Free Republic

he World Jewish Congress is in turmoil, two decades after the billionaire Edgar M. Bronfman Sr. rescued it from crushing debts and propelled it to remarkable successes. With just a few dozen employees and an $8 million annual operating budget, the congress, a nonprofit organization, brought to light the Nazi past of Kurt Waldheim, the former United Nations chief, and forced Swiss banks to pay more than $1 billion to settle Holocaust-related claims. Now the organization that criticized those banks for their lack of transparency and accountability finds itself under attack on similar accusations - and from within the Jewish...

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon said world leaders faced a "defining moment in history" as they balanced their nation's interests with a global clamour to halt the juggernaut of climate change. With just over three days left to broker one of the most ambitious, yet also fiendishly complex, deals in human history, conference chair Denmark appealed for all sides to embrace the spirit of compromise. But China and the United States -- the world's two biggest carbon polluters -- brushed aside European calls for concessions on emissions reductions, the thorniest issue of all. Related article: UN system to...

GENEVA (AFP) – The world is speeding towards a climate catastrophe, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday, urging rapid progress in talks to cut emissions and tackle global warming. "Our foot is stuck on the accelerator and we are heading towards an abyss," the UN Secretary General said in a speech to the World Climate Conference. Ban, who this week visited the Arctic to witness first hand the changes wrought by global warming, warned that many of the "more distant scenarios" predicted by scientists were "happening now." "Scientists have been accused for years of scaremongering. But the real scaremongers...

WASHINGTON – A day after his White House meeting with President Barack Obama, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the United States a "deadbeat" donor to the world body while making the made the rounds on Capitol Hill. Ban's criticism Wednesday of the U.N.'s single biggest backer irked some members of the House Foreign Relations Committee. They were generally supportive of his leadership but voiced concern about U.N. efforts in areas from Sudan to Somalia. "He used the word 'deadbeat' when it came to characterizing the United States. I take great umbrage (over) that," Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the panel's senior Republican, said...

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Thursday he favoured a binding cap on greenhouse gas emissions but noted that the climate change conference in Indonesia should focus on setting a timeline for a deal by 2009. "As far as I am concerned, as secretary general, as a matter of principle, there should be mandatory capping," Ban told reporters here two days before he was due to leave for the Bali conference. "However, I know that there are some concerns in some of the developing countries, therefore, this issue should be discussed in the future negotiation process," he...

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report released Wednesday that he hopes to appoint judges to the international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri by the end of the year. In the report to the Security Council, Ban said the tribunal would not be established until the U.N. had an estimated $35 million to fund its operations through the first year, as well as an additional $85 million in pledges to pay for the following two years. The Security Council approved a resolution in May to establish the tribunal...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council approved a brief extension of U.N. peacekeeping operations in Bosnia on Friday, giving diplomats time to tackle a demand to exempt Americans from prosecution by the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal. The United States has threatened to end its participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations if the council does not grant Americans who take part immunity from arrest and prosecution by the International Criminal Court, which becomes a reality July 1. The council had been expected to extend the U.N. civilian police mission in Bosnia and the authorization for the NATO-led peacekeeping...