united nations

Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon recently returned from a trip to Russia, Poland, and Germany, and later this month will be in Lisbon for the NATO summit and NATO-Russia Council meeting.

The 2010 World Expo may be coming to a close but the ideas it has provided over the past six months are “invaluable” to tackling some of today's biggest challenges, including rapid urbanization, climate change and sustainable development, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Shanghai on Sunday.

In an interview with France24.com, a top official of the government of South Sudan insisted that an independent South would protect citizens of all faiths, as it has done since gaining autonomy in 2005.

The U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief on Thursday spoke out against intolerance toward religious groups such as Falun Gong and the Baha'is, remarks that irritated China.

Despite no-expenses-spared efforts to boost its soft power, such as the Shanghai Expo and plans to open a Xinhua news agency office atop a skyscraper in New York's Times Square, China's image has taken a beating in recent months, what with its tough talk to the United States and Japan, its defence of North Korea and, now, its attacks on the Norwegian Nobel Committee for honouring imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Joy erupted within the establishment in New Delhi late on Tuesday evening as news arrived from New York regarding India's election to a non-permanent two-year Asian seat in the United Nations Security Council. A dutiful media ecstatically tagged along. The infectious excitement was not without good reason.

LAST Sunday, it emerged that the UN was set to appoint a Malaysian astrophysicist called Mazlan Othman to lead international efforts to respond to visitors from outer space. As the article in the Sunday Times explained, Dr Othman is the head of the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa).

September 24, 2010

The freedom section of President Obama's address to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday deserves applause -- two cheers at least. It was the most extensive, fulsome, and compelling defense of human rights and democracy of his presidency, and it strategically placed political freedom in the context of economic freedom and development.

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