The Security Council just passed a "presidential statement" condemning an attack that sunk the South Korean naval ship The Cheonan, killing 46 seamen. To secure the support of China, though, the statement did not directly lay blame on North Korea for the incident. From the UN News Service:
Fight Club star Edward Norton becomes the newest member of the UN family, joining as a Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity.
Hot off the presses, ten embassies in Colombo issue a joint statement on the protests that forced the UN to close it's offices in Sri Lanka.
STATEMENT BY HEADS OF MISSION OF GERMANY, UK, US, FRANCE, ITALY, SWITZERLAND, THE NETHERLANDS, ROMANIA, NORWAY AND THE EU DELEGATION
We are deeply dismayed by the blockade of the UN-compound this week in Colombo and the role played in it by a Government minister.
This is bad news. The United Nations is shuttering its offices in Sri Lanka amid days of protests against UN attempts to take preliminary steps to investigate alleged atrocities committed last year during the waning days of Sri Lanka's civil war.
A new article in the journal AIDS argues against the Obama Global Health Initiative. The authors make the argument that the AIDS epidemic has a substantial impact on health systems, and that PEPFAR and support for HIV/AIDS care supports the health sector in general. They point out that “In Southern Africa, where HIV prevalence is the highest worldwide, HIV-related diseases monopolize more than half of all hospital beds.
UN Foundation President (disclosure) and former Colorado Senator Timothy Wirth will address the annual conference of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association at approximately 11a.m. MDT today. The theme of the conference is the “Global Dawn of the Unconventional Natural Gas Age.” Sen.
Check this out. UNICEF erects a giant inflatable television screen in a remote village in Zambia to broadcast the World Cup.
At the Daily Beast, Congolese activist Annie Rashidi-Mulumba laments that the United Nations has not played a more constructive role in resolving Congo's civil war. She also seems to welcome the forthcoming exit of UN peacekeeping troops, engineered by Congolese president Joseph Kabilla. She writes:
UPDATE: The UN just released some footage from both the Queen's 1957 speech and her visit to the United Nations yesterday. Kinda cool, I think.