The United Nations

[Littleboy]

Man, they just got their restrooms redone for 1.8 Million Dollars...
And they earned every Penny too! YeH Right,
And because many members of the U.N can't/WON'T help enforce any resolutions that are passed to ensure the World might become a better place, Like Iraq the 1st time & now in Iran & Iraq again,
While they come to our Country with their Diplomatic amunity & creidt cards they we pay for, Break our Laws
with no threat of prosecution...
Like i've been saying for along time now: THESE people(U.N) are the reason we are at war right now...
We would never have went to war in Iraq if they(U.N) would have ENFORCED the 17 or more Res. that were passed by it's own members....

This is one of the Main reasons our Children are at War & Dying, NOT, that what there doing isn't a NOBLE cause,
BECAUSE it IS, And God Bless them all And I would be there if I could, IN A HEART BEAT Brothers....
YLBD

[Shammu]

UN may Enlarge Security Council

United Nations, Nov 12 (Prensa Latina) The United Nations will start its work in the plenary of the General Assembly this week by discussing a report on enlargement of the Security Council.

For years, the issue has sparked heated debate, as opinions differ on how to democratize the high UN body and achieve equitable representation.

The right to veto, enjoyed by five countries in their capacity as permanent members (the US, China, France, Britain and Russia) has also been a cause of friction.

The complex scene around the future of the Security Council has led diplomats here to think there is still a long way before it is solved.

A discussion of funds for gender equality has also been scheduled for Monday within the Second Commission of the General Assembly as a follow up of the Monterrey Consensus.

Also this week, the Security Council is expected to hold consultations on the Great Lakes region and on the tense situation between Ethiopia and Eritrea, following reports about a military buildup in their common border.

Other activities include a symposium on the food system in Africa and its interaction with health and nutrition, as well as a panel on climatic change as part of strategies for sustainable development.

On Wednesday, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is expected to travel to Tunisia and Spain, after visiting Argentina, Chile and Brazil.

The South Korean diplomat is scheduled to inaugurate an international conference against terrorism in Tunisia on Thursday.

World Food Program's Executive Director Josette Sheeran is expected to visit Mali and Senegal this week to attract world attention on emergencies in this area.

Also on Thursday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is expected to present in Rome its report on the state of food and agriculture in 2007.

UN may Enlarge Security Council

[Shammu]

The right to veto, enjoyed by five countries in their capacity as permanent members (the US, China, France, Britain and Russia) has also been a cause of friction.

Thursday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is expected to present in Rome its report on the state of food and agriculture in 2007.

Now thats spooky, the U.N. is reading almost like the "Left Behind" series.

[Littleboy]

Chevron to pay 30 million dollars in oil-for food settlement 1 hour, 48 minutes ago
 


NEW YORK (AFP) - Oil giant Chevron has agreed to pay 30 million dollars in a settlement related to the United Nations oil-for-food program, prosecutors said Wednesday.

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According to the agreement, Chevron admitted obtaining Iraqi oil from third parties that paid secret, illegal surcharges to Saddam Hussein's regime, in violation of US wire fraud statutes and administrative regulations.

Of the settlement payment, Chevron agreed to forfeit 20 million dollars to the US Attorney's office, which would seek to transfer the money to the Development Fund of Iraq established under the United Nations in 2003.

A further five million dollars would go to the district attorney's office while two million would go to the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and a further three million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The oil-for-food program ran from 1996 to 2003, when US-led forces invaded Iraq. It allowed Baghdad to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian goods the country lacked due to sanctions imposed after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

The Iraqi government swindled millions of dollars from the scheme, sparking a scandal that caused huge embarrassment to the United Nations.

[Shammu]

UN panel gives dire warming forecast

By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writer Sat Nov 17, 11:11 PM ET

VALENCIA, Spain - Global warming is "unequivocal" and carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere commits the world to an eventual rise in sea levels of up to 4.6 feet, the world's top climate experts warned Saturday in their most authoritative report to date.

"Only urgent, global action will do," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, calling on the United States and China — the world's two biggest polluters — to do more to slow global climate change.

"I look forward to seeing the U.S. and China playing a more constructive role," Ban told reporters. "Both countries can lead in their own way."

Ban, however, advised against assigning blame.

Climate change imperils "the most precious treasures of our planet," he said, and the effects are "so severe and so sweeping that only urgent global action will do. We are all in this together. We must work together."

According to the U.N. panel of scientists, whose latest report is a synthesis of three previous ones, enough carbon dioxide already has built up that it imperils islands, coastlines and a fifth to two-thirds of the world's species.

As early as 2020, 75 million to 250 million people in Africa will suffer water shortages, residents of Asia's large cities will be at great risk of river and coastal flooding, according to the report.

Europeans can expect extensive species loss, and North Americans will experience longer and hotter heat waves and greater competition for water, says the report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore this year.

The panel portrays the Earth hurtling toward a warmer climate at a quickening pace and warns of inevitable human suffering. It says emissions of carbon, mainly from fossil fuels, must stabilize by 2015 and go down after that.

In the best-case scenario, temperatures will keep rising from carbon already in the atmosphere, the report said. Even if factories were shut down today and cars taken off the roads, the average sea level will gradually rise over the next 1,000 years to reach as high as 4.6 feet above that in the preindustrial period, or about 1850.

"We have already committed the world to sea level rise," the panel's chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, said. But if the Greenland ice sheet melts, the scientists said, they could not predict by how many feet the seas will rise, drowning coastal cities.

Climate change is here, they said, as witnessed by melting snow and glaciers, higher average temperatures and rising sea levels. If unchecked, global warming will spread hunger and disease, put further stress on water resources, cause fiercer storms and more frequent droughts, and could drive up to 70 percent of plant and animal species to extinction, according to the panel's report.

The report was adopted after five days of sometimes tense negotiations among 140 national delegations. It lays out blueprints for avoiding the worst catastrophes — and various possible outcomes, depending on how quickly and decisively action is taken.

"The world's scientists have spoken clearly and with one voice," Ban said, looking ahead to an important climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, next month. "I expect the world's policy makers to do the same."

The report is intended to both set the stage and serve as a guide for the conference, at which world leaders will begin discussing a global climate change treaty to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

That treaty, which expires in 2012, required industrial nations to reduce greenhouse gases and a smooth transition to a new treaty is needed to avoid upsetting the fledgling carbon markets.

"This report will have an incredible political impact," Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate change official, told The Associated Press. "It's a signal that politicians cannot afford to ignore."

The United States opted out of Kyoto in 2001, arguing that the science was unproven and that the burden of mandatory emission cuts was unfair since it excluded fast-growing China and India.

Chief U.S. delegate Sharon Hays said doubts have been dispelled. "What's changed since 2001 is the scientific certainty that this is happening," she said in a conference call late Friday. She did not indicate that Washington would abandon its policy of voluntary emission cuts.

China and India have said any measures impinging on their development and efforts to lift their people from poverty were unacceptable — a point likely to be heeded at the Bali talks.

The report offered dozens of measures for avoiding the worst catastrophes if taken together — at a cost of less than 0.12 percent of the global economy annually until 2050. They ranged from switching to nuclear and gas-fired power stations, developing hybrid cars, using more efficient electrical appliances and managing cropland to store more carbon.

Ban said a new agreement should provide funding to help poor countries develop clean energy resources, adapt to climate conditions and give them the technology to help themselves.

He said he witnessed the devastation of climate change in disappearing glaciers of Antarctica, the deforested Amazon and under the ozone hole in Chile.

"These scenes are as frightening as a science fiction movie," said Ban. "But they are even more terrifying because they are real."

UN panel gives dire warming forecast

[Shammu]

"Only urgent, global action will do," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, calling on the United States and China — the world's two biggest polluters — to do more to slow global climate change.

And if this doesn't work, they will release an even direr warning. And after, that a really nasty letter. And after that, Ban Ki-moon will call your mom.

Is Al Gore really Ban Ki-moon in costume??

[nChrist]

UN Secretary-General’s call, examination “the crisis in international security"
(I've inbedded the link to each section and sub-section. DW.)

The initiative asked experts from a wide range of perspective to submit short policy briefs intended to inform the dialogue surrounding the UN Secretary-General’s call for an examination of “the crisis in international security.”

These short pieces, found below organized by issue areas, address three questions:

    * What is the problem?
    * What can be done about it?
    * What contributions can be made by collective action mechanisms such as the United Nations?

Some papers have been briefed directly to the Panel. The project also accepted non-commissioned papers for publication on this site. Click here to view these submissions or to propose one.

Use of Force

     Legitimacy and the use of force
     Preemptive attack
     Collective security and humanitarian intervention
     Juridical institutions and security

Regulation of Deadly Armaments

     Controlling Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)
     Conventional weapons/small arms

Terrorism /Non-state Actors

     Non-state actors
     Terrorism
     Transnational crime

Strengthening International Peacebuilding Capabilities

     Peace Interventions—futile or vital
     Collective Response to Crisis
     Post Conflict Reconstruction
     Democratic governance and external intervention

Foundations for Peace and Security

     Human rights and challenges to security
     State sovereignty and external partners
     Eligibility standards for UN candidacies
     Women in peace and security

Foundations of a More Secure, Equitable and Sustainable World: Freedom from Want

     Root causes of peace
     Trade and insecurity
     Security and development
     Linkages between environment, population and development
     Biological security

Ingredients of Success or Failure in UN Reform Efforts



UN Secretary-General’s call, examination “the crisis in international security"

Enjoy lots of reading brothers and sisters.

THANKS BROTHER!

I know how much work this was to provide individual links, and I appreciate it. I do plan to use these to educate myself on some more issues.

[Shammu]

"Islam should not be blamed for terrorism," UN conference

The international community should counter the spread of Islamophobia partly due to "misinformation and misperceptions", participants at a UN counter-terrorism conference said.

Speaking at the 3-day conference, experts said there is a need for the international community to counter the spread of Islamophobia, which they noted has been growing in recent years partly because of misinformation and misperceptions about the religion.

The emergence of "misguided groups" that have deviated from the straight path to fanaticism, violence and extremism, attributing their acts to Islam, in no way justifies associating this phenomenon with the Islamic faith, they said during the conference titled "Terrorism: Dimensions, Threats and Countermeasures" in Tunis.

"It profits from weak State capacity to maintain law and order," said co-chair and Tunisian Culture and Preservation of Heritage Minister Mohamed El Aziz Ben Achour, during the concluding session on November 17.

"These vulnerable areas are exploited by terrorists to mobilize recruits and justify violence. None of the religions are a cause of political radicalism and extremism. Religious doctrine may be 'tools of mobilization,' rather than a direct cause," he said at the conference which was jointly organized by the UN's Department of Political Affairs and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Participants agreed that terrorism flourishes in environments where there is discontent, exclusion, humiliation, poverty, political oppression and human rights abuses, as well as in countries engaged in regional conflicts.

"Islam should not be blamed for terrorism," UN conference

[Shammu]

Participants agreed that terrorism flourishes in environments where there is discontent, exclusion, humiliation, poverty, political oppression and human rights abuses, as well as in countries engaged in regional conflicts.

So the young woman to be lashed 200 times due to her involvement with being a victim of rape. That's nothing to do with islam??  Hello..............

Perhaps people may consider the UN's request, once they stop spreading Jesusphobia (thanks PR). Odd isn't it, how Christianity is considered the "bad guy", when every terrorist that I know of (with the singular exception of Timothy McVeigh), is from the islamic religion.

So who is misinformed at this so-called counter-terrorism conference??

[Soldier4Christ]

Since the UN thread has disappered, I have to start a new one. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About 8 threads below this one.   

[Shammu]

AMERICANS PAY FOR EMERGING WORLD GOVERNMENT

 

 

By Cliff Kincaid

November 29, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

In its new Human Development Report calling for another $86 billion in aid to the rest of the world, supposedly to fight the effects of climate change, the United Nations acts distressed that people in “rich” countries like the U.S. don’t take the theory of man-made global warming more seriously. Its answer?and this is actually spelled out in the report?is that too much “editorial balance” in the media has prevented “informed debate” about the need for “urgent action” in the form of higher taxes on energy.

The U.N. report complains that, according to one poll, roughly four in ten Americans believe that human activity is responsible for global warming, but just as many believe it is a natural phenomenon. This is not acceptable to the global elite.

The U.N. is calling for more propaganda from the media, in order to push the American people toward acceptance of the alarmist view and higher energy taxes and the increased foreign aid that would result. It just so happens this would also result in more money flowing into the coffers of the U.N. at a time when the world body has already been found guilty of exaggerating the AIDS problem to generate more funds for itself.

In order to provide the “new and additional” foreign aid, the report calls for exploring a range of “innovative financing options.” This is U.N.-speak for global taxes. Indeed, the report openly calls for carbon taxes and aviation taxes. It proposes a “Climate Change Mitigation Facility” to mobilize the $25 - $50 billion “needed annually” for developing countries.

Not surprisingly, the report hails Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” film but says nothing about the numerous errors in it. Yet, “For all the progress that has been achieved,” the report declares, “the battle for public hearts and minds is not yet won.” Put another way, it says that “…the current state of public opinion does not provide a secure foundation for urgent action.”

In other words, you are not yet worked up into enough of a panic.

You, Mr. and Mrs. America, helped pay for this. The Human Development Report is a product of the U.N. Development Program. The U.S. is the largest contributor to this U.N. agency, providing more than $100 million annually.

This U.N. report has one of the most devious rationales for censorship that you will ever see. In a section of the report (page 67) about “The Role of the Media,” the U.N. informs us that “The media have a critical role to play in informing and changing public opinion.” It goes on to lament that “one study” in the U.S. on coverage of climate change “found that the balance norm resulted in over half of articles in the country’s most prestigious newspapers between 1990 and 2002 giving equal weight to the findings of the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] and of the climate science community, and the views of the climate skeptics?many of them funded by vested interest groups. Continued confusion in public opinion is one consequence.”

The U.N. is saying, in effect, that the American people haven’t been indoctrinated enough, and that the media have to provide even more one-sided coverage.

“Editorial balance is a laudable and essential objective in any free press,” the report goes on to say. “But balance between what? If there is a strong and overwhelming ‘majority’ view among the world’s top scientists dealing with climate change, citizens have a right to expect to be informed about that view. Of course, they also have a right to be informed about minority views that do not reflect a scientific consensus. However, informed judgment is not helped when editorial selection treats the two views as equivalent.”

Notice how the contrary view is being marginalized as unscientific, uninformed and the product of the special interest groups. But nobody is supposed to question the wisdom of those on the U.N. side of the issue.

This reminded me of when Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders gave a speech at the leftist National Conference on Media Reform and faulted the media for covering two sides of the global warming debate “when there is no debate in the scientific community.” Ironically, in the same speech, Sanders claimed conservatives were 99 percent in control of talk radio and that it was time “to open the question of the fairness doctrine again” to restrict what they say and how they say it. Clearly, the purpose in a “Fairness Doctrine” is not to offer different points of view but to silence viewpoints liberals regard as unsound or unpopular.

The U.N.’s Human Development Report is an example of this mindset at the international level. It’s a scandal that we are being forced to pay for it.

In various tables in the report, countries are judged on how many of the “major international environmental treaties” and “major international human rights instruments” they have signed and ratified. Here, again, the U.S. comes up short. The U.S. has failed to ratify the U.N. Law of the Sea Treaty, as well as treaties on women’s rights, children’s rights, and others. The Sea Treaty could come up for a Senate vote at any time.

The goal was spelled out in the 1994 edition of the Human Development Report, which included an essay by Jan Tinbergen calling for a strengthening of the United Nations system. Ultimately, he said, “What is needed is a World Government.”

Our major media can be expected to follow the advice of the Human Development Report and further propagandize the American people on global warming and other issues. That effort will complement the campaign to bring back the “Fairness Doctrine” and silence conservative and dissenting voices in the media.

It is time to recognize that our freedom and sovereignty are under all-out attack. The least we can and should do is to stop subsidizing our enemies. That means defunding the United Nations and defeating the Law of the Sea Treaty.

[Shammu]

Jet-setters diverge on ways to offset carbon emissions
December 3, 2007

London Daily Telegraph - LONDON — Delegates to a U.N. conference on climate change that opens today in Bali, Indonesia, are divided on seeing how their travel to the conference might make the problem worse.

About 15,000 politicians, civil servants, green and industry lobbyists and journalists are flying to the island for the summit, emitting the estimated equivalent of more than 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide — on par with the annual emissions of the African state of Chad.

Among the Americans expected to arrive, some by private jet, are California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Vice President Al Gore and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

The Indonesian government, which is hosting the talks, has suggested planting thousands of trees to offset the carbon emissions caused by the travel.

But climate scientists from Britain and the United Nations rejected the idea, saying it's difficult to calculate how much carbon trees absorb, verify how many are cut down and calculate how many release carbon into the atmosphere through decay in subsequent years.

"We at the U.N. climate secretariat are offsetting by buying emission reductions under the Clean Development Mechanism," said U.N. spokesman John Hay. The mechanism, a part of the Kyoto Protocol, allows rich countries to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries rather than take more expensive measures at home.

A surge of political interest in climate change is expected to boost the number of delegates traveling to the resort of Nusa Dua, a palm-lined promontory on Bali's south coast, from the 10,000 who had registered by yesterday to 15,000 at least.

Hotels, some of the most luxurious in the world, are taking the opportunity to charge accordingly. Many say accommodation is available only at about $800 to $1,000 a night for a small single room.

Britain's ministers will stay at the Westin Resort Nusa Dua, which describes the experience of staying there as "sheer indulgence." Government spokesmen say the expense is justified because ministers will need to hold private meetings at all hours.

The European Union will send 90 officials with the environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas. Twenty members of the European Parliament and 18 assistants will be attending, even though the power to address climate change lies with individual governments, not the European Union.

They will be staying at the Conrad Bali Resort and Spa, one of the Hilton Hotel chain's luxury hotels. Their itinerary includes a day trip to the fishing village of Serangan with time for surfing.

Jet-setters diverge on ways to offset carbon emissions

[Shammu]

And they all arrive in private jets............ that tell you, there is NO global warming.

[Shammu]

U.N. senior officials to attend AU-EU summit in Lisbon
2007-12-07 09:39:46

    UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro will be leading the U.N. delegation to the African Union-European Union Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe announced Thursday.

    Okabe told reporters at a regular briefing that Migiro will be joined in the Portuguese capital by the U.N. High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Countries and Small Island Developing States Cheick Sidi Diarra, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet and Deputy Chef de Cabinet Kim Won-Soo.

    Mulet and Kim are scheduled to meet with the Sudanese delegation attending the summit on issues relating to the deployment of the hybrid force, known as UNAMID, to try to quell the fighting between rebels, government forces and allied militias, she noted.

    Okabe said that the purpose of the talks on the sidelines of the summit will be to tackle and resolve the issue of the composition of UNAMID as well as "all other obstacles impeding" its deployment.

    UNAMID is due to take over from the existing but under-resourced AU mission (known as AMIS) by the start of next month. 

U.N. senior officials to attend AU-EU summit in Lisbon

[Soldier4Christ]

U.S. slams 'massive' U.N. budget rise 
With largest increase in history, global body's 'credibility at stake'

The United States urged the United Nations on Tuesday to cut spending and make tough decisions on its priorities to offset a "massive increase" in its proposed budget for the next two years.

The U.N. budget is typically settled through negotiations with major contributors like the United States and the European Union. Two years ago, Washington demanded U.N. reforms before the final figure was agreed.

U.S. ambassador Mark Wallace urged member states at a budget committee on Tuesday to delay approval of a proposed $4.2 billion initial budget until next year when full details are provided of additional items.

Such items already identified would take spending to $4.8 billion, Wallace said, and the final figure including other proposals and foreseeable costs could rise to $5.2 billion. That compares to $4.17 billion in 2006/2007.

The budget does not include peacekeeping costs which are forecast to rise from $5 billion to around $7 billion, fueled by the cost of a planned force for Darfur.

Wallace criticized what he called the "piecemeal" approach to budgeting and said U.N. budget hikes of recent years outstripped increases in the budgets of donor countries and of other international organizations.

"With the largest budget increase in history ... the credibility of the U.N. is at stake," Wallace said.

U.N. payments are assessed according to a nation's wealth. Washington has withheld contributions in the past and has been leading a drive for more transparency and efficiency.

One diplomat said the United States had not threatened to withhold funds or make payment of its contributions conditional on reforms, as it has in the past.

Wallace proposed voting to allow the United Nations to continue its activities but postponing the final vote until early next year.

In the last two-year budget, the United States contributed around 22 percent, Japan nearly 20 percent and the nations of the European Union a combined 38 percent.

"The great challenge before us is for member states to find the political will to truly prioritize and to identify meaningful offsets or to ask the SYG (Secretary General) to make such recommendations," Wallace said.

The 27-nation European Union said earlier this year the likely total of $4.8 billion after additional items already identified was a "very substantial increase."

One EU diplomat said the bloc was concerned about the budget but did not see a need to delay the vote.