During his speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, President Obama said the U.S. would oppose a Palestinian bid for UN membership—despite the fact he called for precisely that just a year ago—suggesting Palestine should resolve its conflict with Israel privately. On tonight's Daily Show, Jon…
Even al Qaeda has confirmed that Osama bin Laden was killed by Navy Seals. But Osama bin Laden's son, Omar bin Laden, says he and his family are "not convinced" his father is dead.
Several U.N. workers were killed Friday in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif. Reports indicate that a demonstration against the burning of a Quran by American pastors turned violent. There are conflicting reports about the number of people killed, and a U.N. spokesperson has issued a statement confirming the…
President Obama will finally deliver an address tonight on the current bomb-everything campaign being waged in Libya. It may just be vague rhetoric about the moral need to prevent a massacre without addressing the more granular elements of day-to-day strategy and on which one of those specific days it will end. But if…
Despite a UN resolution and threats by European powers to strike Muammar Qaddafi's forces if they continue to attack Libyan cities, troops loyal to the Libyan dictator today assaulted the eastern city of Benghazi with tanks and aircraft. Update below.
President Obama spoke from the White House earlier this afternoon to give some details about that minor U.S.-supported military intervention in Libya authorization the United Nations passed yesterday. He probably didn't want to say anything, but he's jetting to Brazil this weekend and felt he should throw American…
A UN Security Council vote is expected to pass any moment, with 10 of 15 votes, authorizing the set-up of a no-fly zone and other intervention powers in Libya. Targeted military strikes could begin with hours.
Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, an Iraqi defector under Saddam Hussein whose claims about the former dictator's mobile biological weapons programs were used heavily in the Bush Administration's public case for war, has an interesting story to tell everyone. The source, who, under the alias "Curveball" in intelligence…
Poor Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna! He gave a speech to the U.N. on Saturday about poverty and social unrest—only it was actually the Portuguese Foreign Minister's speech. Luis Amado, Portugal's Foreign Minister, had spoken before Krishna but ditched the prepared remarks; Krishna, apparently, picked up one of…
Lebanon's government has collapsed after enough Hezbollah ministers and allies withdrew from the prime minister's cabinet. The prime minister has been cooperating with a U.N. investigation into former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination, which is expected to indict Hezbollah officials.
What terrible things should you fear today, you ask? Terrorists plotting to poison food at hotels and restaurants; crude bombs on Rome's subway; and the "suspicious odor" that caused the UN to evacuate this morning. And it's only 1pm.
That cholera epidemic sweeping Haiti? Probably the fault of U.N. peacekeepers.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told an interviewer today that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should resign if she had her diplomats "engage in espionage in the United Nations." Hillary Clinton, however, is unlikely to listen to Julian Assange.
A United Nations official said the cholera outbreak in Haiti could spread to 200,000 people within the next three months, and that some 2,000 people had already died: "This epidemic is moving faster. It's going to spread." [Reuters]
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has deemed 46 cultural practices from around the world part of the "intangible cultural heritage of humanity." French cuisine made the cut, as did the Kirkpinar oil wrestling festival in Turkey. Watch!
A bedbug-sniffing dog has found the presence of bedbugs at the United Nations building. Shoot, the bedbugs have basically a freeway to the White House now! This must be Ahmadinejad's doing. We give Iran backpackers, and they give us bedbugs?
The U.S. Embassy has issued an apology to Filipino President Benigno Aquino III for staging his meet-and-greet with President Obama in front of an upside flag of the Philippines on Friday. "This was an honest mistake," said an American spokesperson.
Cesar Mercado, the Nicaraguan diplomat found with his throat slashed in his Bronx apartment, may have killed himself because a recent HIV diagnosis. While cops were originally suspecting murder, they now think Mercado's injuries were self-inflicted.
The only released prisoner of three Americans detained in Iran since last year, Sarah Shourd, met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday in New York "in order to clear up any misunderstanding that led to our detention."
Nicaraguan diplomat Cesar Mercado was found dead today in his Bronx apartment. His throat was cut and the knife was lying next to him. Mercado's driver found him when he went to bring him to the UN's General Assembly.
