U.N. chief meets with President Obama

Source: Associated Press | By John Heilprin

Buoyed by President Barack Obama’s pledge to work on bringing peace to Darfur, the U.N. chief is making the rounds of Capitol Hill to strengthen cooperation on climate change and other pressing global crises.

Obama invites UN Secretary-General to the White House

Source: Reuters

President Barack Obama has invited U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the White House next week, the first meeting between the two since Obama took office, Washington’s U.N. envoy said on Friday.

ICC issues a warrant of arrest for President of Sudan

Source: International Criminal Court

Today, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the arrest of Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, President of Sudan, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He is suspected of being criminally responsible, as an indirect (co-)perpetrator, for intentionally directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians, and pillaging their property. This is the first warrant of arrest ever issued for a sitting Head of State by the ICC.

U.S. to airlift supplies to Darfur

Source: The International Herald Tribune | By Sheryl Gay Stolberg

With just 15 days left in office, President George W. Bush announced that he had ordered an immediate airlift to deliver vehicles and equipment to the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan to bolster a struggling international peacekeeping effort there.

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.

The United Nations is in trouble

Source: Carne Ross (Independent Diplomat) on openDemocracy

The financial crisis has triggered calls for renovation if not replacement of the world’s outdated financial institutions. But there is another crisis – where the damage is measured in terms of real blood shed, not dollars or mortgages lost – that shouts out the need for change: this time at the United Nations, the world body charged with international peace and security.

U.N. head: “A crucial year in the life of our United Nations”

By Andreas S. von Warburg

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“This is a crucial year in the life of our United Nations,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message for the celebration of U.N. Day. “We have just passed the midpoint in the struggle to reach the Millennium Development Goals — our common vision for building a better world in the 21st century.”

Low-profile U.N. chief struggles as diplomatic peacemaker

Source: Washington Post | by Colum Lynch

In the days after Georgian and Russian troops marched into the separatist province of South Ossetia, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon frantically telephoned key leaders and offered the United Nations’ diplomatic help in stemming further violence. But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev refused to take his calls for more than a week, say senior U.S. and U.N. officials.