Middle East: Jeffrey Feltman, the USG for DPA, briefed the SC on the Middle East this morning, expressing that the conflict in Syria, now entering its 20th month, has reached “new and appalling heights of brutality and violence.”
You can take issue with the way various EU bodies and personalities have handled the financial crisis, but if you take a longer perspective the decision to award the Peace Prize to the European Union was one that was probably long overdue.
International Day of the Girl: Today, the UN marked the first International Day of the Girl Child by calling for an end to child marriage, and stressing education as one of the best strategies for protecting girls against this harmful practice.
We need to diversify how we fund the global fight against diseases like Malaria. The term of art for this is "innovative financing for development." The UN has a laboratory for this named Unitaid, and they deserve to win a Nobel Peace Prize.