UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said on Wednesday he intended to set up an international commission to probe the assassination of former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto during a meeting with her widower, President Asif Ali Zardari.
United nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern over the 'highly dangerous' militarisation of conflict in Syria, even as the world body said that over 100,000 people fled the country last month.
United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-moon "very much" hopes that Narendra Modi attends the UN General Assembly in New York later this year and particularly participate in the climate change summit, a top official of the world body said on Tuesday.
The global community is in a position to eradicate AIDS, but funding will be critical to future progress, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said as the fight against endemic entered into its fourth decade.
"I made clear to President (Mahinda) Rajapaksa that I intend to move forward on a Group of Experts which will advise me on setting the broad parameters and standards on the way ahead on establishing accountability concerning Sri Lanka," Ban told media-persons I New York, referring to a conversation he had with Sri Lankan President on Thursday.
The world on Saturday condemned the three explosions that rattled Nigeria's 50th independence day in Abuja and claimed 15 lives. Condemning the attacks, Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan promised that those behind the act "will pay dearly for this heinous crime." Nigeria's former colonial master Britain condemned the act and promised to help the oil-rich African nation in bringing the attackers to book.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hoped that India would find a way to build and strengthen partnerships of common ground with its neighbours and encouraged it to do "even more" in advancing peace and security.
In a sharp criticism of the US$ 4.2 billion United Nations budget presented by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for 2008-09, India has slammed its emphasis only on peace, security and human rights rather than on resolving the basic causes of conflicts including lack of development and socio-economic inequities. Describing it as "technically inadequate and politically flawed," India's Ambassador to the UN Nirupam Sen bluntly told Ban that it needs to be fundamentally revised.
Pakistan has formally communicated to the United Nations its protest and condemnation of the air-strike by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation that killed 24 soldiers and has strained ties between Washington and Islamabad. Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Abdullah Hussain Haroon has written a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, informing him of the NATO attack of November 26 "on Pakistan's border posts (that) resulted in the martyrdom of 24 officers".
"India will continue to play a constructive and positive role, along with like-minded countries, to this end," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said while briefing on the talks Gambari had with Dr Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon during his two-day visit to New Delhi since Monday.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has rejected the UN deadline of January 31 for submission of emission targets and climate actions under the Copenhagen Accord.
Ban has not taken any stand on the fairness or otherwise of the trial, the UN said.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the world needs sustainable development.
Defying the United States, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formally requested that the United Nations recognise the Palestinian state.
In a historic meeting on non-communicable diseases, the international community called on the food and beverages industry as well as the tobacco and pharmaceutical industry to be held accountable for putting profit ahead of public health.
India on Friday said that the United Nations should ensure that Pakistan fulfills its commitment to end the terrorism emanating from its soil.External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said he had apprised UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday about the details of the Mumbai attacks, which were carried out by elements based in Pakistan. "I requested the UN Secretary General to look into those aspects and ensure that Pak fully implements its own commitments," he said.
"There is a serious problem of accountability and transparency, efficiency, mobility and professionalism," Ban said on September 11 at the United Nations.
The United Nations has asked India and Pakistan to de-escalate tension through dialogue and respect the ceasefire along the Line of Control, in the wake of the killing of two Indian soldiers during an attack by Pakistani troops.
India will showcase the Aakash-2 tablet at the United Nations, amid clarification by the maker of the low-cost tablet over sourcing some parts from China.
Rising prices and global economic slowdown are threatening Millennium Goals, necessitating an 'aggressive push' to achieve the anti-poverty targets by 2015, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Pakistan has taken up the "despicable act" of desecration of the Quran in Florida with the United Nations, and urged it to take urgent steps to promote inter-faith harmony in the wake of increasing acts of Islamophobia.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki Moon on Tuesday said he had impressed upon top Pakistani leadership, including President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that they should fully cooperate with India and thoroughly investigate the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Addressing a press conference on returning from his visit to India and Pakistan, he said the Pakistani leaders had 'committed to me that they will fully cooperate' with India in the investigation
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and all member nations, Pakistan's Ambassador to the world body Abdullah Hussain Haroon has said, building up circumstantial evidence has resulted in some of the costliest mistakes by mankind, the latest example being the US intervention in Iraq.
Terming India a "leading voice" in the developing world, the UN today said both India and Pakistan should continue their composite dialogue process to maintain peace in the subcontinent but ruled out withdrawal of its observer mission in both countries.
With the unrest in Africa and West Asia triggering a refugee deluge, the United Nations on Tuesday urged countries to welcome millions of such asylum seekers fleeing threats to their lives and not turn away from them citing budget constraints.
Seven United Nations peacekeepers from the west African country of Niger were killed in an ambush while they were on a patrol in a southwest region of Ivory Coast, an attack which drew strong condemnation from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has sought a renewed commitment from governments to tackle the global HIV/AIDS epidemic which has already claimed more than 25 million lives worldwide and devastated communities, especially in Africa.
There are now one billion hungry people on the globe, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said recently.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has been made part of high-level UN panel on global sustainability set up by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Three years back they were rivals for the same job. Today, they were shaking hands in a meeting which, at least on surface, looked quite warm. United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki Moon shook hands with Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor in UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday.
Iran has complained to the United Nations about the remarks of Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who had said that the United States would totally obliterate the Islamic Republic, if it were to launch a nuclear attack on Israel. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Iranian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi described the statement as "provocative, unwarranted & irresponsible". "Iran would not hesitate to act in self-defense," he warned.
The Sri Lankan government has slammed the decision of the United Nations to set up a panel of experts to advice Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on the human rights situation in the country, saying it was 'unwarranted' since Colombo has already formed a mechanism to address accountability issues. "The proposed panel of experts was unwarranted since Lanka has already set in motion its local mechanism to address accountability issues, said Minister of External Affairs G L Peiris.
The United Nations on Tuesday delayed till April 15 the release of its probe panel's report on the assassination of former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto following a request from Islamabad.
The Daily Telegraph of London reported on Tuesday, the first day of Ban in office, that UN peacekeepers and civilian staff were raping and abusing children as young as 12 in southern Sudan.
The Indian Consulate celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Republic Day in New York with much fanfare.
As the world readies to welcome its seventh billion inhabitant on Monday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for "unity of purpose" among people across nations to address problems of climate change, economic crisis and inequality.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Friday handed over a landmark request to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon seeking a full United Nations membership for a Palestinian state.
In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the President of the UN Security Council Ruhakana Rugunda, Israel accused an Indian contingent of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) of having done nothing to prevent the demonstrators from crossing the border and even cooperating with the group, The Jerusalem Post reported.
"This is, again, a very serious, important issue to which international community must pay attention on an urgent basis," he remarked. "We need to act on the basis of several principles, that this global warming is a global issue."
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised the United Nations that his forces would protect Tamil civilians as it pushes ahead with its offensive to defeat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Rajapaksa gave this assurance over telephone to UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon, as his forces overran the last base of the sea Tigers near Mulaittivu, cutting off all their escape routes.
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