Posted on April 27th, 2007 by Marian Houk
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, yesterday received a report “that an Israeli foot patrol allegedly crossed the Blue Line into Lebanese territory, in the general area of Kafar Chouba”, a UN spokesperson told journalists today.  “UNIFIL immediately deployed peacekeepers, followed by reinforcements, to the area … and technical experts were also sent to [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, UN Peacekeeping, UN Security Council
Posted on April 27th, 2007 by Marian Houk
In a rare meeting with the press last week, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for the disputed Western Sahara, Peter van Walsum, told journalists that “he had been ‘absolutely astonished’ by the near-total disagreement between the parties. Even by comparison with many other ‘seemingly impossible’ situations, he said, he found the positions on Western Sahara ‘really [...]
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Filed under: UN Secretary-General, UN Security Council
Posted on April 27th, 2007 by Marian Houk
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas previews Gaza antiquities before opening of exhibit at Geneva’s Museum of Art and History on 27 April. The exhibit will run until 7 October. Most of the artifacts were found and preserved by a private Palestinian, Jawdat Khoudary. The mosaics are being excavated by the Palestinian Antiquities Authority.
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Filed under: Gaza, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on April 26th, 2007 by Marian Houk
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that although there had been a “disruption†in the cease-fire with Israel in the past week, “things are going back as they were before – I hopeâ€. He was speaking at a joint press conference in Geneva with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, who deplored the renewal of violence in [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on April 25th, 2007 by Marian Houk
The Israeli Prime Minister held security consultations on Wednesday afternoon, “in the wake of yesterday’s events in the Gaza Strip” (a mortar and Kassam barrage). The Prime Minister’s office reported after the meeting that “Participants in the consultation discussed a range of possible responses and their diplomatic and military repercussions … Orders were given to [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on April 25th, 2007 by Marian Houk
The BBC’s correspondent Alan Johnstone may still be held captive in Gaza — not to mention even-longer-held Israeli Private Gilad Shalit — and Hamas has declared an end to the truce while the Israeli Defense Forces are threatening to re-invade Gaza again, but the city and Canton of Geneva is opening a fabulous exhibit of [...]
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Filed under: Gaza, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on April 25th, 2007 by Marian Houk
The UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) has issued its tenth report on human rights in Iraq. But in the latest and just-issued report, NGOs and the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights lament, there are no official figures for violent deaths. These figures have been supplied until now by the Ministry of Health and [...]
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Filed under: Iraq, UN Security Council
Posted on April 22nd, 2007 by Marian Houk
Good question. UN SG BAN Ki-Moon met with the Chief Executives Board in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday and Saturday. Of course, they always meet in private — despite all the pious talk about transparency. One thing you can be sure of — all parts of the UN system are working to promote and implement the [...]
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Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Millennium Goals, UN Administration
Posted on April 20th, 2007 by Marian Houk
The Associated Press is reporting from Jerusalem that a UN Human Rights expert says that “Israel’s detention of Palestinian children is feeding the violence in the region”. The UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflicts, Radhika Coomaraswamy, said she visited the Hasharon prison in central Israel, where more than 150 minors are held for [...]
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Filed under: International Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on April 19th, 2007 by Marian Houk
Here are excerpts from remarks made by UN SG BAN Ki-Moon at a press conference with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey in Bern, Switzerland, this evening: “I think everybody, including myself, in the world should be very much concerned and troubled by this ongoing violence and instability in Iraq. The international community has been trying to [...]
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Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Iraq, UN Humanitarian Efforts, UN Secretary-General
