"The United Nation Security Council today unanimously called on Syria to detain Syrian suspects identified by an independent probe into the terrorist assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and clarify all unresolved issues, threatening 'further action' in the case of non-compliance.

At a special ministerial-level session, the 15-member body adopted a resolution endorsing the findings of the UN International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) into the assassination. Resolution 1636 took note "with extreme concern" of the UNIIIC's conclusion that "while the Syrian authorities have cooperated in form but not substance with the Commission, several Syrian officials tried to mislead the Commission by giving false or inaccurate information." MORE

NYT: "The resolution threatens Syria with economic penalties if it does not give full cooperation to the United Nations investigation that has identified high-ranking security officials as suspects in the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri. The measure also orders Syria to take into custody and make available to the investigators people they suspect of involvement in the killing."

Update: "Key U.N. Security Council members dropped the threat of sanctions against Syria on Monday in a last-minute effort to get all 15 nations to back a resolution demanding that Damascus cooperate with an investigation into the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister.... U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters that foreign ministers of the five permanent veto-wielding nations agreed to the changes because of "the prospect of getting a near unanimous vote in the council." Despite the changes, he said, "it's going to be unmistakably a clear message" and "a strong resolution." - AP

Pakistani soldiers help carry boxes of high energy biscuits
from a UN helicopter for the families in the remote village
of Nauseri, Neelum Valley, Pakistan

Associated Press: "The U.N. on Friday warned it will run out of money and be forced to ground helicopters delivering earthquake relief supplies to northern Pakistan unless donors come through with the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to see 2.3 million hungry people through the winter.

Jan Vandemoortele, U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan, also urged archrivals India and Pakistan to open the disputed
Kashmir border, saying this would help the relief effort - if not solve logistical challenges posed by the formidable Himalayan terrain.

"The situation is quite grim. With the money we have already, and much of it obtained from our own internal emergency reserves, we can keep the helicopters running for one week," Michael Jones of the U.N. World Food Program said in Islamabad.

The U.N. refugee agency also warned that its own reserves of emergency supplies were dangerously low. With landslides still blocking many roads, helicopters are a lifeline for isolated communities, delivering supplies and ferrying badly injured people to hospitals.

Halting flights would be calamitous for hundreds of communities that have received little aid, weeks before the frigid Himalayan winter hits.

Donor nations meeting in Geneva this week pledged $580 million for quake victims, but much of it hasn't arrived. The U.N. said it had so far received only about 20 percent of the funds needed for its emergency relief effort - a far weaker response than to other recent disasters, such as last year's Indian Ocean tsunami."

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Informed Comment: "I am distressed at the prospect of a Cambodia in Iraq, which strikes me as a real possibility. As it is, there was that nastiness of Shiite and Sunni militiamen killing each other Thursday. I'd like to see such an outcome prevented. I said earlier that I thought the best outcome would be for Iraq to be internationalized and to have a United Nations military force enforce the peace."

Lebanese Political Journal: "Thank God, for Detlev Mehlis, head of the UN Commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al Hariri. Mehlis realizes that the fate of at least an entire nation is staked on what he comes up with. It's an unfair burden, but he's doing quite a bit to help Lebanon walk on its own."

BOP News: "The Oil for Food program run in the late 1990's has been roundly criticized, and now the investigation has come to a head. The reality is that while some companies and individuals violated the rules, the net effect was to dramatically reduce Saddam's access to capital. According to the Volcker report, Sadddam pocketted 1.8 billion dollars. This sounds like a great deal, until you realize that he had to pay for virtually his entire security apparatus out of it. In effect, he had just enough money to cling to power, but not enough to pay for, let alone upgrade, his military apparatus."

Davenetics: "So who misbehaved when it comes to the UN Oil for Food Program? Uh, gotta few minutes?: "More than 4,500 companies took part in the United Nations oil-for-food program and more than half of them paid illegal surcharges and kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, according to the independent committee investigating the program. The country with the most companies involved in the program was Russia, followed by France, the committee says in a report to be released Thursday. The inquiry was led by Paul A. Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board." Oil and human nature. The world's most slippery slope."

Talking Points Memo: "Ariel Sharon: "A country calling for the destruction of another people cannot be a member of the UN."

Wilson's Blogmanac: "The UN agencies monitoring bird flu outbreaks say more research is needed to solve the puzzle of how the virus is spread and how it changes into forms deadly to humans as well as birds. Meanwhile, it recommends that wild and farmed birds should not mix." The Age."

"Receiving the final report of the Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC) into maladministration and corruption in the United Nations-run Iraqi Oil-for-Food Programme, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on Member States to take action against illegal practises by companies under their jurisdiction and to prevent recurrences.

At the same time he reiterated his commitment to "vital" reform of the UN management structure in response to criticism in earlier IIC reports that found failures in actions by the UN Secretariat in regard to the now defunct $64-billion Programme which allowed Saddam Hussein's sanctions-bound regime to sell oil to buy essential supplies." [More]

Selected summary of United Nations related news and events

Checking for the avian influenza virus in a market
in Bangkok, Thailand

United States, United Nations Back New Bird Flu Control Campaign

Bird Flu 'set to hit Africa next'

Bird Flu Could Hit U.S. Next Year

U.N.: Pakistan Facing New Wave of Deaths

UN Increases Appeal for Pakistani Quake Relief by 80 Per Cent to $550 Million

PAKISTAN: Interview with UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Jan Vandemoortele

Senior UN Envoy Discusses Upcoming National Elections With Iraqi President

U.N. Puts Children in Forefront of AIDS Effort

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Democratic Daily: "The following is an advance copy of the full text of John Kerry's speech today at Georgetown University: "When the Administration could have kept an Iraqi army selectively intact, they chose not to. They were wrong. When they could have kept an entire civil structure functioning to deliver basic services to Iraqi citizens, they chose not to. They were wrong. When they could have accepted the offers of the United Nations and individual countries to provide on the ground peacekeepers and reconstruction assistance, they chose not to. They were wrong."

A Nurse Journal: "An Indonesian man has died of bird flu, raising the country's human toll to four, officials said today, as international health experts prepared to go house-to-house to search for infected poultry. The government - accused of covering-up outbreaks of bird flu when it first started killing chickens two years ago - said it would work closely with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation to hunt down sick fowl on the densely populated island of Java."

Liquid List: "The UN saves lives the best it can, despite the willful attempts by world's acknowledged greatest power to block that saving of lives. The UN has been the leading figure in a major increase in human security around the world. Don't believe me? Think the world is full of death and destruction? You're half-right, but that's mostly because we don't really talk about all the good things. This little gem, from a business paper in New Zealand, fills us in on the recent Human Security Report under the headline "Global peace breaks out: No one notices. (If you want to read the Human Security Report, click here.)"

Owen's Musings: "Today is the 60th birthday of the United Nations - the anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter here in San Francisco. Read this excellent summary (pdf) of 60 ways the UN makes a difference, ranging from human rights to humanitarian aid; from eradicating smallpox to creating a framework to support international business."

Open Democracy Blogs: "This October, openDemocracy - the online magazine of politics and culture - has hosted a discussion on UN SCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. This includes a series of articles, launched by Lesley Abdela, who recently reported for us on the real plight facing Iraqi women today, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, involved in the formulation of SCR 1325 during his time as UK Permanent Representative to the UN, and Maj Britt Theorin who secured the EU resolution calling for 40% representation of women participating in peacebuilding. Alongside their assessments, the Women Making a Difference blog has brought together 32 women who have fought against violent conflict from Cambodia to Sierra Leone, to ask: How does SCR 1325 affect us? Has it made any difference and what difference could it make? Our bloggers have been speaking in a personal capacity, drawing on their considerable experience, and that of the organisations to which they belong."

Swords into Plowshares: "Today marks the sixtieth anniversary of the entry into force of the Charter of the United Nations. At a time when considerable attention is being devoted to the future of the U.N. (Ambassador Bolton floated the idea before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week of shifting from a system of mandatory assessments--dues--to a system of voluntary contributions to finance the Organization), I want to offer a few observations about the history of the Charter. The majority of the work of drafting the Charter occurred prior to the conclusion of World War II. In fact, most of the preparatory work was done at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. during the fall of 1944..."

"Russia confirmed more bird flu cases on Monday, raising fears it could spread over Europe, but a U.N. official said the best way to stop it was for donors to pay up and fight it where it began, among Asian fowl.

The U.N. food agency's head said the world must focus on Asia, and on stopping the virus passing between birds, as the best way to prevent the nightmare scenario of it mixing with a human strain to cause pandemic deadly flu." [Full article]

"Monday, October 24, 2005 is United Nations Day, marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. This day commemorates the many ways the world has benefited from the lifesaving work of the UN." [Read more]

Click here to read 60 Ways the United Nations makes a difference (pdf file)

More bloggers weigh in on the Mehlis Report:

Democracy Arsenal: "With all the uproar about UN investigator Detlev Mehlis' report implicating the highest levels of the Syrian government in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, we should not lose sight of the UN's accomplishment in carrying out the investigation and issuing the findings it did. It remains to be seen what the Security Council will do with Mehlis' report, but the people of Lebanon already feel some sense of satisfaction that the facts they all suspected have been brought to light by an objective source. Here's another example of why - if we are ever shortsighted enough to abandon or significantly scale back the UN - we will find ourselves with the impossible task of having to recreate what we destroyed."

Political Animal: "IN DEFENSE OF THE UNITED NATIONS - Suzanne Nossel suggests that UN bashers should take a look at its role in investigating the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri ... She's right. The UN report has given a huge boost to calls for reform in both Lebanon and Syria, and it wouldn't have happened if the report had come from anywhere else."

Austin Bay: "I've found Michael Young's Beirut Daily Star commentaries to be both fact-filled and courageous. This essay on the UN Mehlis report appears in the OnLine Journal. Everyone knows Assad's Syrian regime had Lebanon's Prime Minister Rafik Hariri murdered. However, in the corrupt autocracies of the Middle East either (1) no one is supposed to say (2) or if someone says it they get killed or a relative disappears. The toppling of Saddam has begun to change this terrible, terrifying code. Mehlis has written a tough, accurate, and courageous report."

Michael Totten: "Fear and apprehension turned to anger and relief in Beirut after the Mehlis report named Syrian President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law as the chief suspect, and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud as a possible accomplice, in the assassination of Rafik Hariri. ... There was a rally that night at Martyr's Square and across the street at the grave site of Rafik Hariri. Thousands gathered, sang patriotic songs ... But for the most part the mood was jubilant. The truth was out after 250 days. U.N. special prosecutor Detlev Mehlis is a hero in Lebanon."

From the Washington Post: "High-ranking Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies were involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, with suspicion cast even on President Emile Lahoud, a U.N. investigation said on Thursday.

The inquiry into the February 14 killing, led by veteran German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, has established "that many leads point directly toward Syrian security officials as being involved with the assassination," said the investigation report submitted to the 15-nation U.N. Security Council." [Full Article]

Blogs commenting on The Mehlis Report:

American Future
Captain's Quarters
Counterterrorism Blog
Liberals Against Terrorism
The Moderate Voice
Nathan Newman
Suburban Guerrilla
Syria Comment

"The logistical challenge of reaching the hundreds
of thousands of people in desperate need of assistance
after an earthquake struck Pakistan, northern India and
Afghanistan on 8 October is one of the toughest the
aid world has ever faced." WFP

BBC: "The UN says the shortfall in aid for victims of the South Asian quake has made the relief situation worse than after last December's tsunami.

UN emergency relief chief, Jan Egeland, said the organisation had never seen such a "logistical nightmare."

Nato began flying in 900 tonnes of aid on Thursday, but Mr Egeland said a massive airlift was also needed to bring people out of remote areas. Pakistan says nearly 50,000 people died in areas under its control.

Local officials put casualties far higher, and the number is expected to rise. At least 1,400 others died in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials say."

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Matthew Good: "UN relief chief, Jan Egeland, today called the continuing humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Asia due to the recent earthquake worse than that following last year's tsunami. According to Egeland, "We have never had this kind of logistical nightmare ever. We thought the tsunami was the worst we could get. This is worse." Mr Egeland said only $86m had been pledged of the £312m the UN had asked for to fund the relief operation - and far less actually received in hard cash."

Blogging Baby: "The "Trick or Treat for UNICEF" program raises money for kids in need every year thanks to the efforts of kids, parents and teachers. Totshop is making the fundraising boxes available free for young philanthropists. I've never run across anyone collecting money with these boxes, but according to the website, the program has been around for 53 years and has raised $119 million so far."

Irish Pennants: "Syria is about to take center stage - in the war on terror. In a report due next week, UN investigator Detlev Mehlis is likely to finger regime officials in the murder last year of anti-Syrian Lebanese politician Rafik Hariri, and an unlikely alliance between the U.S. and France will prod the UN into adopting sanctions."

Eschaton: "Will Bunch raises questions about Miller's reporting on the UN. In some too overlooked pieces Russ Baker did some work on this."

oD Blogs: "I'd like to share an example of how the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, of which International Alert is a founding member, is working to implement [UN Security Council Resolution] 1325 at the UN level, what we are doing at UN Headquarters 5 years on and who will be taking part in our October Advocacy Program next week, on which I will be posting regular updates on this blog. To mark the 5th anniversary of SCR 1325, the NGO Working Group on WPS will bring women leaders and peacemakers to United Nations Headquarters in New York from October 21-28, 2005. These women peacemakers will advise senior UN officials and government representatives on how to resolve conflicts in their countries and fully involve women in peace and security decision-making."

Selected summary of United Nations related news and events

WFP Chief Warns of Huge Aid Challenge in Pakistan

NATO Joins Forces with UNHCR to Airlift Urgently-needed Tents to Pakistan

Top US Diplomat Says UN Checking Iraqi Referendum Results

Rice Meets Annan in Advance of UN Hariri Report

Women Bosses Could Help UN Fight Sex Abuse - Report

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Political Animal: "Former New York Times UN bureau chief Barbara Crossette writes about Judith Miller's reporting on Kofi Annan and the oil-for-food scandal: "Obscured behind the large issues of weapons of mass destruction and Joseph Wilson's links with the CIA is another story."

Moderate Voice: "Condi Rice Explains The Iraq War - But did she leave out a central argument, one which the administration used to the American public, Congress and the United Nations to go into Iraq, ENTIRELY?"

Global Voices Online: "In a career spanning over 40 years, Miriam Makeba, still regal at 73, is marking the end of her performing years with a 14-month farewell tour she says to thank the people in the countries where she has performed. Miriam Makeba or Mama Africa as she is fondly known is visiting as many countries as she can and has recently vowed audiences in Cuba where one reviewer called her concert 'unforgettable and magisterial'. As well as the prodigious production of numerous albums, Miriam Makeba is also involved in humanitarian work such as being an Ambassador for the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations). While in exile in Guinea, where she served as a Guinean delegate to the United Nations, she addressed the UN's National Assembly about apartheid. She has also set up the Makeba Centre Rehabilitation Centre for Girls which works with street children where she will be focusing her strengths after the tour. Miriam Makeba, an extraordinary artiste whose music lives on through the decades, is Africa's greatest musical ambassador."

Prufrock's Page: "Hari Kunzru cancels his trip to the Maldives, and explains why: "The reason the Maldives appears such an unspoilt paradise, is because tourists are kept segregated from ordinary Maldivians. Apart from the capital island, Male, outsiders are only permitted onto inhabited islands for brief visits. Were they to see a little more they'd realise they were in a place in the grip of deep crisis. The United Nations recently found more than 30 per cent of children under five were suffering from malnutrition. The acute deprivation, along with the lack of democracy, is pushing some traditional muslim communities into the arms of fundamentalists."

Stygius: "While I ruefully admit that this blog has increasingly become a platform for my partisan hackery -- when I've always wanted it to be a more analytically-focused page -- self-imposed time constraints on blogging limit what I can produce. One regret is that I don't focus more on terrorism and proliferation -- and the need to come up with a results-focused, de-politicized/bipartisan counterproliferation scheme -- a drum I beat continually during the opposition to the John Bolton UN nomination. It is widely agreed to be the most pervasive threat to the United States, and yet policy-wise it seems we are still groping around in the darkness as various neo-Reaganite ideologues more obsessed with castrating effective counterproliferation programs like Nunn-Lugar impede policy. From the people that matter, there is a stunning lack of leadership on this issue. Now, Sam Nunn's Nuclear Threat Initiative is turning from their usual wonkery in the halls of power to appealing directly to Americans with their short "docu-drama," Last Best Chance."

"United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today praised the bravery of the Iraqi people for voting in Saturday's constitutional referendum and voiced hope that their use of "ballots not bullets" would bode well for the future.

"The Iraqi population showed incredible courage, going to vote in large numbers despite the security situation on the ground," he told reporters at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The constitutional process should have been "an exercise that would have been totally inclusive, and pull together all the Iraqis, helping with reconciliation," he said, adding: "Obviously, that did not happen."

Asked whether the referendum would foster change, he said it would be difficult to predict what would happen after the votes are counted. "I think your question implies, would the violence cease after this process? I don't think we can legitimately expect that, given the facts and what we know," he said.

"But at least, they have chosen to use ballots and not bullets, and I hope this is a lesson that will auger well in the future," the Secretary-General added." [Read more]

"Marking World Food Day [October 16th], 150 countries celebrated the contributions of different cultures to creating modern agriculture and diet, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said.

In his message on the occasion, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for partnerships to reach the first Millennium Development Goal of reducing by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and extreme poverty. [More]

UNHCR staff in Islamabad offload tents bound for
earthquake victims in disaster-affected areas of Pakistan.

"A top U.N. official called for more urgency in the world's response to the Kashmir earthquake, saying millions were suffering from a disaster that hit more people over a wider area than the Asian tsunami.

"We need to have a sense of urgency here like we had in the tsunami," the U.N.'s chief emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland told Reuters in an interview after touring the disaster area in Pakistani Kashmir and Northwest Frontier Province.

The official death toll from Saturday's quake is 25,000 but is expected to rise. Some local officials in Pakistan say it could exceed 40,000. Another 1,200 died in Indian Kashmir." [Read more]

Selected summary of United Nations related news and events

United Nations Agencies Rushing Relief to Pakistan

In Portugal, Annan Says Rule of Law Safeguards Against Rule of War

UN Nuclear Watchdog in Talks With Iran on Access

U.N. Links Poverty, Violence Against Women

Bird Flu Vaccine Could Take Months, U.N. Says

Angolan Refugees Return Home from DRC on a Road Rebuilt by UNHCR

Government Advice to Beat Bird Flu: Wash Your Hands More Frequently

Actress Angelina Jolie Wins UN Humanitarian Award

A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Smart Mobs: "A Washington Post article on attempts to present real social problems as tasks to be solved in a video game. For instance, the United Nations' World Food Programme released a game called Foodforce, in which the player must figure out how to feed an island of people."

Magpie: "UN officials are warning that a measles epidemic could hit the survivors of the South Asia earthquake. According to the World Health Organization, the collapse of the devastated region's health system makes it vital that children be vaccinated against the disease as soon as possible."

Feministing: "The United Nations said yesterday that poverty can't be adequately addressed until it takes on social, economic and physical discrimination against women. "Gender apartheid" could scuttle the global body's goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015, the U.N. Population Fund's annual State of World Population report said."

Carpetbagger: "A top United Nations envoy returned from the Darfur region of Sudan recently and had discouraging news: the calamity is actually getting worse: "I found the situation much more dangerous and worrisome than I expected it to be," said [Juan Mendez, special adviser to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan], who just completed his second visit to the region in the past year. "Until last week, there have never been concerted, massive attacks of an indiscriminate nature against civilians" in camps in Darfur. Mendez was prepared to share his findings with representatives on the U.N. Security Council, but was denied the opportunity - by Bush's man at the U.N., John Bolton."

Waveflux: "A few weeks ago, my brother told me that he was leery of the news nowadays because the headlines seemed to be one full-on catastrophe after another. This weekend was no exception. Pakistan took the brunt of the 7.6 quake on Saturday, but India and Afghanistan were also affected. CNN has published a couple of stories about relief efforts, here and here. Initial U.S. reconstruction/relief aid of "up to" $50 million dollars, eight military choppers dispatched, other assets coming (likely from Afghanistan, I'm thinking). UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) is moving emergency medical supplies, children's clothing, water purification materials, nutritional supplements, and blankets and plastic tarps to northern Pakistan. UNICEF needs donations now."

Insecurity Forum: "From europaworld.org: Annan: Intellectual Breakthrough On Security, Development, Rights - "Beyond specific commitments ranging from strengthening humanitarian mechanisms to reforming UN management, Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week hailed a global mind-change at last month's United Nations World Summit that linked security, development and human rights. "I think in a way we did make a sort of intellectual breakthrough at the Summit, as the Member States accepted, or acknowledged, for the first time the indivisible links between security, development and human rights," he told an Executive Committee meeting of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva."

Stygius: "Via nadezhda's links, Reuters: "Ambassador John Bolton blocked a U.N. envoy on Monday from briefing the Security Council on grave human rights violations in Sudan's Darfur region, saying the council had to act against atrocities and not just talk about them..." Let's take a moment to remember what kind of "action" Bolton prefers in the face of atrocity and genocide."

Trigger Fish: "Mass industrialization has contributed to a perfect storm for avian flu to break out?: "[I]ndustrial chicken operations are growing exponentially thanks to the resettlement of large agribusinesses in search of lower operational costs. Last year in Latin America and the Caribbean, there were over 2.5 billion chickens, nearly 1 billion more than 10 years ago, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. In 2004, according to Worldwatch Institute, Brazil became the world's second-largest poultry producer, just behind the United States. Such expansion of industrial farming in less developed countries usually is accompanied by poor surveillance and control."

"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]

Mohamed ElBaradei addressing delegates
at the IAEA General Conference 2005 in
Vienna, Austria.

"The International Atomic Energy Agency and its chief Mohamed ElBaradei won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2005, the prize's custodians announced today, saying that they hoped it will strengthen the United Nations organization and help stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

"This is a message to all people in the world to help abolish all nuclear weapons," said the chairman of the prize committee, Ole Danbold Mjos, after announcing the winner beneath crystal chandeliers in a small vaulted room on the third floor of the Norwegian Nobel Institute here. Mr. ElBaradei and the agency will share the prize.

Mr. ElBaradei, 63, has championed the peaceful use of nuclear energy while emphasizing quiet diplomacy in trying to dissuade countries from using the technology to develop weapons.

He has been at the center of non-proliferation crises involving all three states that President Bush once labeled the axis of evil, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Iran and North Korea." [Read 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."

"Obstetric Fistula is a childbearing injury, caused by long, obstructed labors without recourse to Caesarean sections. The consequences, left untreated, can be devastating, usually including both the death of the child and the incontinence of the mother. And women in the developing world, particularly Africa, rarely get the treatment they need.... Here, then, is a classic opportunity for worldchanging action: an entrenched problem, which could be largely addressed by more funding for medical care and education, largely ignored by big international NGOs and development agencies. In short, this is a place where a small group of people could make a big impact."

One By One is just such a group. [Read more]

"Typhoon Damrey, which came ashore on the eastern coast of Viet Nam one week ago, prompted the evacuation of some 600,000 persons and caused extensive damage throughout the country. At least 59 individuals in the country were killed as a result of the typhoon, and 13 others were injured.

Storm surges broke several sea dykes in Nam Dinh and Thanh Hoa provinces, and seawater penetrated inland some three to four kilometres in coastal provinces. Flash floods damaged more than 11,000 dwellings, destroying more than 1,000. More than 130,000 hectares of rice fields due for harvest have been submerged. Damage to roads, bridges and telephone lines has left several villages inaccessible. Including damage to transport, power supply, education and health infrastructure, the total destruction has been estimated at approximately $5.3 million." [More]