ALERTNET: "Less than 3 percent of funds needed to tackle a humanitarian emergency in the Republic of Congo have been received, highlighting the oil-producer's plight as a forgotten nation in crisis, the United Nations said.
Congo's civil war officially ended in 1999 but sub-Saharan Africa's fourth biggest oil producer has no peacekeeping force and is struggling to disarm former rebels who continue to attack civilians in the Pool region, far from international eyes.
"This is scandalous. We need to have a better response to this emergency," Aurelien Agbenonci, the head of the U.N. in Congo, told Reuters in an interview."
"An unprecedented gathering of U.S. business leaders, United Nations officials and representatives of the world's leading nonprofit relief organizations will meet at the United Nations on April 25, 2005, to begin to outline ways to respond more effectively to global disasters and emergencies in the future." LINK
From the Hickory Daily Record: "After 25 years as chief of the Hickory Police Department, Floyd Lucas is tackling a new assignment - and getting an adventure into the bargain.
Next month, Lucas will begin a yearlong leave of absence from the police department to help develop a police force in the Serbian province of Kosovo, which used to be part of Yugoslavia.
Lucas' leave is unpaid. He's accepted a contract mission through the U.S. State Department and will serve as a senior police adviser with the United Nations."
"[T]he need to protect the environment does not begin or end in the great outdoors. The ecology of urban areas is becoming an increasing concern of the environmental movement, as underscored by its focus in an upcoming five- day United Nations conference on "green cities." The conference is attracting mayors from around the globe to try to bring attention -- and possibly some international accords -- on city-environment issues such as urban design, transportation, energy, open space, recycling, health and water." Full Editorial
"The Park University Model United Nations April 15-16 gave area high schools the opportunity to participate in a simulation of UN decision making. More than 60 students from four high schools represented 20 UN member countries.
The Model UN is a simulation of the real UN in which student delegates assume the roles of diplomats of the countries they represent in attempting to reach solutions to the major problems facing the world today. It includes a simulation of the UN General Assembly, UN Security Council and other multilateral bodies, which catapults students into the world of diplomacy and negotiation." Read the rest...
"Presenting the 2005 Alan Cranston Peace Award on behalf of the Global Security Institute (GSI) was former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, in his first public appearance at the UN since his historic "glasnost" address to the General Assembly in 1988. The award honours leaders who, through their actions, demonstrate commitment to global security and nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament." More...
Assistant Secretary of State Kim Holmes Speaks About the Bush Administration's Views on United Nations Reform:
"I believe the United Nations works best when its member states and the United States work together. This requires U.S. leadership. Not all countries may agree with everything the U.S. espouses. But most would agree, I would maintain, that the UN can accomplish very important things when the United States and the member states of the United Nations act as partners."
Full Text (PDF file)
By UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. From Foreign Affairs, May/June 2005:
"Ask a New York investment banker who walks past Ground Zero every day on her way to work what today's biggest threat is. Then ask an illiterate 12-year-old orphan in Malawi who lost his parents to AIDS. You will get two very different answers. Invite an Indonesian fisherman mourning the loss of his entire family and the destruction of his village from the recent, devastating tsunami to tell you what he fears most. Then ask a villager in Darfur, stalked by murderous militias and fearful of bombing raids. Their answers, too, are likely to diverge.
Different perceptions of what is a threat are often the biggest obstacles to international cooperation. But I believe that in the twenty-first century they should not be allowed to lead the world's governments to pursue very different priorities or to work at cross-purposes. Today's threats are deeply interconnected, and they feed off of one another." Full Article
Financial Times: "The nomination of John Bolton for US ambassador to the United Nations appeared in jeopardy yesterday after a Senate committee unexpectedly decided to postpone a vote to allow more time to investigate allegations that he slanted intelligence and abused analysts who disagreed with his conclusions.
The Senate foreign relations committee postponed the vote after George Voinovich, an Ohio Republican, stunned his Republican colleagues by expressing reservations about the appointment of Mr Bolton, the outgoing undersecretary of state for arms control.
"I've heard enough today that I don't feel comfortable about voting for Mr Bolton," said Mr Voinovich."