WASHINGTON (AP) — How’s this for awkward? The United States has a delegation at international climate talks in Bonn that will be telling other nations what they should do on an agreement that the president wants no part of. President Donald Trump has promised to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 Paris climate pact where … Continue reading
GENEVA (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson doubled down Thursday on Washington’s call for Syrian President Bashar Assad to leave power, looking past recent battlefield gains by his Russian-backed forces to insist that “the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end.” Tillerson made the comments after what he called a … Continue reading
PARIS (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. decision to pull out of UNESCO (all times local): 3:30 p.m. The director of UNESCO is expressing “profound regret” at the U.S. government’s decision to pull out of the U.N. cultural agency because of what’s seen as longstanding anti-Israel bias. Director-general Irina Bokova said in a statement … Continue reading
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump says achieving peace between the Israelis and Palestinians may be the “toughest deal of all” he’s tried to negotiate. Trump says his administration nonetheless is working “very hard” for peace in the region. He says there’s a “pretty good shot” it can be achieved. Trump commented during a … Continue reading
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Two senior U.N. officials on Tuesday warned of the spread of cholera and malnutrition in Yemen, where millions of civilians have been caught in a two-year-old civil war. Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N. humanitarian chief in Yemen, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that poverty and disease are visibly spreading amid the … Continue reading
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The new U.N. disarmament chief says a team from the international chemical weapons watchdog found exposure “to sarin or a sarin-like substance” in samples from an attack on April 4 in northern Syria that killed over 90 people and now wants to visit the town of Khan Sheikhoun. Izumi Nakamitsu told … Continue reading
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Security Council voted unanimously Thursday, April 13, to end the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti in mid-October after 13 years, sending a strong signal that the international community believes the impoverished Caribbean nation is stabilizing after successful elections. The peacekeepers helped normalize a country in chaos after political upheaval in … Continue reading
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley on Thursday, April 13, urged all countries that provide troops for U.N. peacekeeping missions to hold soldiers accountable for sexual abuse and exploitation, an appeal that came after she cited an Associated Press investigation into a child sex ring in Haiti involving Sri Lankan peacekeepers. She also … Continue reading
VIENNA (AP) — The chief U.S. State Department counter-narcotics official on Tuesday, March 14, 2017 hailed a pending United Nations move to control substances used to make a deadly synthetic drug, but acknowledged it will not put an immediate dent in illegal trafficking of the chemicals. Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield said the U.N.’s … Continue reading
JORDAN-SYRIA BORDER (AP) — Armed Islamic State extremists are expanding their influence in a sprawling camp for displaced Syrians on Jordan’s border, posing a growing threat to the U.S.-allied kingdom, a senior Jordanian military commander said. Brig. Gen. Sami Kafawin, chief of Jordan’s border forces, spoke to The Associated Press during a tour of the … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the fighting in Syria (all times local): 5:30 p.m. The Russian military says it has sent a team of sappers to clear the eastern part of Aleppo from mines. Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the military’s General Staff said Wednesday the unit has 200 soldiers and 47 vehicles. He … Continue reading
MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian military said Friday its officers have found evidence of chemical weapons use by Syrian militants in the northern area of Aleppo where government forces are trying to regain control of areas they recently lost to insurgents. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that ministry experts have found … Continue reading
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya is pulling out its 1,000 troops deployed to South Sudan as part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission and stopping future deployments after the U.N. secretary-general fired the force’s Kenyan commander, the foreign affairs ministry said Wednesday. In a further blow to regional efforts to calm the civil war, Kenya said … Continue reading
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon fired the commander of the peacekeeping force in South Sudan on Tuesday after an independent investigation sharply criticized the military response to deadly attacks in July on a U.N. compound housing 27,000 displaced people. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced the dismissal of Kenyan Lt. Gen. Johnson Mogoa Kimani … Continue reading
LONDON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson are hosting a meeting in London in which they hope to break Libya’s political stalemate and resolve its acute cash shortage. Monday’s session comes after the U.N.-backed Libyan government’s failure to win legitimacy — or to function at all — … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 