Reuters: "Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, under international pressure over wartorn Darfur, said on Sunday his government would impose a travel ban on U.S. officials that would confine them to the capital Khartoum.... Sudan is under heavy international pressure to allow 20,000 U.N. troops into the western region of Darfur to replace 7,000 poorly funded African Union troops tasked with monitoring a shaky ceasefire."
Jane Holl Lute: "Not many people know this, but the United Nations' peacekeeping force represents the world's second largest deployed military operational presence in the world.
Earlier this week, Reuters hosted a conversation with United Nations Foundation founder Ted Turner. Highlights from the transcript are below the fold.
As you can see, the straight talking former CNN owner does not mince his words, and is astoundingly funny. See especially his tale of the $1 billion pledge. You'll enjoy.
With the world focused on First Avenue this week, Secretary General Kofi Annan's recent diplomatic success in the Middle East deserves attention. Diplomacy abhors a vacuum. And in the days following the calamitous month-long war in Israel and Lebanon, the ceasefire between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hezbollah militants looked quite tenuous. Neither side had much confidence that the other would comply with the ceasefire requirements set out in Security Council Resolution 1701, which ostensibly ended the conflict on August 11th. Adding to this uncertainty were key issues that remained unresolved: the composition of the peacekeeping force, the sea and air blockades, and the status of the two Israeli prisoners captured by Hezbollah were all kicked down road for further discussion.
CNN: "Violence killed nearly 6,600 Iraqi civilians during July and August, while more than 8,000 were wounded, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq.
More than 20,600 Iraqi civilians have died in attacks so far this year, according to UNAMI. The carnage included a string of execution-style slayings, mortar and rocket attacks as well as suicide bombings apparently targeting civilians."
Timothy Wirth, President of the United Nations Foundation, speaks to Jim Lehrer. AUDIO & TRANSCRIPT