The United Nations discusses gay rights

Source: The New York Times | by Neil MacFarquhar

An unprecedented declaration seeking to decriminalize homosexuality won the support of 66 countries in the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, but opponents criticized it as an attempt to legitimize pedophilia and other “deplorable acts.”

World Bank: China, a force for economic stability

Source: World Bank

World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick said today that despite its recent slowing growth, the Chinese economy continues to play a key stabilizing role as other economies around the world come to terms with the effects of a global recession.

Poznan: UN head calls for green new deal

Source: Reuters | by Gabriela Baczynska and Megan Rowling

The world must avoid backsliding in fighting global warming and work out a “Green New Deal” to fix its twin climate and economic crises, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday. “We must re-commit ourselves to the urgency of our cause,” Ban told a December 1-12 meeting of 100 environment ministers in Poznan, Poland, reviewing progress toward a new U.N. climate treaty meant to be agreed at the end of 2009.

Susan Rice to be appointed as new Ambassador to the U.N.

Source: The Associated Press (and the Guardian) | By Edith Lederer

Susan Rice, the first African-American woman named as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, brings to the job a lifetime’s work on international issues, an insider’s knowledge of the White House and State Department, and close ties to President-elect Barack Obama.

With Obama and Clinton, a new era for US foreign policy

Source: The New York Times | By David Stout

President-elect Barack Obama called for “a new dawn of American leadership” on Monday as he formally introduced his national security team, led by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as his nominee for secretary of state.