New interaction between UN and regional organizations?

Source: BBC

In the space of two weeks in March, the United Nations authorised unprecedented interventions to protect civilians in Libya and Ivory Coast with dramatic results in both countries. For the BBC World Service, Claire Bolderson looks at how the UN came up with the resolutions and asks whether it is likely to do the same elsewhere.

New website to track $30 billion in climate aid

Source: Reuters | by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

A website launched on Friday will help track whether rich countries are keeping a pledge to come up with $30 billion in climate aid for the poor, seen by the U.N. as a “golden key” to progress in talks on global warming.

The search for the next EU President

Source: BBC News

The executive search for the two top European jobs is proving difficult. There has been a first and inconclusive round of phone calls. There are more potential candidates than jobs. And just beneath the surface are fierce currents and rivalries. There could well be public disputes before the names are chosen at dinner in Brussels a week on Thursday.

The next EU President after Lisbon

Source: BBC News

The European Union is close to deciding who will be appointed to a new post of president to chair EU summits and represent the bloc on the world stage. The way was cleared by the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by the Czech Republic. Speculation is already mounting about potential candidates.

G-20 maps road for chaos

Source: Asia Times | By Hossein Askari and Noureddine Krichene*

As the leaders of the Group of 20 (G-20) countries gather in London this week to discuss their latest views on how to get out of the world financial crisis, a damning picture of the progress likely this week emerges from the pledges made by G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors at their own meeting in London on March 14. Then, the promise was that they would act to restore global growth and support lending and reforms to strengthen the global financial system.

US and China kill British proposal for UN Security Council reform

Source: The Washington Post | By Colum Lynch

Having invited the foreign ministers of the four other permanent Security Council nations to London to discuss enlarging the 15-nation council, Britain on Monday called off the Wednesday meeting after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and China’s foreign minister declined to attend, according to key U.N. members.

Former New Zealand premier nominated for top U.N. development post

Source: United Nations

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has requested the General Assembly to confirm former Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand as the new Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for a four-year term.

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.