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Outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to offer a blistering criticism of the Bush administration's foreign policy in a farewell speech Monday to a crowd in Independence, Mo. A copy of the speech obtained by FOX News, shows Annan is expected to accuse the U.S. administration of committing human rights abuses in the name of fighting terrorism, and of taking military action without broad international support. Respect for human rights and the rule of law can be advanced only "if America remains true to its principles, including in the struggle against terrorism," the speech says. "When it appears to abandon...

Sudan has agreed to accept non-military support from the United Nations for the African Union peacekeeping force in its war-torn Darfur region, a top AU official said after talks in Nigeria. "The PSC welcomed Sudan?s acceptance of the use of UN systems and command and control structures," AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) head Said Djinnit told reporters late Thursday after a meeting on Darfur on the sidelines of an African-South American summit. A source close to the talks told AFP that "systems and command and control structures" referred essentially to UN logistical support and to the question of who...

Excerpt - GENEVA (AP)--U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday that the U.S. was "trapped in Iraq," and urged Washington to carefully consider when would be the best time to pull out of the country so the withdrawal doesn't lead to a further deterioration of security. "The United States in a way is trapped in Iraq," Annan said. "It cannot stay and it cannot leave. There are those who maintain that its presence is a problem and there are those who say that if it leaves precipitously, the situation will get worse." (MORE TO FOLLOW)

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will be formally nominated as U.N. secretary-general on Monday, ironically only hours after North Korea defied the world body by announcing a nuclear test. The U.N. Security Council will cast its votes, effectively anointing Ban as the successor to Secretary-General Kofi Annan whose 10 years in office expire on Dececmber 31. Six other candidates withdrew, leaving members to vote for Ban only. The 192-member U.N. General Assembly must give final approval to Ban's nomination, which usually follows within a week or two. The vote is expected to be positive. Some...

Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General, welcomed the release of Russian officers in Georgia and called on all sides to come together and engage constructively to address existing problems. Meanwhile his latest report on the Caucasus country speaks of new tensions in the long-running dispute between Georgian authorities and Abkhaz separatists stemming from an operation by Georgian Special Forces, and he warns that only dialogue can resolve differences. "The Secretary-General is pleased that Georgia and the Russian Federation have been able to resolve the issue of the recent arrest of Russian officers in Georgia in a peaceful and constructive manner,"...

IMHO (in my humble opinion) SHAKES LOOSE © by Norman Liebmann In my humble opinion, western civilization may be doomed. Every gook in the Middle East is cursing the Pope and not one single Irishman has rolled up his sleeves. In my humble opinion, Hillary Clinton’s smile could rust a column of Abrams tanks to a halt. In my humble opinion, despite Oliver Stone’s naïve assertion that Hollywood promotes war, when he grows up to be a big boy he will realize Hollywood never promotes anything but itself. In my humble opinion, inveterate yachtsman Walter Cronkite will donate his famous...

Lotta talk today about the UN. Joseph Klein at Frontpage Mag had a piece outlining the need for truth and a "restoration" of the founding principles of the UN. I'm curious to know what founding principles he is referring to:

HAVANA - Cuban television showed brief video footage of ailing President Fidel Castro standing to greet UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and chatting with the visiting dignitary. ‘You look very well, your handshake is strong,’ Annan told Castro during the meeting in a hospitAl like room. The Cuban leader, clad in a dressing gown, stood up to greet Annan, and then sat down as the two chatted. ‘Let me tell you, you look very well, after traveling so much ... around the world,’ Castro said in a soft voice. Castro gave the UN chief a copy of ‘100 Hours with...

UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Kofi Annan has refused to fill out a newly minted U.N. financial disclosure form, rejecting advice of his inner circle that doing so would send a good signal as the U.N. seeks to counter allegations that it is closed to public scrutiny, U.N. officials said Thursday. The U.N. unveiled new rules last year that tightened staff financial disclosure requirements in effect since 1999. Annan is not required to fill out the form because he is technically not a staff member. Nonetheless, two U.N. officials told The Associated Press that several of Annan's top aides had recently urged...

The UN has appointed Antero Lopes as Acting Police Commissioner for the UN peacekeeping operation Timor East, the world body announced Tuesday. Lopes joined the UN Integrated Mission in East Timor (UNMIT) in mid-August. He had previously assisted in the planning of the police component of the new mission as a member of the assessment mission led by Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy, Ian Martin, in June. From 1993 to 1995 Lopes served as a Regional Commander and Chief of Operations in the former Yugoslavia, where he was also co-founder of the project that lead to the Human Rights Commission...

TEHRAN, Iran — U.N. chief Kofi Annan said Sunday that the Holocaust was "an undeniable historical fact" after Iran said it would sponsor a conference to question what it said was Holocaust exaggerations, in a provocative move timed during his visit. The decision came as Annan raised concerns with Iranian officials over an exhibition of cartoons about the Holocaust in Iran's capital, Tehran. Hard-line President Ahmoud Ahmadinejad has called the Nazis' slaughter of 6 million Jews a myth... "God willing, a conference on the Holocaust will be held in the autumn. The Holocaust is not a sacred issue that one...

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Sunday afternoon following a meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Iranian leader had expressed willingness to cooperate with the international community to reach a solution to the escalating crisis around Iran's nuclear enrichment program. However, Annan stressed, Iran remained steadfast in its refusal to cease enrichment ahead of talks.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that an Israeli commando raid deep in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Saturday violated the U.N. brokered cease-fire deal, putting the six-day cease-fire with Hezbollah guerrillas to a critical test. Israel said the raid was launched to stop arms smuggling to the militant Shiite fighters, but Lebanon said the operation violated the U.N. truce agreement. One Israeli officer was killed fighting Hezbollah guerrillas, and two were wounded, one seriously. "All such violations of Security Council resolution 1701 endanger the fragile calm that was reached after much negotiation and undermine the authority of the...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that his country was ready to help restore sustainable peace in the Mideast region, the Fars news agency reported. Ahmadinejad made the remarks in a phone conversation with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the presidential press office said in a statement. According to the statement, in the phone conversation initiated by Annan, the two discussed the latest developments in the Mideast region, UN Security Council Resolution 1701 on the Lebanon crisis and ways to achieve a ceasefire on the Lebanese soil. Ahmadinejad and Annan also stressed the need to establish stability, sustainable and fair...

UNITED NATIONS - Jay-Z boycotted premium champagne Cristal at his clubs after the brand's owner made some remarks he didn't like. Now the rap superstar has a new favorite drink: water. - - - - - Snip - - - - "I figure that once I stumbled upon that, if the information was out and young people knew that these problems exist while we're having Poland Springs at Cipriani and things like that, that we'll get involved," said the 36-year-old rapper, referring to the high-class restaurant chain.

UNITED NATIONS - Israel's air raid on in the Lebanese town of Qana, which killed 28 people, may be part of a larger pattern of violations of international law in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report Monday. In that light, Annan said that the July 30 attack was sufficiently serious to merit a more comprehensive investigation. The attack should be seen "in the broader context of what could be, based on preliminary information available to the United Nations ... a pattern of violations of international law, including international humanitarian law and international...

Like soft drinks and poison, anti-Semitism comes in various flavors and strengths. It is easy and tempting to wax cynical about Mel Gibson, the once-famously outraged-for-being-called-an-anti-Semite Hollywood powerhouse who recently, under the revealing effects of alcohol, proved his erstwhile accusers to have if anything underestimated the depth of his animus for Jews. And, indeed, cynics abound. I am not among them. Not that I am beyond cynicism, unfortunately. But Mr. Gibson's apology, in which he disowned his drunken diatribe and asked the Jewish community to help him in "the process of understanding where those vicious words came from," cannot be...

It was a cool December evening. The Sabbath had ended, and the sons and daughters of Jerusalem bad good-bye to their parents and flooded outside to have fun with their friends on a Saturday night...In the crowd was Assaf Avitan, a fifteen-year-old tenth grader who had just been accepted into a special program for gifted children. Assaf joined his friends that night to celebrate the sixteenth birthday of twins from his Jerusalem neighborhood. He was accompanied by his buddy, fifteen-year-old Golan Turgeman...It was 11:30 pm and Assaf and his pal had been standing on the sidewalk for about fifteen...

In the past three days UN observers have reported frequent attacks close to their positions. Heavy shelling around Khiam on Tuesday had forced the four observers into the bomb shelters. At about 1.20pm, officials say, a jet dropped a bomb only 300 metres away. The observers contacted the Unifil headquarters. The observers warned Israel that their aircraft were dropping bombs dangerously close to a UN position. The Israelis said that they would check the situation and make any necessary adjustments, UN officials say. But jets then dropped ten bombs between 100 and 300 metres from the UN position and fired...

Sometimes it seems as if United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan isn't really of this world. For a head of the United nations he seems to exhibit a surprising otherworldliness. Today, a direct strike against a UNIFIL post in southern Lebanon by an Israeli shell killing four UN military observers has been lambasted by Anan as a deliberate attack. This accusation is without any foundation and Israel has rightly demanded an apology. UNIFIL began as an opportunity for peace, but the UN Interim Force in Lebanon has never made good on its promise. It looked on as Hizballah fortified southern...