UN reauthorizes Darfur peacekeeping

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council has approved another year of peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region despite sharp divisions over genocide charges against the Sudanese president.

The United States supports the mission but abstained from the council's 14-0 vote Thursday night.

It objects to language in the resolution that notes that the African Union wants the council to freeze the International Criminal Court's prosecution of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

U.S. spokesman Richard Grenell says that language sends the wrong signal to a man who presided over genocide.

The joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force took over duties in Darfur in January.

Full Story Here
UN reauthorizes Darfur peacekeeping

I'll just bet the people of Darfur are thrilled...

Now they can be raped and killed by the U.N. too...

UN condemns Somalia slaying of aid official

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - The U.N. has condemned the slaying of a senior staff member in Somalia but says there are no plans to halt operations.

Officials say unidentified gunmen shot Osman Ali Ahmed as he was leaving a mosque in Mogadishu on Sunday night. Ahmed - who was head of the U.N. Development Program in Somalia - died on way to the hospital. His brother was seriously wounded in the attack and his son suffered minor injuries.

The U.N.'s aid chief for Somalia praised Osman's "great courage and commitment over the past 14 years."

Mark Bowden says it is unclear whether the killing was part of a wider pattern of attacks on U.N. officials. He says the organization will continue its humanitarian work in Somalia.

SOURCE:
UN condemns Somalia slaying of aid official

Yeah, that oughta do it, condemnation by the U.N., that'll make everything OK...

Iran's 25-Year Atomic Program and the U.N.'s Failure to Launch

Cross-posted by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook


This Bloomberg Report says that Iran has concealed its "atomic program for two decades before 2003." That would be about 25 years that Iran has been working on an "atomic program."

The U.N. Atomic Agency reports that they have verified the "non-diversion" of declared nuclear material in Iran. So, materials haven't been diverted to nuclear? Or have they?

The U.N. jumped right on evaluating American's racist attitudes (because voters may not want to vote for Barack Hussein Obama), but the U.N. cannot feed the hungry, they cannot contain the peacekeepers who rape and pillage, they cannot stop greenhouse gases and they certainly cannot stop Iran - who, according to the report, "probably will not have enough uranium for a bomb until 2010, at the earliest...."

No need to worry, Israel, you still have about 1-1/2 years before you must launch (you do have complete faith in the U.N. and the IAEA, don't you?)

(Emphasized text is mine)

Iran Withholding Atomic Weapons Research, UN Reports (Update 1)

By Jonathan Tirone

May 26 (Bloomberg) -- Iran continues to defy United Nations demands that it suspend its nuclear program, has expanded its fabrication of atomic fuel and continues to stonewall investigators looking into documents alleging its government researched atomic weapons, the UN atomic agency said.

``The agency is of the view that Iran may have additional information, in particular, on high explosives testing and missile-related activities, which could shed more light on the nature of these alleged studies and which Iran should share,'' according to a nine-page report the International Atomic Energy agency transmitted to the Security Council today from Vienna.

Iran ``maintains that all the allegations are baseless and that the data have been fabricated,'' the report said. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei will present the findings to the Vienna-based agency's 35-member board of governors June 2.

The IAEA findings are likely to intensify international pressure on Iran, holder of the world's No. 2 oil and gas reserves, over its atomic work. The Security Council has imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. Tehran's government says it's not making a bomb and wants enriched uranium to fuel nuclear energy reactors.

Surprise Visits

UN inspectors, who have made 14 surprise visits since March 2007 to Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, were ``able to continue to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran,'' according to the report.

The country increased the number of centrifuges it's operating by 17 percent since February to 3,500 and may by the beginning of the third-quarter be able to install 6,000 of the fast-spinning machines that separate uranium isotopes, according to the agency.

Read more.

Technorati Tags: U.N., United Nations, U.N.Atomic Agency,Nuclear, Barack Obama,Bloomberg News,Iran,IAEA,Mohamed El Baradei

UN sends top envoy to plead with Myanmar over aid

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - A senior U.N. envoy went to Myanmar Sunday to urge its military junta to accept more international aid for cyclone survivors, as a British minister suggested the isolationist regime may be relenting.

John Holmes, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, was greeted by Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu at the start of a three-day trip that will include a tour of the Irrawaddy delta, the area most severely hit by Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3.

Holmes also will meet with high government leaders, said Daniel Baker, a senior U.N. official.

He did not elaborate but other officials have said Holmes' mission is to assess the needs of survivors and urge the isolationist junta to open its doors to more international aid before people begin dying from starvation and diseases.

Full Story Here:
UN sends top envoy to plead with Myanmar over aid

Burma has many people dying, and I mean right now dying and they already have tens of thousands dead because of the cyclone that hit them, and the U.N. is going to BEG the rulers of Burma to accept aid?? Beg them?? You would think it should be the other way around wouldn't you?? The leaders of Burma being the ones pleading for help for their people??

Sorry folks, my sympathies only extend so far, what's going on in Burma right now is wrong, I know it, you know it, most reasonable and sane people know it, but it's Burma, short of going in and taking over there's not too much we can do to change their lot in life, it's their leaders that are keeping massive aid from reaching the people, and yes, I know they seized leadership, but if the people of Burma can't re-take their nation, then they are going to have to suffer that which fate has in store for them...

Very similar to that which faces us here in the USA right now, a people can make a government do the right thing, they can hold their leaders feet to the fire, but 1st there has to be a willingness to do so, and an acceptance that you may die trying...

I would much prefer to die standing and fighting than lying on my back starving at the hands of a tyrannical dictatorship...

Cross Posted at: TexasFred's

U.N.: Up to 300,000 dead in 5-year Darfur conflict

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. officials say the five-year conflict in Darfur is getting worse.

They point to a rising death toll of perhaps 300,000 and a delay in fully deploying a new peacekeeping force until next year.

U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes and Rodolphe Adada, the joint representative for the U.N. and African Union in Darfur, gave the grim reports to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.

They say the suffering in Sudan's Darfur region is getter even bleaker with thousands of additional people uprooted from their homes and food rations to the needy about to be cut in half.

SOURCE:
U.N.: Up to 300,000 dead in 5-year Darfur conflict

It's pretty amazing to me, the U.N. can keep all kinds of statistics but they can't do a damned thing to actually stop the violence...

Useless Nutjobs, it suits them well...

UN: 12,000 Flee Darfur for Chad

GENEVA (AP) - Up to 12,000 refugees fled Sudan's Darfur region to neighboring Chad over the weekend following air strikes by the Sudanese military and thousands more may be coming, the U.N. refugee agency said Sunday.

The agency was bringing emergency assistance to the Chad border where the Darfur refugees were giving detailed descriptions of air attacks Friday on three West Darfur towns.

The refugees are "destitute and terrified," said Helene Caux, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees headquartered in Geneva. "They told of their villages being looted and burned, and encircled by militia." Most of the new refugees in Chad are men and they told the U.N. that thousands of women and children are on their way, Caux added.

U.N. officials say the worsening situation in Darfur has been exacerbated by a recent rebel attack on the capital of neighboring Chad. Chad has accused Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir of backing those rebels in a bid to prevent deployment of a European peacekeeping force in the Chad-Sudan border region where some 400,000 refugees are living.

Sudan's Arab-dominated government has been accused of unleashing more attacks by its allied janjaweed militias, which are accused of committing the worst atrocities against Darfur's ethnic African communities. At least 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since the violence began five years ago.

Full Story Here:
UN: 12,000 Flee Darfur for Chad

But I thought the U.N. was the end all, do all BE all?? I thought they could fix everything??

How long have they been 'trying' to bring peace to this region of the world??

The U.N., a failure on every level...

UN Powers Agree on More Iran Sanctions

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Major U.N. Security Council powers have agreed on an incremental increase in sanctions on Iran, including a new restriction on exporters doing business with the country, diplomats said Thursday.

A draft resolution also calls for more monitoring of Iran's military and financial institutions, broader travel bans on Iranian nuclear scientists and other key officials, and freezing the assets of people and banks linked to weapons proliferation, Security Council diplomats told The Associated Press.

Diplomats from the five nations with veto power on the council - the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France - spent a third day negotiating a final agreement on principles that would form the basis for a third round of U.N. sanctions on Iran. They were joined by Germany, which has long been involved in efforts to resolve the Iran nuclear dispute.

The general terms were hammered out in Berlin earlier this week, chiefly through negotiations between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Those elements have been closely held, though they have begun circulating among the rest of the 15-member council.

Russia and China, which have strong business ties with Iran, resisted earlier British and French draft principles pushing for harsher sanctions if Iran keeps refusing to stop enriching uranium - a process that can provide fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a bomb.

Full Story Here:
UN Powers Agree on More Iran Sanctions

More U.N. sanctions huh??

Well, that should do the trick, U.N. sanctions work every time...

Just look at how successful they were in Iraq...

Cross posted at TexasFred’s

2 Nations Opt Out of UN Force for Darfur

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Sweden and Norway dropped plans Wednesday to send about 400 troops to the U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur because of opposition from Sudan's government.

The two Scandinavian countries had planned to send a joint engineering unit to the peacekeeping force in the troubled region, but their foreign ministers said in a joint statement that "Sudan's opposition makes it impossible to maintain the offer of a Norwegian-Swedish contribution."

The U.N. mission known as UNAMID is the latest international attempt to quell fighting in the western Sudanese region, where more than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million were chased from their homes since ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in 2003, accusing it of discrimination.

For months, Khartoum resisted a U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur. Under a compromise deal reached earlier this year, the hybrid U.N. and African Union force must be predominantly African.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir reiterated warnings in November that he would not allow some European nations to take part in the force. He singled out Scandinavian countries, where some media had reproduced caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

"Anyone who spoke blasphemously about the Prophet will not set a foot on Sudanese soil," he said.

Full Story Here:
2 Nations Opt Out of UN Force for Darfur

Tell me again, WHY do we even care about Darfur or any other Muslim nation??

Bhutto's Husband Calls for UN Probe

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Benazir Bhutto's widowed husband accused members of Pakistan's ruling regime of involvement in his wife's killing and called Saturday for a U.N. investigation, as British officers aiding Pakistan's own probe pored over the crime scene.

"An investigation conducted by the government of Pakistan will have no credibility, in my country or anywhere else," Asif Ali Zardari, the effective leader of Bhutto's opposition party, said in a commentary published in The Washington Post. "One does not put the fox in charge of the hen house."

Calls for an independent, international investigation have intensified since the former prime minister was killed Dec. 27 in a shooting and bombing attack after a campaign rally. Opposition activists denounced the government's initial assessment that an Islamic militant was behind the attack and that Bhutto died, not from gunshot wounds, but from the force of the blast.

President Pervez Musharraf acknowledged that investigators may have drawn conclusions too quickly and mishandled evidence, including hosing down the site hours after the attack. But he insisted the government was competent to run the investigation with the help of forensic experts from Britain's Scotland Yard. The United States said it did not believe a U.N. investigation was needed.

Full Story Here:
Bhutto's Husband Calls for UN Probe

I am sitting here LMAO... Seriously, LMAO...

The Paki people need to rely on MI-6, Scotland Yard, the FBI or CIA, hell, Inspector Clouseau even, they'll ALL get to the bottom of this before the U.N. does...