NewsTrust - United Nations - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Famine in Somalia is over, says UN

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - Feb. 03 - Exceptional harvest and food deliveries have improved conditions, but millions of people are still at risk An exceptional harvest after good rains and food deliveries by aid agencies have ended famine in Somalia, although conditions remain fragile and could worsen, the United Nations have said. The UN declared famine in two parts of southern Somalia last July and extended the famine warning in September to six out of eight regions in the country. The UN said initially 750,000 Somalis faced imminent starvation and lowered this to 250,000 by November. Six months after famine was declared, 4 million Somalis were in need of aid and the UN said the number now stood at 2.34m. "The gains are fragile and will be reversed without continued support," said Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia. "There are 1.7 million people in southern Somalia still in crisis. Millions of people still need food, clean water, shelter and other assistance to survive and the situation is expected ...

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Op-Ed Columnist: The Technocratic Nightmare

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By David Brooks, New York Times - Nov. 18 (Opinion) - The European Union is an attempt to build an economic and legal superstructure without a linguistic, cultural, historic and civic base. No wonder it’s in crisis.

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US preparing for post-Assad Syria: report

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:19:00 -0700

Dawn - By Afp - Sep. 20 - Members of Syrian opposition living in Turkey, wave their national and Turkish flags as they stage a protest against the Syrian regime outside the United Nations headquarters in Ankara on September 19, 2011. – AFP Photo WASHINGTON: The United States is i

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United Nations: Weak leaders wanted

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Aug. 15 (Editorial) - To save his legacy Ban Ki-moon must refresh his top team with people who understand the UN's founding principles

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In Somalia, a failure in 1992 has led to a famine today

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Nuruddin Farah - Aug. 03 (Opinion) - After the United States left Somalia, the rest of the world stood by, leaving the warlords to profit from their criminality. Al-Qaeda strengthened its presence in the country. Foreign vessels entered Somali waters and engaged in illegal fishing, which caused piracy to balloon into an ugly reality. Somalia lived on mortgaged time, leased out to criminals of one sort or another, an ideal world for terrorists to flourish.

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Gay Marriage: Where’s Mr. Obama?

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Jun. 27 (Editorial) - On Thursday night, when same-sex marriage in New York State was teetering on a razor’s edge, President Obama had a perfect opportunity to show the results of his supposed evolution on gay marriage.

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WHO report finds rich and poor nations now battle all kinds of diseases

Tue, 17 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 17 - Progress has been made on key MDG health targets, but non-infectious diseases have spread to developing countriesThe world is experiencing a change in the geographic distribution of diseases. Traditionally, infectious diseases, which claim the lives of so many children, have affected poor countries and non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, cardiac ailments and cancer, have plagued rich countries.But the latest statistics released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday show that the income level of nations is no longer so important, and that all countries now face the burden of both kinds of diseases.Up to now, non-communicable diseases tended to be identified as the ills of opulence, limited to high-income countries, WHO's director of health statistics and informatics, Ties Boerma, told IPS.However, due to changes caused by the ageing population, improvements brought about by the global effort to meet the millennium development goals (MDGs), changes in birthrates and other factors, developing countries are now also fighting non-infectious diseases, he said.Boerma noted that the phenomenon began in urban areas of developing nations, among the most highly educated population groups, but it is now expanding rapidly. That was one of the central conclusions reached by WHO experts on the basis of the World Health Statistics 2011 report published on Friday.The study confirms that important progress has been made in improving the main health indicators, fighting poverty, bolstering gender equality and education, and moving towards the other goals outlined in the eight MDGs, which were agreed by the international community in the 2000 UN general assembly and have a 2015 deadline, Boerma said.Over the past 10 years, the rate of improvement of infant and maternal mortality rates – key MDG targets – has been twice as fast as progress made in the 1990s.Many countries are still lagging, some of them considerably, which means a huge effort is needed over the next five years to meet the MDGs, Boerma said. Nevertheless, the rate of progress is speeding up overall, he added.In the case of child mortality, the world is only halfway to the MDG target, while in the case of maternal mortality, the world is only one-third of the way there, the WHO expert said.The question of infant mortality will be evaluated again in September, when WHO and Unicef, the UN children's fund, release new statistics. For now, "we are still standing at 8.1 million" children under five who died in 2009, Boerma said, compared with 12.4 million in 1990.With respect to the situation in the Americas, he said the statistics show that "very good progress" has been made in many countries.In Brazil, Argentina and Chile, for example, "there have been steady but relatively fast declines in child mortality, and coverage intervention is high. And they also reduced the inequity between the poorest and the richest. Brazil has been a very good case study of where the poorest have benefited," he said, adding that Mexico has also progressed.At the other extreme, of course, is Haiti, he said, adding that the health indicators are still worrying in countries like Bolivia and Peru, which have made some advances but "still have a much longer way to go".Boerma cited the case of Cuba, pointing out that although it is not a rich country, it "spends quite a lot on health" and does so "in a very equitable way."Everybody has (free) access to health services," he said. "So in terms of life expectancy it ranks quite high and it has low child mortality and high coverage of intervention. So it is very successful in reaching the whole population and getting good value" for its investment, he added.The expert noted that the US "is not at the top" in terms of health statistics in the Americas. He said: "They are at the top when it comes to the amount of money they spend on health. But they are not at the top in terms of getting good results for their investments in health services."One reason," he said, "may be that coverage of the whole population is not so good. So much of the expenditure goes to relatively expensive curative interventions or interventions that benefit a smaller proportion of the population."The WHO study reported that average global life expectancy rose from 64 years in 1990 to 68 in 2009. In poor countries, the average is 56 years, while it has climbed to 80 years in wealthy countries.Life expectancy for women is five years longer on average than for men. That difference has held fairly steady, between four and five years, over the past two decades.The WHO figures show there is still a huge gap in health spending between low and high-income countries, averaging an annual $32 per capita in the former and $400 per capita in the latter.The study reports that high-income countries have, per capita, 10 times more doctors, 12 times more nurses and midwives and 30 times more dentists, on average, than low-income countries.HealthWorld Health OrganisationAids and HIVMillennium development goalsInfant mortalityMaternal healthMaternal mortalityUnited StatesBrazilArgentinaCubaBoliviaPeruHaitiUnited Nationsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Osama bin Laden: US responds to questions about killing's legality

Tue, 03 May 2011 08:34:33 -0700

The Guardian - By Owen Bowcott - May. 03 - Doubts remain over manner in which al-Qaida figurehead died but US officials defend Barack Obama's actionThe chorus of official applause from international leaders over the death of Osama bin Laden has failed to silence doubts about the killing's legality.Despite widespread backing for the raid, there is a growing demand for the precise legal basis of the US operation to be explained, particularly given the absence of prior debate in the UN security council.Some are asking was it an "execution" or an "assassination"?The immediate justification for the killing was that the head of al-Qaida had long ago declared war on the US and other nations."In war you are allowed to attack your enemy," a US embassy spokesman in London said.Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, echoed Barack Obama's assertion, stating: "Osama bin Laden is dead and justice has been done."A more thorough explanation of the legal basis was given last year by Harold Hongju Koh, legal adviser at the US state department.He told a meeting of the American Society of International Law: "Some have argued that the use of lethal force against specific individuals fails to provide adequate process and thus constitutes unlawful extrajudicial killing."But a state that is engaged in an armed conflict or in legitimate self-defence is not required to provide targets with legal process before the state may use lethal force."The principles of distinction and proportionality that the US applies are …implemented rigorously throughout the planning and execution of lethal operations to ensure that such operations are conducted in accordance with all applicable law."He added: "Some have argued that our targeting practices violate domestic law, in particular, the longstanding domestic ban on assassinations."But under domestic law, the use of lawful weapons systems – consistent with the applicable laws of war – for precision targeting of specific high-level belligerent leaders when acting in self-defence or during an armed conflict is not unlawful, and hence does not constitute 'assassination'."John Bellinger III, who served as the state department's senior lawyer during George W Bush's second term as president, also insisted the strike was legitimate."The killing is not prohibited by the longstanding assassination prohibition in executive order 12333 [signed in 1981] because the action was a military action in the ongoing US armed conflict with al-Qaida and it is not prohibited to kill specific leaders of an opposing force," he wrote."The assassination prohibition also does not apply to killings in self-defence."The executive branch will also argue that the action was permissible under international law both as a permissible use of force in the US armed conflict with al-Qaida and as a legitimate action in self-defence, given that Bin Laden was clearly planning additional attacks."Human rights groups have reacted with caution. "Osama bin Laden took credit for and supported acts around the world which amounted to crimes against humanity," said Claudio Cordone, senior director at Amnesty International."He also inspired others to commit grave human rights abuses. His death will put an end to his role in organising or inspiring such criminal acts."We do not know the full circumstances of his killing and the others with him and we are looking into that."One area of anxiety is the suggestion that the intelligence needed to locate Bin Laden's refuge might have been obtained through torture of suspects detained at Guantánamo Bay or other secret holding centres.Whether or not the Pakistan government authorised the assault on its territory might technically affect the legality of the operation under international law.But the enthusiastic support of the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, for the killing is likely to silence any critical voices in the security council."The death of Osama bin Laden … is a watershed moment in our common global fight against terrorism," Ban said. "Personally, I am very much relieved by the news that justice has been done."Osama bin Ladenal-QaidaPakistanHillary ClintonUS politicsUnited StatesUnited NationsAmnesty InternationalBan Ki-moonGlobal terrorismInternational criminal justiceObama administrationUS foreign policyUS militaryOwen Bowcottguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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The Libyan mission is creeping, no doubt

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Simon Tisdall - Apr. 19 (Opinion) - With Britain sending a 'military liaison advisory team' to Libya, how many more boots on the ground will follow?

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Africa: Vast Majority of Stillbirths Found in Developing Countries

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 05:43:00 -0700

AllAfrica - Apr. 15 - United Nations — According to a special series in the medical journal The Lancet presented in New York Wednesday at the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, over 2.6 million stillbirths occur worldwide annually, affecting mostly African and Asian women who lac

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Hugs From Libyans

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Nicholas D. Kristof - Mar. 24 (Opinion) - This may be a first for the Arab world: An American airman who bailed out over Libya was rescued from his hiding place in a sheep pen by villagers who hugged him, served him juice and thanked him effusively for bombing their country.

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At War in Libya

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Mar. 22 (Editorial) - The allied attacks on Libya were perhaps the only hope of keeping more people from being slaughtered. But there is much reason for concern.

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Why the U.S. Went to War: Inside the White House Debate on Libya

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Time - By Massimo Calabresi - Mar. 21 (Opinion) - President Barack Obama says he's intervening to prevent atrocities in Libya. But details of behind-the-scenes debates at the White House show he's going to war in part to rehabilitate an idea.

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A Very Liberal Intervention

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Ross Douthat - Mar. 21 (Opinion) - A war that’s right out of the Clinton playbook, with many of the same perils.

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Stability powers new South American growth

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - Mar. 12 - From Paraguay to Chile and Brazil to Peru, a growing middle class armed with cheap credit and new confidence in the future is contributing to the most vigorous economic expansion in decades. Since 2002, about 56 million people across Latin America have risen out of poverty, according to the World Bank, and economists now talk of a new dynamic that reflects the stronger foundation of more-mature economies: increasingly affluent consumer societies..

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Bullying the Palestinians

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Aljazeera - By M.J. Rosenberg - Feb. 18 (Opinion) - It appears that US dealings with the Palestinians have entered a new phase: Bullying. On Thursday, President Barack Obama telephoned Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to urge him to block a UN Security Council resolution condemning settlements. Obama pressed very hard during the 50 minute call, so hard that Abbas felt constrained to agree to take Obama’s request to the PLO executive committee (which, not surprisingly, agreed that Abbas should not accede to Obama’s request). But what a request it is! For Palestinians, Israeli settlements are the very crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After all, it is the gobbling up of the land by settlements that is likely to prevent a Palestinian state from ever coming into being.

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In Sudan, Possible New Country Poses Health Care System Challenges

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 23:28:00 -0800

NewsHour - Jan. 03 - Listen to the Audio GWEN IFILL: Next tonight: the health care challenges that threaten to overwhelm an African nation as it prepares to cast a critical vote on independence.Special correspondent Jeffrey Kaye reports from Southern Sudan.JEFFREY KAYE: On the banks of the Nile River in South Sudan, entrepreneurs pump water to fill up tankers. Private water collection and sales from rivers and wells is big business here, particularly during the dry season. But, for customers, the water often comes at a high cost.DR. JUSTIN BRUNO, Al Sabah Hospital: It is a good business for them, but this is spreading diseases.JEFFREY KAYE: Dr. Justin Bruno directs the Al Sabah children hospital in the town of Juba.JUSTIN BRUNO: The water is not treated. It is just flowing naturally. And then it comes into the tanks and the tankers sell it to the people. And the people just drink them. It's not boiled. It's not treated.JEFFREY KAYE: And what happens as a result?JUSTIN BRUNO: Diarrheal diseases. People get acute diarrhea. People get what are bloody diarrhea and typhoid fever. And that is rampant in this town and in Southern Sudan.JEFFREY KAYE: And you can trace that right back to those tanks?JUSTIN BRUNO: Right back to the river water.JEFFREY KAYE: Patients suffer not only from preventable diseases, but, even if they make it to a health care facility, often from inadequate treatment.This is essentially the waiting room of the only children's hospital in South Sudan. The health care system, such as it is here, is barely functioning. Most people have no access to health care. So, the challenge is not so much to improve the system. It's to create one.JUSTIN BRUNO: The most pressing medical need is lack of medical supplies. The medical supplies is not enough for the patient.JEFFREY KAYE: What do you mean?JUSTIN BRUNO: The medications are not enough for the patients.JEFFREY KAYE: Besides the lack of drugs, the hospital's single X-ray machine is broken. It shares a storage room with a busted blood bank refrigerator. There's no ultrasound or C.T. machine. And even though there's an emergency ward, the hospital has no anesthesia.Inpatients here, most suffering from malaria, malnutrition, respiratory infections and diarrhea, often share beds or sleep on the floor.Mary Camisa (ph) walked here barefoot from her village 50 miles away, carrying her 3-year-old son suffering from convulsions brought on by cerebral malaria.JUSTIN BRUNO: They are very far distances to walk in. Some, they often drive two days to arrive here to get health care services here. So, we need to decentralize more these health centers, so that they're closer to the people.JEFFREY KAYE: South Sudan's dire health conditions are reflected in a recent United Nations compilation of what it calls ‘scary statistics.' Most people have no access to safe drinking water or sanitation. Malaria is hyperendemic. A 15-year-old girl is more likely to die in childbirth than finish school.Katie Morris is a program manager for Catholic Relief Services, which, among other projects, provides support for 43 health facilities in Southern Sudan.KATIE MORRIS, Program Manager, Catholic Relief Services: If you look at it by the numbers, it paints quite a grim picture. Maternal and infant mortality are among the highest in the world. Vaccination coverage is among the lowest for children and -- and pregnant women. It's a very sad picture.JEFFREY KAYE: Changing that picture will be among the biggest challenges facing an independent South Sudan if, as expected, people here vote to separate from the North in a referendum that begins January 9.Even now, South Sudanese officials are planning how to build a medical system, virtually from scratch. Member of parliament Dr. Martha Martin heads the legislature's health committee.DR. MARTHA MARTIN, Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly: So, we need to think about rural areas to be developed. Develop them through the primary health care.JEFFREY KAYE: A family doctor trained in Cuba, Martin says family health centers can be used as building blocks of a national system.MARTHA MARTIN: If have primary health care, you won't have difficulties when you have somebody. You receive first the patient in the center. You give them the first aid and then you send them to a big hospital. The patient will be saved.JEFFREY KAYE: So the first thing to do is develop a primary health care system?MARTHA MARTIN: We have to have a good, big hospital, well-equipped.JEFFREY KAYE: It's an ambitious undertaking. Clinics like this one, the Saint Kizito primary health care center in the town of Juba, are scattered throughout the country. But less than 30 percent of South Sudan's population has access to health care services. And, like the hospitals, many clinics also lack resources. When we arrived at the health center, women were waiting to have their children vaccinated. The mud floor clinic has no running water, no toilets, no delivery routes, no doctor. Medications were running low, and the staff of 10 shared two stethoscopes.This clinic is funded by the Catholic Church. Outsiders, including the U.S. government, the U.N., evangelical groups, and aid organizations, pay for most of South Sudan's health care.KATIE MORRIS: Over 60 percent of the health facilities in Southern Sudan are supported financially and in some cases operationally by international or national non-governmental organizations. So, the idea is that, over time, the government capacity will grow and that they will be able to absorb some of these facilities and take staff on to their payroll.JEFFREY KAYE: What few services the government currently provides are inefficient. After several hours at the Saint Kizito clinic, many women had given up waiting for vaccinations. The serum hadn't come, so patients had drifted away.Some clinics are trying to reduce maternal and child mortality rates by sending community health workers into villages. In the shanty neighborhood of Lologo on the outskirts of Juba, midwives from a U.S.-funded clinic visit huts to provide women with pre- and post-natal instructions and care. One in seven pregnant women in South Sudan is likely to die as a result of the pregnancy. Fourteen percent of children die before their fifth birthday.Midwife Rajibia Ahmad says simple lessons can save lives.RAJIBIA AHMAD, Midwife, Lologo Clinic: I will come here to see the baby, to see the mother, to check them, and to give her -- answer the question again, give them hygiene, how to eat, how to birth the baby.JEFFREY KAYE: Breast-feed.RAJIBIA AHMAD: Yes, breast-feeding.JEFFREY KAYE: Ahmad had delivered baby Emanuel (ph) seven days earlier. That's a rare occurrence in South Sudan, where only 10 percent of births are attended by a health care worker. The midwives urge pregnant women to deliver their babies in the clinic, to use clean water, and to avoid putting ashes on severed umbilical cords, a traditional treatment.Officials say they are optimistic about building a health care system in South Sudan. South Sudanese professionals who trained abroad during decades of civil war are returning to the country to practice medicine, among them, Dr. Bruno, who attended medical school in neighboring Uganda, where, as a teenager, he had fled by foot, a yearlong trek from his home. Bruno believes that independence might lead to less spending on the military and more on health.JUSTIN BRUNO: At the moment, more than 50 percent of our resources, of our budget go for security.JEFFREY KAYE: To the military?JUSTIN BRUNO: For the military.If independence comes, the reverse will be true. There will be less spending in the army and then there will be more spending in health care system and other service delivery. So, independence will mean a lot of development coming in, a lot of health care system improving, because the fact the money that go for security will have been put in development, the special health care system.JEFFREY KAYE: How much South Sudan spends on its military is likely to depend in part on whether the independence vote and its aftermath will be peaceful. In any event, economic development should go a long way to help reverse the abysmal health statistics by spurring the creation of water and sanitation systems. South Sudan's interim constitution guarantees free primary health care to all, clearly a long-term goal.For now, officials and health workers are combating preventable diseases with more basic steps: education, better nutrition, and simple drugs.

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China's green gift to the world

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Frank Wolak, Richard Morse - Dec. 30 (Opinion) - Environmentalists who want to ban China's coal imports are 100% wrong: driving up the price of coal cuts carbon emissions.

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Gay rights row over UN resolution

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - Dec. 21 - US 'incensed' after reference to sexual orientation dropped from protected minorities listA culture war has broken out at the UN over whether gay people should be offered the same protections as other minorities whose lives are threatened.The issue will come to a head today when the general assembly votes on renewing its routine condemnation of the unjustified killing of various categories of vulnerable people.It specifies killings for racial, national, ethnic, religious or linguistic reasons, and includes refugees, indigenous people and other groups.But because of a change promoted by Arab and African nations and approved at committee level, the resolution drops "sexual orientation" and replaces it with "discriminatory reasons on any basis".The US government says it is incensed at the change, as are gay rights campaigners. "Even if those countries do not support gay rights, you would think they would support our right not to be killed," said Jessica Stern of the New York-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.Stern said gay people all over the world were frequent targets of violence because of their sexual orientation.Authorities in Jamaica are investigating a possible hate crime after the killing of a man who belonged to the country's sole gay rights group, earlier this month.Uganda, among 76 countries that criminalise homosexuality, is debating whether to join the five other countries that consider it a capital crime.The biennial resolution does not refer to sexual orientation for the first time since 1999. The US ambassador, Susan Rice, said she was "incensed" that the reference was removed, and that the US will attempt to restore it.The battle underscores the historic split over gay rights among UN members and their diverse religious and cultural sensibilities.Activists say gay and lesbian issues got only minimal attention at the UN a decade ago."There has been slow but steady progress on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights at the UN," Stern said.Stern cited as progress UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon's "landmark" speech during a gay rights forum at UN headquarters on Human Rights Day, 10 December, calling for an end to laws around the world that make it a crime to be homosexual.But as gay rights gain more acceptance in the UN system, some member states are pushing back, said Mark Bromley, of the Washington-based Council for Global Equality, which aims to advance gay rights in American foreign policy. "I think some states are uncomfortable and they are organising to limit engagement on the issue.""We are seeing a backlash," agreed Stern. "This is an illustration of the tensions around culture at the United Nations, and how power plays out and alliances are made."On behalf of African countries, Benin introduced the amendment that deleted the sexual orientation reference. The largely Christian country of eight million with a sizeable Muslim population argued that "sexual orientation had no legal foundation in any international human rights instruments".Morocco, an Arab country that is almost exclusively Muslim, asserted that such selectivity "accommodated particular interests and groups over others" and urged all UN member states "to devote special attention to the protection of the family as the natural and fundamental unit of society".Western nations opposed the move to delete the mention of sexual orientation. Britain called it "an affront to human dignity", while France and Norway said the move was "regrettable".The amendment was passed at a committee meeting last month by 79-70, with 17 abstentions.General assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but rather reflect the views of the majority of the world's nations.Mark Kornblau, spokesman for the US mission to the UN, said the US will introduce an amendment next week to restore the previous language, including the phrase "sexual orientation" because "this is an issue that is important to us".Gay groups and human rights activists also have been lobbying missions to the UN in New York in recent days, urging in particular, the delegations that abstained on the amendment to help restore the mention of sexual orientation."We only need a few more countries and we can change this vote around," said Boris Dittrich of Human Rights Watch.But gaining the world's support for gay rights will take far longer.More than two-thirds of UN members, many of them Muslim nations, are refusing to sign a separate UN statement condemning human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity, especially with regard to the application of the death penalty and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.Under the Bush administration in 2008, the US refused to join all other western nations in signing the declaration, arguing that the broad framing of the language in the statement might conflict with US laws.After Barack Obama took office last year, the US joined other member states to support the declaration, saying it found that the language did not conflict with American laws. Sixty-eight of the UN's member countries have now signed the declaration, and 124 countries have abstained.United NationsGay rightsUnited StatesNew YorkHuman rightsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Liu’s Nobel

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:28:18 -0800

Weekly Standard - By Ellen Bork - Dec. 14 (Editorial) - Nor is it surprising that no top U.N. official attended the event. Outrageous, yes. But not surprising. When Liu won the peace prize, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed the secretary general’s hope that “any differences on this decision will not detract from advancement of the human rights agenda globally or the high prestige and inspirational power of the award.” Ban pointedly did not call for Liu’s release. Nor did Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, attend the award ceremony. Pillay claimed that she was otherwise engaged with business in Geneva on December 10, international human rights day. The fact that the most significant gathering in support of human rights on December 10 was in Oslo, not Geneva, should be taken to heart.

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Fixes: How Iran Derailed a Health Crisis

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By By TINA ROSENBERG - Dec. 04 (Opinion) - How health officials established needle sharing programs in a repressive political atmosphere.

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How's That New World Order Working Out?

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - By Parag Khanna - Nov. 29 (Opinion) - What a difference a couple of decades makes. A little over 20 years ago, then U.S. President George H.W. Bush -- who had just witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and saw the Soviet Union disintegrating before his very eyes -- stood at the granite podium of the U.N. General Assembly in New York and proclaimed a "new world order," a U.S.-dominated international system "where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle." Two decades later, the "new new world order" we are in fact living looks almost nothing like what Bush -- and most Americans -- imagined or hoped.

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C.K. Chivers' The Gun explains how the AK-47 changed the world.

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 11:09:00 -0700

Slate - By Nicholas Schmidle - Nov. 01 - In late 1945, Sergeant Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov entered an office contest more pressing than even the most rabid of Fantasy Footballers could fathom. Joseph Stalin wanted a new gun, and the Soviet leader tasked his army with selecting the best

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Barack Obama makes angry attack on Iranian president's 9/11 comments

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Sep. 24 () - US president uses BBC to make appeal to Iranians while Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remains unrepentantBarack Obama made an angry personal attack on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today, saying claims by Iran's president that the United States carried out the 9/11 terrorist attacks to prop up Israel were "hateful, offensive and inexcusable".Obama also used an interview with BBC Persian TV to make a direct appeal to the people of Iran, defending sanctions and urging them to believe that the US wants a better relationship with the Islamic republic, repeating that it is only possible if the regime complies with international demands over its nuclear programme.Ahmadinejad's remarks to the UN general assembly on Thursday prompted widespread outrage and a walkout by diplomats from the US, Britain and many other countries. The Iranian president said that one "theory" of what happened in September 2001 was that "the US government orchestrated the attack in order to save the Zionist regime in the Middle East".Obama described the comments as "outrageous and disgusting", adding: "Particularly for him [Ahmadinejad] to make the statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero, where families lost their loved ones, people of all faiths, all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation, for him to make a statement like that was inexcusable."But an unrepentant Ahmadinejad returned to the theme again today, calling on the UN to set up a commission to study the attacks, for which al-Qaida claimed responsibility. "I did not pass judgment, but don't you feel that the time has come to have a fact-finding committee," he asked during a news conference in New York.Obama said that Ahmadinejad's stance "stands in contrast to the reaction of the Iranian people when there were candlelight vigils and a natural sense of shared humanity and sympathy. It shows once again the difference between how the Iranian leadership and this regime operate and how the vast majority of the Iranian people who are respectful and thoughtful think about these issues."Making that distinction was the main point of his interview, which was broadcast on PTV tonight with a translation into Persian, and was likely to be seen by millions of Iranians who watch it despite official jamming. It was an extraordinary scoop for the London-based satellite channel, which was set up in 2008 and enjoys far greater credibility than the Persian service of the Voice of America.US officials had already lambasted Ahmadinejad's remarks as "abhorrent and delusional", but Obama's furious public riposte is likely to have a global resonance.The president said that the point of the sanctions imposed by the US, the UN and the EU was to force the regime to allay concerns about the purpose of its nuclear programme. For Tehran it was "more important to defy the international community and engage in a covert nuclear weapons programme than to make sure that people are prospering", he argued.Obama repeated the offer he made shortly after taking office in 2009. "We are willing to reach out with an open hand to the Iranian government and the Iranian people because we believe that there's nothing inevitable that should cause Iran and the United States to be enemies. There's a history there that is difficult. But it can be bridged with mutual understanding, mutual respect, and we want to see the people of Iran ultimately succeed."At his press conference Ahmadinejad also lashed out at the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as an overreaction to 9/11. The Americans should "not occupy the entire Middle East, bomb wedding parties, annihilate an entire village, just because one terrorist is hiding there," he said.Obama conspicuously did not talk of a military option for dealing with Iran. "I don't take war lightly," he told PTV. "I was opposed to the war in Iraq. I am somebody who's interested in resolving issues diplomatically." He also emphasised that the US was acting with wide international support though he refused to say whether he would stop Israel if it decided to attack Iran."Understandably, Israel is very concerned when the president of a country, a large country near them, states that they should be wiped off the face of the earth."The president praised the "courage" of Iranians in the unrest that followed last year's disputed elections, saying: "We have no interest in meddling, in the rights of people that choose their own government, but we will speak out forcefully when we see governments abusing and oppressing their own people." The Iranian government had "delegitimised itself in ways that continue to reverberate around the world."The White House said it hoped to encourage debate in Iran on the speech. "We will, to amplify the president's messages, ... be blogging it, Tweeting it, posting on Youtube and, again, ensuring that we are doing everything that we can to disseminate the president's words," an administration official said.Barack ObamaMahmoud AhmadinejadSeptember 11 2001United NationsUS foreign policyIranUnited StatesMiddle EastGlobal terrorismBBCSocial mediaDigital mediaIan Blackguardian.co.uk ? Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Iran: President Obama outlines position on Islamic Republic to BBC Persian

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Meris Lutz - Sep. 24 (Interview) - “It was offensive. It was hateful, and particularly for him to make the statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of ground zero, where families lost their loved ones,” Obama said of Ahmadinejad's comments made during a speech on Thursday at the

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