"The United Nations Foundation Board announced today a commitment of $1 million to United Nations Earthquake relief initiatives in South Asia. This commitment will help support the UN's immediate response in the affected countries of Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan, build critical communications and logistics capacities, and support the UN's aid coordination role." [Read more]
From the Washington Post: "The top United Nations envoy for the prevention of genocide charged Monday that Arab militias have escalated their campaign of violence against civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan, mounting an unprecedented pair of attacks against camps for displaced families."
"UNICEF warned Sunday that lost and orphaned children were among the most vulnerable survivors of the earthquake in South Asia and would need urgent help to survive in the cold and mountainous areas.
They would need assistance to find surviving relatives and eventually to overcome the trauma of the disaster, David Bull, executive director of the UN's Children Fund in Britain, told the BBC World Service.
"We know that children in an earthquake situation are vulnerable to injury, cold, hunger, distress, illness, exploitation and the loss of their active education, separation from their families," he said." [Read more]
"Following a massive earthquake in Pakistan that affected also Afghanistan and India, the United Nations is working with the governments of those countries on an emergency response." [More]
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Mobjectivist: "Finally, someone noticed the lack of balance in the so-called Iraq Oil-For-Food (OFF) scandal stories over the past few years... as of June of this year, the geniuses at Powerline blog had contributed a total of 26 stories on oil-for-food but none on peak oil/oil depletion."
Scrutiny Hooligans: "I heard on NPR this morning that the Shiite/Kurd coalition reversed themselves and returned to the original rules regarding this referendum. *loud sigh of relief* It appears that the U.N. still has some oomph in this regard. Here's to you, Kofi, for helping to defend democracy where others might seek to subvert it."
Hit and Run: "With the president's opponents always ready to call him a dictator, I feel compelled to tamp down the Chicken Little panic over totalitarianism created by President Bush's suggestion that he might use the military to quarantine areas hit by the avian flu. [I]t wasn't Bush who first raised the possibility (at least not in public). He was replying to a question about the possibility.: "...during my meetings at the United Nations, not only did I speak about it publicly, I spoke about it privately to as many leaders as I could find, about the need for there to be awareness, one, of the issue; and, two, reporting, rapid reporting to WHO, so that we can deal with a potential pandemic. Obviously, the best way to deal with a pandemic is to isolate it and keep it isolated in the region in which it begins."
In the Bullpen: "Yes...the nuclear program that "doesn't exist" won't be used for "peaceful purposes only" it seems. From the Washington Times: "Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has placed the military firmly in control of his nation's nuclear program, undercutting his government's claim that the program is intended for civilian use, according to a leading opposition group. ... "The military under the new president is firmly in control of the nuclear program and the nuclear negotiations with the United Nations and the West," said Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the NCRI's foreign affairs committee, in a telephone interview yesterday."
Moquol: "Iraq Parliament Reverses Rule Change: "Iraq's National Assembly voted on Wednesday to reverse last-minute changes it had made to rules for next week's referendum on a new constitution following criticism by the United Nations and a boycott threat by the Sunni minority." This story doesn't do a great job of explaining the sham Khalilzad and the US and the Iraqi government were trying to pull on the Iraqi people. You can see the writer's agenda as well, describing the system set up to ensure minority and regional representation as a "loophole." But the UN did their job (funny how they keep seeming to do that despite being mocked and belittled at every turn by the US) and shamed the Iraqi government into restoring the rules everyone had agreed to."
Norwegianity: "Via Daou I encourage you to read Kofi and the Scandal Pimps, and if you're a wingnut, I double dare you to read it."
Penraker: "After loads of jibber jabber about how Sunnis in Iraq hate the new constitution, we finally have some data. The Iraqi Center for Development and International Dialogue (partially funded by the United Nations) says: "Although support for the constitution was particularly high in the northern Kurdish areas and southern regions dominated by Shi'ites, Mr. Hafedh said it topped 50 percent even in central provinces known as the heartland of Sunni unrest -- a sign, he said, that the Sunni-Shi'ite split is not as wide as many fear."
Voice in the Wilderness: "It seems that -- surprise! -- the Afghanistan elections have been found to have been, as Carlotta Gail of The New York Times puts it, rife with "significant incidents of fraud." In Monday's paper, she writes: "Whole districts have come under suspicion for ballot box stuffing and proxy voting, said Peter Erben, the chief of the United Nations-assisted Joint Election Management Board. He said ballot boxes from 4 percent of the 26,000 polling places - about 1,000 stations - had been set aside for investigation on suspicion of fraud and other irregularities. (Read the entire article.)"
UN News Service: Criticizing changes that the Iraqi Parliament made on Sunday to rules for this month's constitutional referendum as "patently inappropriate," Secretary-General Kofi Annan called today's reversal of the decision "very important," but said the transition process in the war-torn country has not "worked as we had hoped."
Selected summary of United Nations related news and events
UN Legal Counsel urges action to complete comprehensive terrorism convention
Security Council Strongly Condemns Deadly Weekend Bombing in Bali, Indonesia
UN Ship Safe in Somali Port After 100-day Hijack
U.N. Security Worker Shot Dead in Somalia
U.N. Eyes Iraq Voting Law Changes
Bush Weighs Strategies to Counter Possible Outbreak of Bird Flu
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Suburban Guerrilla: "Case Study: How the right-wing media methodically exaggerated and distorted the oil-for-food scandal."
Rob's Blog: "Trimming the fat could do with a start in Iraq, where we've wasted hundreds of billions. Some examples: On 12 April 2004, the Coalition Provisional Authority in Erbil in northern Iraq handed over $1.5 billion in cash to a local courier. The money, fresh $100 bills shrink-wrapped on pallets, which filled three Blackhawk helicopters, came from oil sales under the UN's Oil for Food Programme, and had been entrusted by the UN Security Council to the Americans to be spent on behalf of the Iraqi people."
King of Zembla: "At last the people of Afghanistan know what it's like to live in, say, Florida. Or Ohio: "Election officials and observers said Sunday that with 80 percent of the ballots counted in Afghanistan's national and provincial elections, they had found significant incidents of fraud. Whole districts have come under suspicion for ballot box stuffing and proxy voting, said Peter Erben, the chief of the United Nations-assisted Joint Election Management Board. He said ballot boxes from 4 percent of the 26,000 polling places - about 1,000 stations - had been set aside for investigation on suspicion of fraud and other irregularities."
Protein Wisdom: "From BBC News: Former South African President Nelson Mandela has topped a BBC poll to find the person most people would like to lead a fantasy world government. More than 15,000 people worldwide took part in the interactive Power Play game, in which players were invited to choose a team of 11 to run the world from a list of around 100 of the most powerful leaders, thinkers and other high-profile people on the planet... And UN General-Secretary Kofi Annan just made the fantasy world elite in 11th place."
Terrorism News: "This is an interesting read By Luciana Bohne from online journal: "Most Americans like to believe they live in the best country in the world. They don't. According to the United Nations Human Development Report for 2005, Norway is number one. Why? It's a welfare state. There is a pleasant economic equality enjoyed by the Norwegian polity. No one is too poor; no one is too rich. In fact, great wealth is regarded as some sort of social disease. Third oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia, Norway is tucking away a national fund of over $180 billion for when the oil runs out, guaranteeing each family the quaint sum of $22,000 per year-in addition to guaranteed health care, education, pensions, and paid maternity leaves and vacations to die for! True, a glass of beer will cost you $8, but the waiter makes a good salary."