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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...