Free Republic

Compelling new scientific evidence suggests United Nations peacekeepers have carried a virulent strain of cholera -- a super bug -- into the Western Hemisphere for the first time. The vicious form of cholera has already killed 7,000 people in Haiti, where it surfaced in a remote village in October 2010. Leading researchers from Harvard Medical School and elsewhere told ABC News that, despite UN denials, there is now a mountain of evidence suggesting the strain originated in Nepal, and was carried to Haiti by Nepalese soldiers who came to Haiti to serve as UN peacekeepers after the earthquake that ravaged...

This week’s earthquake in Haiti has been a catastrophe for the island nation, with hundreds of thousands feared dead. Less well documented but equally tragic is that relief organizations, including the United Nations, have also been swept up in the disaster’s wake. The United Nations has suffered its worst loss of life from a single incident in its history as a result of the January 12 earthquake. As of this writing, the United Nations has reported the loss of 36 lives of its personnel – 13 civilians, 4 policemen and 19 members of the UN military peacekeeping force. At least...

Just now on on CNN there was some incredible live TV. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been wearing the two hats of journalist and physician. Earlier this evening he was in a medical tent with about 25 patients who have just had surgery or are extremely ill. There were roughly 10 UN docs and nurses there as well. At some point the docs were told to evacuate for "security reasons". Dr. Gupta said he'd heard no gunfire- there hadn't been any trouble this evening- and yet suddenly all these docs and nurses were told to leave. They left. LEAVE THEIR PATIENTS...

On-Air live coverage.

Right now, more than 90,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops are stationed in conflict zones around the world—more than at any other moment in history. Though U.N. peacekeeping missions are financed largely by the U.S. and European countries, most soldiers on the ground come from the developing world. In 2008, the top five troop contributors for these operations were Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, and Nepal, with Ghana, Jordan, and Rwanda close behind. Some critics of the current system are calling for the U.N. to create a standing army—like NATO has—to improve response time and increase professionalism of troops. The U.S. remains opposed...

The United States is prepared to provide more military observers, police, and civilian staff to beef up the U.N.'s far-flung peacekeeping operations, the U.S. ambassador said Monday. The United Nations has nearly 115,000 troops, police and civilians deployed in 16 peacekeeping missions from Africa and the Mideast to Cyprus, Kosovo, Western Sahara and Haiti, but it has had trouble finding soldiers, helicopters and other key assets for several important operations.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Militants blasted their way into two transport terminals in Pakistan on Sunday and torched more than 160 vehicles destined for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, in the biggest assault yet on a vital military supply line, officials said.

In the Ivory Coast, a 13-year-old girl is gang-raped in a field by 10 UN peacekeepers , and left on the ground, bleeding, trembling and vomiting. This is part of a larger picture involving fresh allegations by a U.K.-based charity, Save the Children, of UN peacekeepers abusing children in the Ivory Coast, Haiti, and Southern Sudan. As detailed by the BBC, "the UN has said it welcomes the report, which it will study closely." Oh, great. The UN can add this report to its research collection of previous reports on UN peacekeeper rape in Liberia and Sierra Leone and the...

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA (AFP) - UN police were forced to withdraw Monday from the Serb-populated part of this flashpoint Kosovo town after coming under attack as they stormed a court occupied by Serbs opposed to independence. Police said more than 100 people were injured as the troops met gunfire and suspected grenade blasts in the worst violence to have flared in Kosovo since its independence declaration a month ago on February 17. The clashes erupted after UN police and NATO-led KFOR (Kosovo Force) troops surrounded the courthouse in Kosovska Mitrovica for a pre-dawn raid to evict the Serb protestors. Kosovo police...

French peacekeepers carried out war games in south Lebanon on Tuesday in what appeared to be a an orientation with the terrain abutting Israel. The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said a unit of the French contingent serving with the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) backed by Armored Personnel carriers carried out the maneuver in the eastern sector of south Lebanon, better known as the Arqoub region. The French contingent, the report added, carried out similar maneuvers last week in the central sector of the southern province abutting Israel. UNIFIL and troops of the Lebanese army patrol a demilitarized...

KHARTOUM, Sudan - An American diplomat and his driver were shot to death Tuesday in the Sudanese capital, the U.S. Embassy said, a day after a joint African Union-United Nations force took over peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region. It was not immediately known if the motive for the attack was political or a random crime. "This afternoon, the American officer succumbed to his injuries and passed away," said Walter Braunohler, the spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum. Braunohler said the diplomat, whose name was not released, worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Sudanese Foreign Ministry identified...

He has fought against foes ranging from the Green Goblin to Doctor Octopus, but Spider-Man now faces an even more formidable challenge: improving the battered image of the United Nations. In a move reminiscent of storylines developed during the second world war, the UN is joining forces with Marvel Comics, creators of Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, to create a comic book showing the international body working with superheroes to solve bloody conflicts and rid the world of disease. The comic, initially to be distributed free to 1m US schoolchildren, will be set in a war-torn fictional country and feature...

Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops have traded in gold and sold weapons to Congolese militia groups they were meant to disarm, the BBC has learnt.(sic) These militia groups were guilty of some of the worst human rights abuses during the Democratic Republic of Congo's long civil war. The trading went on in 2005. A UN investigative team sent to gather evidence was obstructed and threatened. The team's report was buried by the UN itself to "avoid political fallout". These events took place in and around the mining town of Mongbwalu, in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The Pakistani battalion of the...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese military intelligence officials have detained members of a suspected "terrorist network" for plotting attacks against U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, the army said Monday. The group had planted a bomb near the southern city of Tyre in an attempt to target a U.N. patrol, but it did not explode because of a problem with the trigger, the army said in a statement. The suspects also admitted they planned to plant two other bombs in the area and detonate them within a short period "in order to cause maximum casualties among the forces," the statement said. Two...

Ozawa in power would send SDF to U.N. force in Afghanistan 10/06/2007 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN Japanese troops would join a U.N. peacekeeping force in Afghanistan if Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) takes over the government, according to a proposal by party leader Ichiro Ozawa. Ozawa made the proposal in the November issue of the monthly opinion journal Sekai (World), due out on Tuesday. The proposal will serve as the basis for the opposition party's counterproposal to a government bill to extend Japan's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean for the U.S.-led war against terror. In the article, the Minshuto chief...

The Darfur region of Western Sudan has been beset by a genocidal civil conflict since 2003. Now, finally, the United Nations has decided to put its members' peacemaking might behind the UN's lofty rhetoric-- sort of. On Tuesday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution sponsored by Britain and France that would send 26,000 troops and police to Darfur. If those peacekeepers actually materialize; and if sponsoring nations agree to pay the $2-billion that such a mission would cost every year; and if the troops are able to do their job despite rules of engagement that restrict their ability to...

NEW YORK — The U.N. Security Council yesterday authorized a new peacekeeping mission for Darfur, a complex military effort with 26,000 African and U.N. forces under a single command that will be the largest ever attempted by the world body. The resolution setting up the mission also calls for an immediate cease-fire in the Darfur region of Western Sudan and sets a timetable for the force to be fully deployed by early 2008. No U.S. troops will participate directly in the mission, but they likely will help move troops and materiel. "We call in particular on [Sudanese] President [Omar] Bashir...

Security Council Approves 26,000-Strong Peacekeeping Force to Help End Darfur Bloodshed 07-31-2007 4:22 PM By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS (Associated Press) -- The U.N. Security Council approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur on Tuesday to try to help end four years of fighting that has killed more than 200,000 people in the conflict-wracked Sudanese region. The force _ the first joint peacekeeping mission by the African Union and the United Nations _ will replace the beleaguered 7,000-strong AU force now on the ground in Darfur no later than Dec. 31. The council urged that the...

VIENNA, Austria — U.N. standards for selecting peacekeepers are too low, and soldiers from countries whose armies are suspected of abuse should not be considered for peacekeeping duty, the U.N.'s chief anti-torture investigator said. U.N. special rapporteur Manfred Nowak also told the Austrian news magazine Profil in an interview for Monday's editions that the United Nations should reconsider forming its own professional standing army. Concerns about the quality, training and ethics of peacekeepers are growing as developing nations with questionable human-rights records increasingly send troops for international peacekeeping operations, Nowak said.

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Militant Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah suggested Tuesday that Israel may be behind two recent bomb attacks that targeted United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. Six peacekeepers belonging to the Spanish contingent were killed on June 24 when a bomb struck their armored personnel carrier in the country's south, marking the first such attack against the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL. On July 16, a roadside bomb struck a U.N. jeep in the village of Qassimiyeh near the southern port city of Tyre, causing damage to the vehicle but no casualties. No group has...