Tag: news

U.N. official: There are strong suspicions Syrian rebels used sarin gas Carla Del Ponte told an Italian-Swiss TV station that the findings come after interviews with doctors and Syrian victims now in neighboring countries.

newyorker: Today’s Daily Cartoon. For more cartoons, visit www.newyorker.com/cartoons

The Arms Trade Treaty’s doubters | Turtle Bay Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the National Rifle Association are grabbing all the headlines for opposing an Arms Trade Treaty that is designed to prohibit the delivery of weapons to countries accused of committing gross human rights violations or subject to an international arms embargo. But they are not the only ones with misgivings about a new global arms trade treaty. In all, 23 governments cast abstentions, a gesture designed to show discomfort, if not open hostility, to the new arms accord. It would have been 24, but Venezuela, which has not…

United Nations News Centre – UN General Assembly approves global arms trade treaty 2 April 2013 – The United Nations General Assembly has approved a global arms trade treaty that failed to achieve unanimous support last week but garnered the support of a majority of Member States when put to a vote today. The resolution containing the text of the treaty, which regulates the international trade in conventional arms, received 154 votes in favour. Three Member States – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Iran and Syria – voted against the decision, while 23 countries abstained.

Nice Speech, Mr. President – By Daniel Levy | Foreign Policy So far so good, Mr. President. Great speech, but what next? The visit has offered nothing new on the programmatic side, no plan for going forward. My hunch is that Obama knows that putting Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas back in a room together will achieve nothing, and that he is in no great hurry or places no great faith in those talks. Obama will also be very aware that while Netanyahu repeated his two-state message in their press conference, he nonetheless did not incorporate that language…

thepoliticalnotebook: This is this year’s World Press Photo of the Year for 2012, taken by Paul Hansen of the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. It’s a photo taken on November 20th of the funeral of two Palestinian children in Gaza City. The children are brothers: two-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and his older brother Muhammad. They were killed in an Israeli missile strike, which hit their house. Their father’s body is also being carried further back in the picture. This is a very tough photo and I had a small debate over whether or not to post it on here. Not because of controversy related…

United Nations News Centre – Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, Republic of Korea and Rwanda obtain non-permanent seats on UN Security Council The United Nations General Assembly has elected Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, the Republic of Korea and Rwanda to serve as non-permanent members on the Security Council for two-year terms beginning on 1 January 2013. The five permanent Council members, which each wield the power of veto, are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Non-permanent members Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo will remain on the 15-member Council until the end of 2013.

Radovan Karadzic opens his defence on genocide charges – Telegraph Describing himself as “mild and tolerant”, Radovan Karadzic has today disputed how many Bosnian Muslims died in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre as he begins his defence against charges of genocide and war crimes.

I start with declaring again that I am happy. I was happy when I first heard the news, and two days after, thinking over all the issues that cause doubt in others, I am still happy. So, this seems to be a very controversial decision of the Norvegian committee, I read all the publications about how this is the worst possible time awarding the EU, when its future is really at stake. It might be, yes. But the achievements of the past 55 years of integration and contribution to Europe’s and not just Europe’s development is unquestionable.  There always were…

Breaking News: European Union wins Nobel Peace Prize breakingnews: New York Times:The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its 2012 peace prize to the European Union, saying it had contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation across the continent. With the body wrestling with the most severe financial crisis in its history over the single euro…