war-torn fictional country and feature...

"I’m no tech head, but I think I know a thing or three about the Internet and how it works. And as far as I can tell, it works pretty well. More than 1.4 billion people around the world seem to be emailing each other a lot, and those emails get delivered a lot faster and more reliably than “snail mail.” Lots of people are innovating around the Internet – voice calling over the Internet, e-commerce, blogs, education, employment, and healthcare services, music and video streaming and downloads, and such – and lots and lots of people are profiting from...

A second former employee of the U.N. anti-poverty agency is seeking whistleblower protection from the U.N. Ethics Office, claiming he was fired in retaliation for raising complaints to his superiors, his legal adviser said Thursday. Mathieu Credo Koumoin, a native of the Ivory Coast who worked for the U.N. Development Program in West Africa, sent a letter to U.N. ethics chief Robert Benson on Tuesday, asking him to review his case under the U.N.'s new whistleblower protection rules, said his counsel, Jeanne-Marie Col. The request comes weeks after Artjon Shkurtaj, the former operations officer for UNDP in North Korea, also...

WASHINGTON — Houston oilman David Chalmers, accused of funneling illegal payments to Saddam Hussein's regime at at time when Iraq was the target of strict economic sanctions, pleaded guilty today to a conspiracy charge. Chalmers' business associate at Houston-based BayOil, Ludmil Dionissiev, pleaded guilty to one count of facilitating a shipment of merchandise into the United States, knowing that shipment to not be authorized by law. That leaves Houston oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt as the lone defendant still slated to go to trial in September on charges he made millions of dollars in illicit payments to Saddam's government for the...

A Texas oil executive pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a scheme to cheat the United Nations oil-for-food program out of millions by paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's Iraq regime. David Chalmers, the sole shareholder of Bayoil USA Inc. in Houston, was set to go on trial next month on charges he used a cozy relationship with Iraq in the 1980s to secure oil contracts. He could have faced more than 60 years in prison if convicted. Under a plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend a 37- to 46-month term when he is sentenced Nov. 19. Chalmers...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Texas oilman David Chalmers and two companies he owns pleaded guilty on Friday to paying millions of dollars in secret kickbacks to Iraq in connection with the United Nations oil-for-food program. Chalmers, 53, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, just weeks before he was due to go on trial with Texas oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt. Earlier on Friday, Ludmil Dionissiev, a Bulgarian oil trader based in Houston, pleaded guilty to smuggling. Prosecutors said Dionissiev, 61, worked with Chalmers to buy Iraqi oil for Chalmers' companies -- Bayoil...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Computer hackers posted an anti-war message on the U.N.'s official Web site, claiming that U.S. and Israeli policies in the Middle East were taking innocent lives, the United Nations said. The first attack on a U.N. Web page reserved for statements from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon occurred at about 9 a.m. Sunday morning, U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said. The Web site of the U.N. Department of Public Information was then attacked as was the U.N. Cyberschoolbus site for teachers and students and the U.N. Economic and Social Council's site. ''We are very concerned that this happened,''...

Per FR policy, hosted.ap.org is link only. STORY

Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops have traded in gold and sold weapons to Congolese militia groups they were meant to disarm, the BBC has learnt.(sic) These militia groups were guilty of some of the worst human rights abuses during the Democratic Republic of Congo's long civil war. The trading went on in 2005. A UN investigative team sent to gather evidence was obstructed and threatened. The team's report was buried by the UN itself to "avoid political fallout". These events took place in and around the mining town of Mongbwalu, in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The Pakistani battalion of the...

Should the U.S. Stop Funding The U.N.? Yes No Not Sure

Reader Scot Silverstein alerts us to the rally for Israel outside the United Nations earlier this week: Some 35,000 people rallied across from the United Nations to protest Ahmadinejad’s presence at the world body. The crowd also wanted to show solidarity for Israel and implore the United Nations to enforce Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended Israel’s war this summer with Hezbollah and calls for the release of three Israeli soldiers taken hostage by Hamas and Hezbollah. Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Presidents Conference, referred to Ahmadinejad’s Tuesday night speech to the General Assembly, in which he portrayed...

War In The Middle East: U.N. peacekeepers may have done more than just look the other way as Hezbollah created its armed state within a state. The blue helmets may have served as Hezbollah's military intelligence. Real-time battlefield intelligence is a keystone of 21st century warfare, especially when you're up against a terrorist enemy that has had six years to construct hardened underground bunkers and tunnels from which to fight while not having to obey the rules of war. The situation gets complicated and your task becomes harder when that real-time intelligence is being provided to that enemy, Hezbollah, by...

The UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) is investigating new allegations implicating UN peacekeepers in the "sexual exploitation of minors," it has said. "MONUC has received allegations about the existence of a major prostitution ring involving minors, close to a large concentration of Congolese soldiers and Blue Helmets (UN forces) in South Kivu, (in the) northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo," the UN mission said in a statement Thursday. The statement did not mention the nationalities of the peacekeepers implicated, but the spokeswoman, Sylvie van den Wildenberg, said the region had UN troops from India, Pakistan,...

UN ambulance picking up fighters in Gaza Strip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqGjz7iJTns&">

The Russian Government had a spy inside the US military command who passed information to Saddam Hussein on America’s war plan in the opening days of the invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon announced yesterday. The explosive revelation was based on Iraqi documents captured since the fall of the dictator and were set last night to trigger a major diplomatic incident between Washington and Moscow. The Russian spy, who was not named, passed detailed information on US troop movements through the Russian Ambassador in Baghdad, who sent the information to Saddam’s personal secretary. The first document is a handwritten account of...

France has distanced itself from two former ambassadors facing corruption charges TWO former French ambassadors have admitted earning hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sale of oil that Iraq had assigned to them under the United Nations Oil-for-Food programme. The disclosure tarnished France’s moral stand against the invasion of Iraq, and its Foreign Ministry scrambled to distance itself from the alleged illicit activities of Serge Boidevaix, a former director of the ministry, and of Jean-Bernard Mérimée, a former French Ambassador to the UN. Both are facing corruption charges. Jean-Baptiste Mattei, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said: “There is no...

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 7 - A week before world leaders gather here to set a course for combating global poverty, a United Nations report released on Wednesday names the United States and Japan as among "the least generous donors" and says American and European trade policies are hypocritical and contribute to impoverishing African farmers. The report also highlights shortcomings in developing countries. It notes that India's and China's progress in reducing the easily preventable deaths of children has slowed even as their economic growth has surged. India has 2.5 million deaths of children a year, while China is second, with...

UNITED NATIONS - Sex abuse allegations against U.N. peacekeepers and other staff more than doubled last year, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report released Thursday, calling the increase "deeply troubling." There were 121 allegations in 2004 compared with 53 allegations reported in 2003, Annan said in a report to the U.N. General Assembly. Annan said the rise in allegations could be partly due to new measures put in place by the U.N. to encourage alleged victims to come forward. He added that the figures collected for last year may not reflect the extent of the abuse because some...

For news junkies, this will be a hectic week. By its end, Catholics may have a new pope, we may have a new UN ambassador, and both Kofi and his bestest buddy Jacques may suffer nervous breakdowns. Things are looking up because, while Volcker fiddles, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York are burning bad guys. Now all we need to find out are the names of Cooperating Witnesses One and Two, and the high-ranking UN officials whom they bribed for Saddam. CW1 and CW2 may be the first people who have earned the...

UNITED NATIONS - The embattled former director of the scandal ridden Iraq Oil for Food Program has sent a letter with an ultimatum to the office of Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Benon Sevan, a veteran Cypriot diplomat, now the target of several U.S. and U.N. investigations, has sent Annan a "demand" that the world body pay his mounting legal bills "or else." According to Anann chief of staff Mark Malloch Brown, the letter, written by Sevan's legal team, carried an implied threat of new public disclosures regarding embezzlement in the now defunct oil for food program. Sevan has given no indication...

Characters from company's classic anime series "Robotech" to star along with PSAs from Sean Connery, Michael Douglas, Colin Farrell, Lenny Kravitz and other celebrities. LOS ANGELES ­ April 4, 2005 ­ In honor of the United Nations' 60th anniversary this year, the United Nations (UN) will debut a special Public Service Announcement (PSA) at MIP TV 2005. The 60-second spot, produced by Harmony Gold, is part of a broader effort to increase awareness of the work of the UN during this special period culminating with the 60th opening session of the UN General Assembly in the Fall. The unique element...

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is a man in search of a legacy. A legacy, however, is something you build up over time, like an edifice carefully constructed, action by action, decision by decision. Ultimately, it adds up to a record for history to judge. Unfortunately for Mr. Annan, there is a very real possibility that his legacy at the helm of the United Nations will be an organization that has been riddled with corruption, financial scandals, mismanagement and outright abuse. In New York on Monday, Mr. Annan took steps to leave a more positive legacy that he may be hoping...

The security of America and other wealthy countries will for the first time be declared a key priority for the United Nations under reforms designed to restore confidence in the crisis-ridden international body. The reforms, to be announced tomorrow by Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, will be seen as a concession to Washington after repeated clashes with President George W Bush over US foreign policy, including the war in Iraq. The UN Secretariat promises a "real re-launch … a fundamental manifesto" after criticism of its performance since the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Iraq oil-for-food scandal. Mark Malloch Brown,...

UNITED NATIONS - As the United Nations' chief of staff attempted a charm offensive on Capitol Hill yesterday, legislators signaled they will deepen and diversify the various investigations of the organization and said that American funds might be withheld if significant changes fail to materialize at Turtle Bay. Chief of Staff Mark Malloch Brown met with a host of American legislators in an attempt to convince Washington that findings of the Volcker committee, named by Secretary-General Annan to investigate wrongdoings in the oil-for-food program, are being taken seriously and that major reforms are afoot. Prior to chairing his own oil-for-food...

Per Fox News...

Per Foxnews Alert. A Multi-Million dollar scandal has been revealed to Foxnews by way of secret cables. There is also a missing man who revealed all this.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, visiting the United Nations, cautioned his Congressional colleagues to "take a deep breath" before making a political football out of the world body by withholding dues. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said he disapproved of moves by several Republicans to withhold U.S. payments unless the world body fully cooperates with Congressional probes into the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq. "I think we ought to take a deep breath. This is not a time to make a political football out of the U.N.," Leahy told reporters after seeing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "We need them...

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan won a standing ovation from the U.N. General Assembly, a rare public display of support in response to recent calls for his resignation from several U.S. lawmakers. U.S. deputy ambassador Patrick Kennedy joined fellow diplomats as they rose to their feet Wednesday, despite President Bush's refusal to support the U.N. chief pending the results of an investigation into alleged corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq.[snip]"In 15 years I've spent at the United Nations, this is the second time that the General Assembly had a standing ovation for a leader," he said. The...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most people would say countries that tolerate slavery should be ineligible for membership on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Same goes for those guilty of crimes against humanity. The presumption is that egregious rights violators have no business on a commission whose prime purpose is supposed to be to protect rights. But in a report last week, a U.N. panel established by Secretary-General Kofi Annan rejected the notion that there should be any standards at all for membership on the Human Rights Commission. That means Sudan need not worry about losing its seat on the 53-member...

THE United Nations — desperately in need of some positive spin — is considering a ploy to steal some of the Norwegian Nobel thunder by launching its own annual peace prize. It doesn't hurt that the highly politicized Nobel Peace Prize has been bestowed to such unpeaceful types as Yasser Arafat and appeasers like Jimmy Carter. [snip]"In the face of widespread corruption in Iraq's oil-for-food program, weapons proliferation and terrorism, it strikes one as both tone-deaf and feckless of them even to have that on the table."