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At WFP, It's Hurry Up and Wait for Josette Sheeran Shiner, and Delays in Nepal

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, January 4 -- On the first working day of 2007, the new UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon showed up to work in New York. On the third working day of 2007, the new head of the UN World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, selected in November, showed up to work in Geneva, as the new U.S. Congress, elected in November, convened in Washington.

            And in Rome, seat of the UN World Food Program, whose new Executive Director Josette Sheeran Shiner's confirmation was rushed through purportedly because James Morris wanted to leave at the end of 2006, Ms. Sheeran Shiner was nowhere to be found. On January 4, WFP put out a press release listing James Morris still acting as executive director. But the UN's own news service of November 7 had announced that " Mr. Morris... remains in office until the end of the year" and that " Ms. Sheeran will take office at the beginning of 2007 as WFP’s new chief, the food agency said."  So what changed? Thursday no one would say. It's as if the previous UN comments, including those used to rush through Ms. Sheeran Shiner's confirmation, never existed. But click here and see below.

WFP's Morris with clowns in Rome - but where is Josette Sheeran Shiner?

   During the controversy in September surrounding Josette Sheeran Shiner's selection to replace James Morris as head of the WFP, Inner City Press was repeatedly told by UN officials that the reason for pushing to confirm Ms. Sheeran Shiner even in Kofi Annan's final lame duck months was that Mr. Morris wanted to leave WFP at the end of the year. This was offered as explanation for then-U.S. Ambassador John Bolton's conflicting position that Kofi Annan should make no appointments running past the end of 2006, and then his and the U.S.'s support for Josette Sheeran Shiner for a five year term.

            Inner City Press pointed out that Mr. Morris' term ran through April, and so there was no reason to rush through an appointment on a lame duck basis. But Inner City Press was told that Mr. Morris was leaving at the end of the year, hence the rush. Ms. Sheeran Shiner's confirmation was reported, by an affiliate of her old employer the Washington Times, as meaning she would start on the first day of January, 2007: Morris "will turn over the position at the beginning of 2007, four months before his tenure expires." Mr. Morris' December trip to Zimbabwe included reports that he was leaving at the end of the year: "World Food Program Chief Executive Officer James Morris was expected in Harare on Sunday for a final 24-hour visit before he retires from the post at the end of the year."

            Then on January 4, WFP put out a press release listing Mr. Morris as still acting as executive director. Inner City Press emailed WFP in Rome, the contact on the press release, but was told the individual listed on the press release is on annual leave, and was referred to WFP's New York office, which insists despite all previous statements on the matter at UN Headquarters that Mr. Morris always planned to leave in April. Now this revisionist tale is being foisted on Headquarters. But as the spokesman at the time knows, the defense of the lame duck recommendation of Ms. Sheeran Shiner was that it had to be done by the end of the year. Now it all seems a bait-and-switch, even sketchier than before. A new low? Oh but they just keep coming...

            In pre-Josette WFP news, Inner City Press asked the agency on Thursday about two situations in one country: Nepal. There are barriers to providing food to the rebels, pending disarmament; there are shortfalls in service to the Bhutanese refugees in the country. (Click here for a previous Inner City Press story about these refugees.)  On Thursday morning, Inner City Press asked WFP in Rome and New York for an update on both situations, and was sent in response this Internet link. It's a nice site, but it's no update. What's going on? To be continued.

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At the UN, Ban Ki-moon Visits Press, and Is Pointed to Waste at the Vienna Cafe, Sudan and Kosovo

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, January 4 -- Of Ban Ki-moon it can be said, he gets around. On his third working day at the UN, the new Secretary-General came through the press area, stopping to shake hands with reporters. As part of his tour, Inner City Press urged him to go check out the holes in the ceilings over the Vienna Cafe in the UN's basement. Earlier on Thursday, Inner City Press had asked his spokeswoman about this move to provide ventilation for smoking. "Just to provide ventilation," she answered. "It didn't say for people to smoke in the area." Video here, from Minute 15:50 to 17:31.

            Asked at the noon briefing for Ban Ki-moon's position on this use of UN and member state money on smoking ventilation that will be ripped out in less than two years, the spokeswoman said, "People need to breathe within the next two years," then promised to check into it, by asking "the people in charge." But those might not be the only people that should be asked. And now Ban Ki-moon has been asked directly, to go take a look with his own eyes. We'll see.

Ban Ki-moon looks closely -- into waste, fraud and abuse?

            From the death penalty to the abuse of minors in Sudan, from waste of UN funds to no-show high officials, the questions just keep coming for incoming Ban Ki-moon.

            Thursday's revelation of 13 additional investigations in Sudan by the Office of Internal Oversight Services makes one suddenly remember the standoff a year ago between OIOS and then-Special Envoy Jan Pronk, who directed his staff not to cooperate with OIOS. That fight, and Pronk's blog, take on a different hue now. How transparent was the blog, if like the UN it did not reveal investigations of child sexual abuse ongoing since at least 2005? We hope to see this address in the future blogging of Jan Pronk. And on Thursday Inner City Press reiterated its earlier request that OIOS come and answer questions, as it was said would be done once OIOS finished its process in front of the General Assembly, which ended in December. Now what's the delay?

            Inner City Press at Thursday's UN noon briefing asked for Ban Ki-moon's position on two other matters: the Serbian prime minister's letter about Kosovo, and Pakistan's planned use of land mines on its border with Afghanistan. The answers, as of press time, were not entirely clear. On the Pakistan land mine controversy, Inner City Press was referred to a statement by UN field staff back in December -- when Kofi Annan was Secretary-General. On Kosovo, it was confirmed to Inner City Press that the Serbian prime minister's letter was received. The position on Kosovo, the spokesperson said, remains the same. Video here, from Minute 14:55. Click here for yesterday's Kosovo (and Russia) story.

  The spokeswoman's mantra of Wednesday -- "just wait until later in the week!" -- has now been amended. The announcement of the next Deputy Secretary General will not take place on Friday, she says, but rather earlier next week. A growing critique of the appointments to date is not only "same old, same old," but that even new people, like Sir John Holmes, are put into the wrong jobs. The UK put forward Holmes to head Political Affairs. Ban Ki-moon has other plans for that post, and so put Holmes in charge of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, in which Holmes has no track record.  One wag said it's like the Bush-crony "ol' Brownie," Michael Brown, heading up FEMA when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Here's hoping it's not. Watch this site, for more on Ban Ki-moon.

To Accommodate Smoking, UN Spends $130,000 on Ducts Faced with Demolition Within Two Years

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, January 2 -- Practicality, it seems clear, is the better part of diplomacy. How else to explain the UN spending $130,000 to install for two years a ventilation duct system for an indoor cafe in which no one is supposed to be smoking?

            On the Saturday before Christmas, while covering a rare weekend Security Council meeting at which sanctions on Iran were adopted, Inner City Press noticed in the UN basement that the Austria / Vienna Cafe had been walled off.  Informal inquiries found that the plan was to ventilate the space to remove cigarette smoke. This cafe is often smoke-filled, despite a 2003 Secretary-General's Bulletin purporting to ban smoking in the UN, as it is banned in all public indoor areas in New York City.

            Inner City Press sent written questions about the work to UN officials and spokespeople, before and after New Years. On Tuesday in two separate written response, Inner City Press was told that the contract was subject to competitive bidding and that cost of the work was $130,000. To Inner City Press' follow-up question of whether the work would be destroyed when the now-adopted $1.88 billion Capital Master Plan (CMP) results in the gut rehabilitation of the UN, the official in charge, Ms. Joan McDonald, replied that "this work will not be destroyed by the CMP... CMP have confirmed."

            But when Inner City Press subsequently telephoned the CMP's Administration and Communication Chief Ms. Vivian Van de Perre, she stated that all of the work being done in the Vienna Cafe will be ripped out. Then why are they paying $130,000 for the work? "That's a good question," she said, adding that she'd had the same doubt and then asking, "Have you spoken with Joan McDonald?" Well, yes, this very afternoon:

Subject: Re: Follow-up questions on Vienna Cafe work

From: mcdonald [at] un.org

To: Inner City Press

Sent: Tue, 2 Jan 2007 3:56 PM

  Matthew

Apologies for the delay in response as you are aware I was out last week...

Q: what consideration was given, and by whom, to the relation between the cost and the amount of time the ventilation would be in use, before being destroyed in the upcoming gut-rehab of the space under the Capital Master Plan?

[A:] This work will not be destroyed by the CMP.  This CMP have confirmed. During the life of the CMP there will be projects carried out by FMS which are not covered by CMP... We coordinate all FMS projects with CMP. FYI the review process of this project was like all other projects through the Chief of FMS and in this particular case I was consulted and I agreed that the project should go ahead. The work is completed.   The clean up of the area, including furniture and shampooing the carpet will happen today and tomorrow and the cafe will be back first thing Thursday morning.

            A visit to the area on Tuesday morning by Inner City Press found holes in the ceiling now covered with sheet plastic. A workman on the scene with a tape measure, when asked about the work, said that only the asbestos abatement had been completed, and that the duct work, by Alex Wolf & Son, has yet to be done and can only be performed from six p.m. to six a.m., since the cafe will re-open later this week.

             In Ms. McDonald's above-quoted message, FMS stands for "Facilities Management Services." In the most recent UN phone book, the director of FMS is Martin Bender. But Mr. Bender has not been coming in to work, due to an investigation into his alleged collusion with a UN contractor. (Mr. Bender's replacement, Andrew Nye, did not respond to telephone and email requests for comment on this story.) The Procurement Fraud Task Force is interviewing others in Facilities Management Services. Whether related or not, FMS clearly does *not* coordinate with the Capital Master Plan, whose spokesperson told Inner City Press on Tuesday that all of this work will be ripped out.  

Smoking: outdoors in Cambodia, free. Indoors at the UN? $130,000 for two years

            In 2003 Mayor Bloomberg prohibited smoking in public indoor areas in New York City. (More recently, the UN's WHO is a beneficiary of Bloomberg's $125 anti-smoking grant.) Kofi Annan followed suit with a Bulletin, 2003/9, stating that "No smoking shall be permitted in any of the UN premises at Headquarters." Nevertheless smoking continued, defended in a pinch by Ambassadors citing diplomatic immunity. Russia's then-Ambassador Sergey Lavrov was quoted that Annan "doesn't own this building," while heading off to smoke in the Delegate's Lounge.

            More recently, the front line of the smoking battle has been in the area outside the Security Council chamber. Diplomats and staffers often smoke there. Petitions have gone up on the wall, with dozens of signatures, alongside lists of the impacts of smoking. A copy of Kofi Annan's Bulletin that "No smoking shall be permitted in any of the UN premises at Headquarters" was even posted.

            In the basement, someone gave up the fight. The extent of smoking at what's also call the Viennese Cafe has been noted online by NGOs and bloggers of the right and left, and even from the youth. It has been pointed out that many more staffers than diplomats frequent the Vienna Cafe, presumably making the three-year old no smoking policy easier to enforce. But enforcement, one wag noted, has never been the UN's strength. And so the contact for the ducts, to suck smoke from the cafe. But when the whole area is going to be gut-rehabilitated in two years or less, why pay $130,000 to accommodate smoking, which is already prohibited?

          A half-dozen workmen were onsite at 7 p.m. Tuesday night. Several acknowledged the absurdity of the work. A man in with an "FMS" badge sewn on his shirt, unnamed to avoid retaliation, pointed at the holes in the ceiling and said, "For this, they should have taken the whole ceiling down. Because when they fix this area, all of the ceiling that's been left will have to do -- it's asbestos. And they aren't even ventilating the seating area by the back conference rooms, where people smoke all the time. Why not send them all up to the Ex-Press Bar and open a window? Or just tell them they can't smoke, like the rest of us?"

            To recap, a UN official who signed off on this work has told us that the work will not be ripped up by the Capital Master Plan  gut-rehabilitation, while a spokeswoman for the Capital Master Plan has told us unequivocally that the work *will* be ripped out, "all of it." Even putting aside the issues raised by accommodating an already prohibited activity, and beyond the she said - she said, one wonders how a $1.88 billion rehabilitation would not involve the full rebuilding of this space.

            New Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday told reporters that the UN is "sometimes unfairly criticized" so he is encouraging staff "to have continuous dialogue with the press." So maybe these questions will be answered. Watch this site.

Previously...

On WFP, Annan and Ban Ki-Moon Hear and See No Evil, While Resume of Josette Sheeran Shiner Is Edited

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, November 7 -- In the hours after Josette Sheeran Shiner was "confirmed" as the new head of the UN World Food Program, questions continued to arise.

   At the UN spokesman's noon briefing, reporters asked about Ms. Sheeran Shiner's now-UN resume, which omits previous claims of status as  Pulitzer Prize finalist and as promoter of the interests of U.S. agribusiness, and about the involvement of the U.S. and of Ban Ki-Moon (and another Moon, see below) in choosing Ms. Sheeran Shiner.

            At a 10 a.m. stakeout interview, Inner City Press asked U.S. Amb. Bolton: "On WFP, did the U.S. reach out to the incoming secretary- general, Ban Ki-Moon, in order to get his position on it? Video on UNTV, from Minute 2:48.

            Ambassador Bolton replied, as transcribed by the U.S. Mission, "My understanding is that the secretary-general consulted Ban Ki-Moon's office, and we certainly supported that and supported the decision to go ahead with Josette Sheeran's announcement. As I've said to you before, this is almost exactly what happened in late 1991, when Javier Perez de Cuellar and the then- director general of the FAO [Edward Saouma] when they appointed Cathy Bertini to be the executive director of the World Food Program."

            At the UN's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujarric when Mr. Annan had communicated with Ban Ki-Moon, and if the decision on Ms. Sheeran Shiner had already been made before they spoke.

            Mr. Dujarric replied that that the two had spoken "in the past few days," after Mr. Annan had interviewed Ms. Sheeran Shiner, and characterized the process as "consultative" and "rigorous."

            Inner City Press asked if Ms. Sheeran Shiner had been asked, by Mr. Annan or the other outgoing UN official who interviewed her, including Mark Malloch Brown and Jan Egeland, about her 20-year affiliation with Sun Myung Moon and for her position on his stated views, including that the UN should be destroyed, or merged with the U.S..

            As reported by Associated Press, Mr. Dujarric replied that "People's religious affiliation is their own. People are not judged on their religious affiliation."

            Mr. Dujarric also said, "People's religious affiliation is not a matter of concern." Video on UNTV, Minute 22:26 to 23:17.

S-G and Diouf

            Sun Myung Moon's speeches, proudly online, deal not infrequently with the United Nations, including for example his statement that

"After sending out our missionaries to 120 nations, we can influence those nations, and by having the youth of those nations mobilize, we can form a new United Nations." http://www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/sunmyungmoon74/SM741028.htm

  Later, Sun Myung Moon said:

"All five organizations will integrate into a new UN. Until today the United Nations has represented only the political realm... Through the United Nations, we can connect to the whole world and unite the whole world. The world is the extension of the family. Students, centering on True Mother, will form a big plus in relationship to the big minus formed by the IRFWP and FWP. Centering on True Mother, mind and body must be completely united, and on that foundation True Mother goes to unite with True Father; then all children, young and old, will all be completely unified, resulting in the unification of the whole world." http://www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/sunmyungmoon95/SM950207.htm

Earlier, Time magazine's "Statements of 'Master' Moon" included:

"The present U.N. must be annihilated by our power."  

            Reuters reported that "she joined Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church in 1975 and was married in a mass wedding but left the church in 1997." The Times of London went further:

"Ms Sheeran joined Rev Sun Myung Moon’s South Korea-based Unification Church in 1975 and married in a mass wedding before leaving the church about 1997. UN officials said that Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, had been reluctant to appoint Ms Sheeran, Washington’s official candidate, fearing that she lacked logistical experience."

            And The Guardian phrased it in the form of a question:

"in Rome, where WFP has its headquarters, some officials privately expressed concern. 'She has never distanced herself from the views of this group which, given its extreme nature, you would think was appropriate,' said one. He referred to Mr Moon's claims that the Holocaust was a result of the death of Jesus. 'It's sufficiently bizarre to warrant an explanation - that, and the duration of her involvement.'"

            According to the UN spokesman, no question was asked, by Kofi Annan, Mark Malloch Brown, Jan Egeland -- nor apparently Ban Ki-Moon. Perhaps the answers to these questions, pre-Rome, are to be found in Washington, DC. Developing...

Other Inner City Press reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on www.InnerCityPress.com --

At the UN, Mysterious Deletion from Iran Sanctions List of Aerospace Industries Organization Goes Unexplained

At the UN, Iran Resolution Passes 15-0 Amid Media Frenzy While Somalia and UN Reform Are Ignored

At the UN, Security Council and GA Games and Holiday Spirit As Revolving Door Ban Disappears on Final Day

UNDP Not Covered By Weak UN Post-Employment Restrictions, Dervis and Mizsei and Aid to the Scapegoated

UN Post-Employment Restriction Are Watered Down for Senior Officials, Comparison to June Draft Reveals

At the UN, Curt Eulogies for Dictator, Revolving Door and Budget Left for the Last Day

UNDP's Dervis Backtracks on Transparency, Promises Accounting of Funds, Denies Role in Uganda Abuse

At the UN, Jeffrey Sachs Answers the $75,000 Question But Not on UNDP, Still Laudable Goals for 2025

Burundi Spin at the UN, Amid Coup Trial and Ceasefire Not Implemented, Great Lakes Commission Moves In

At the UN, Iran Resolution Goes Blue as Ivory Coast is Traded Away With No Follow-up on Hmung

At the UN, Annan's Long Goodbye, With Oil for Food in the Air and Hothouse Musical Chairs

At Kofi Annan's Farewell, UNDP Transparency is Raised, and Brian Gleeson Steps Up

At UN in Beirut, Dueling Charges of Job-Trading and Tax-Evasion, the Burden of Mervat Tallawy, Retaliation from Below

UNDP Will Be Called to Greater Transparency, Says President of Spain, on UNDP's Board, and Flaws of UNOPS

UNDP's Ad Melkert Says He Will Finally Increase Transparency, Describes Fraud in Russia, Dodges Uganda

In Eastern Congo, Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made a Colonel, Clooney And Now Guehenno Might Stay

At the UN, Ocampo 1 Says Kony To Jail and Ocampo 2 Sees No Serious Bertucci Charges, Dueling Parties

In UNDP's Book, Strong's Scandals Are Missing, While Workers Complain, MMB Schmoozes the Korean Mission

At UNDP, Flighty Rhetoric Founders in Mismanagement, MMB's Net, a Genocidaire and Whither ECOSOC

At the UN, Disabled Are Freed from a Footnote, Murky Answers from Gbagbo to Kosovo to a Genocidaire

Countering UN's Vanity Press, UNDP Histories from Below, Brussels and Two Views of Omar Bakhet

At the UN, Indigenous Indignation, Revolving Door Mysteries and Peace Pipe Belatedly Smoked

At the UN, Questions of Congo Mass Graves and Kazana, Mugabe and Forests and Rich German Ships

UNDP Is Important For The Poor, and Therefore Must Be Made Transparent

As UN Speechifies, UNDP Audits Are Still Being Withheld, While War in Somalia and Sudan, Pronk Blogs On

Waste, Fraud and Abuse at UNDP in Vietnam, While UN Secretariat Urges Censorship

At the UN, Questions of Humanitarian Aid and Congo Body Count, Despots' Crackdown on Dissent

In UNDP, Questions of Money Wasted, Neutrality Trampled, Russian Office Audits Withheld and Sachs Expenses

From Baidoa to the UN, Denials on Ethiopian Troops Being in Somalia, Resolution Is Passed

Retaliation Found at UNDP, While Dervis Is Focused on Turkey, In Two Weeks Will Take Questions

Annan's Spokesman Silent on 150 Dead in Congo, War in Somalia - But in Loud Defense of UNDP's $567,000 Book

At the UN, Interlopers into Somalia Are Discussed, With Chadian Pull-Back, Peacekeepers and Uganda's Karamoja

UNDP Spent $567,000 on Book to Praise Itself, While the Well-Placed Feed Off UNDP's Core Budget and Prime Postings

As UNDP Questions Mount, Mark Malloch Brown Calls Them Irresponsible, Answers Only in Vanity Press

In UNDP Series, Questions of Jeffrey Sachs and Associates Payments, From $1 to $75,000

From Sleaze in Vietnam to Fights in DC-1, UNDP Appears Out of Control at the Top

On Somalia, Past Arms Embargo Violations Forgiven in Zeal to Contain Islamic Courts

In UNDP, Drunken Mis-Managers on the Make Praised and Protected, Meet UNDP's Kalman Mizsei

From Violent Disarmament in Uganda to the National Bank of Serbia, UNDP Leaves Others to Answer for It

UNDP Sources Say Dervis Fires Malloch Brown-linked Officials, Then Offers Hush-Up Jobs

On Somalia, Fiji and Oil-for-Food, UN Ambiguity Leads to Hypocrisy and Corruption

At the UN, Indigenous Rights Get Deferred, As U.S. Abstains, Deftly or Deceptively

At the UN, Threat and Possible Statement on Fiji Spotlights Selection and Payment of UN Peacekeepers

At the UN, China and Islamic Dev't Bank Oppose Soros and World Bank On How to Fight Poverty

At the UN, Misdirection on Somalia and Myanmar, No Answers from UNDP's Kemal Dervis

UNDP Dodges Questions of Disarmament Abuse in Uganda and of Loss of Togo AIDS Grant, Dhaka Snafu

At the UN, The Swan Song of Jan Egeland and the Third Committee Loop, Somalia Echoes Congo

UN Silent As Protesters Tear Gassed in Ivory Coast, As UNMOVIC Plods On and War Spreads in Somalia

In the UN, Uzbekistan Gets a Pass on Human Rights As Opposition to U.S. Grows and War's On in Somalia

At the UN, Cluster Bombs Unremembered, Uighurs Disappeared and Jay-Z Returns with Water -- for Life

From the UN, Silence on War Crimes Enforcement and Conflicts of Interest on Complaint from Bahrain

En Route to Deutsche Bank, the UN's Door Revolves, While Ban Ki-moon Arrives and Moldova Spins

As Two UN Peacekeepers Are Killed, UN Says Haiti's Improving, Ban Ki-moon on Zimbabwe?

Nagorno-Karabakh President Disputes Fires and Numbers, Oil and UN, in Exclusive Interview with Inner City Press

Inside the UN, Blaming Uganda's Victims, Excusing Annan on Mugabe, and U.S. Blocked Darfur Trip

U.S. Blocked Council's Trip to Darfur Meeting, Brazzaville Envoy Explains After U.S. Casts a Veto

At the UN, Council Works Overtime To Cancel Its Trip About Darfur, While DC Muses on John Bolton

UN Panel's "Coherence" Plan Urges More Power to UNDP, Despite Its Silence on Human Rights

On Water, UNDP Talks Human Rights, While Enabling Violations in Africa and Asia, With Shell and Coca-Cola

Will UN's Revolving Door Keep Human Rights Lost, Like Bush's Call and WFP Confirmation Questions?

On Somalia, We Are All Ill-Informed, Says the UN, Same on Uganda, Lurching Toward UNDP Power Grab

On WFP, Annan and Ban Ki-Moon Hear and See No Evil, While Resume of Josette Sheeran Shiner Is Edited

Would Moon Followers Trail Josette Sheeran Shiner into WFP, As to U.S. State Dep't?

At the UN, Positions Are Up For the Grabbing, Sun's Silence on Censorship, Advisor Grabs for Gun

In WFP Race, Josette Sheeran Shiner Praises Mega Corporations from Cornfield While State Spins

At the UN, Housing Subsidy Spin, Puntland Mysteries of UNDP and the Panama Solution

In Campaign to Head UN WFP, A Race to Precedents' Depths, A Murky Lame Duck Appointment

At the UN, Gbagbo and his Gbaggage, Toxic Waste and Congolese Sanctions

WFP Brochure-Gate? John Bolton Has Not Seen Brochure of "Official" U.S. Candidate to Head World Food Program

Ivory Coast Stand-Off Shows Security Council Fault Lines: News Analysis

At the UN, It's Groundhog's Day on Western Sahara, Despite Fishing Deals and Flaunting of the Law

"Official" U.S. Candidate to Head WFP Circulates Brochure With Pulitzer Claim, UN Staff Rules Ignored

Senegal's President Claims Peace in Casamance and Habre Trial to Come, A Tale of Two Lamines

A Tale of Two Americans Vying to Head the World Food Program, Banbury and Sheeran Shiner

At the UN, the Unrepentant Blogger Pronk, a Wink on 14 North Korean Days and Silence on Somalia

At the UN, Literacy Losses in Chad, Blogless Pronk and Toothless Iran Resolution, How Our World Turns

Sudan Pans Pronk While Praising Natsios, UN Silent on Haiti and WFP, Ivorian Fingers Crossed

UN Shy on North Korea, Effusive on Bird Flu and Torture, UNDP Cyprus Runaround, Pronk is Summoned Home

At the UN, Silence from UNDP on Cyprus, from France on the Chad-Bomb, Jan Pronk's Sudan Blog

Russia's Vostok Battalion in Lebanon Despite Resolution 1701, Assembly Stays Deadlocked and UNDP Stays Missing

As Turkmenistan Cracks Down on Journalists, Hospitals and Romance, UNDP Works With the Niyazov Regime

At the UN, Darfur Discussed, Annan Eulogized and Oil For Food Confined to a Documentary Footnote

With All Eyes on Council Seat, UN is Distracted from Myanmar Absolution and Congo Conflagration

As Venezuela and Guatemala Square Off, Dominicans In Default and F.C. Barcelona De-Listed

At the UN, North Korea Sanctions Agreed On, Naval Searches and Murky Weapons Sales

At the UN, Georgia Speaks of Ethnic Cleansing While Russia Complains of Visas Denied by the U.S.

At the UN, Deference to the Congo's Kabila and Tank-Sales to North Korea, of Slippery Eels and Sun Microsystems

At the UN, Annan's Africa Advisor Welcome Chinese Investment, Dodges Zimbabwe, Nods to Darfur

At the UN, Richard Goldstone Presses Enforcement on Joseph Kony, Reflecting Back on Karadzic

UN Defers on Anti-Terror Safeguards to Member States, Even in Pakistan and Somalia

Afghanistan as Black Hole for Info and Torture Tales, Photos and Talk Mogadishu, the UN Afterhours

Amid UN's Korean Uproar, Russia Silent on Murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya Exposer

UN Envoy Makes Excuses for Gambian Strongman, Whitewashing Fraud- and Threat-Filled Election

Sudan's UN Envoy Admits Right to Intervene in Rwanda, UNICEF Response on Terrorist Groups in Pakistan

At the UN, As Next S-G is Chosen, Annan Claims Power to Make 5-Year Appointments, Quiet Filing and Ivory Coast Concessions

Chaos in UN's Somalia Policy, Working With Islamists Under Sanctions While Meeting with Private Military Contractors

U.S. Candidate for UN's World Food Program May Get Lame Duck Appointment, Despite Korean Issues

At the UN, U.S. Versus Axis of Airport, While Serge Brammertz Measures Non-Lebanese Teeth

Exclusion from Water Is Called Progress, of Straw Polls and WFP Succession

William Swing Sings Songs of Congo's Crisis, No Safeguards on Coltan Says Chairman of Intel

Warlord in the Waldorf and Other Congo Questions Dodged by the UN in the Time Between Elections

In Some New Orleans, Questions Echo from the South Bronx and South Lebanon

In New Orleans, While Bone Is Thrown in Superdome, Parishes Still In Distress

At the UN, Tales of Media Muzzled in Yemen, Penned in at the Waldorf on Darfur, While Copters Grounded

US's Frazer Accuses Al-Bashir of Sabotage, Arab League of Stinginess, Chavez of Buying Leaders - Click here for video file by Inner City Press.

Third Day of UN General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and Montenegro and Still Somalia

On Darfur, Hugo Chavez Asks for More Time to Study, While Planning West Africa Oil Refinery

At the UN, Ivory Coast Discussed Without Decision on Toxic Politics, the Silence of Somalia

Evo Morales Blames Strike on Mobbed-Up Parasites, Sings Praise of Coca Leaf and Jabs at Coca-Cola

Musharraf Says Unrest in Baluchistan Is Waning, While Dodging Question on Restoring Civilian Rule

At the UN, Cyprus Confirms 'Paramilitary' Investigation, Denies Connection to Def Min Resignation, CBTB Update

A Tale of Three Leaders, Liberia Comes to Praise and Iran and Sudan to Bury the UN

UN Round-up: Poland's President Says Iraq Is Ever-More Tense While Amb. Bolton Talks Burmese Drugs, Spin on Ivory Coast

As UN's Annan Now Says He Will Disclose, When and Whether It Will Be to the Public and Why It Took So Long Go Unasked

At the UN, Stonewalling Continues on Financial Disclosure and Letter(s) U.S. Mission Has, While Zimbabwe Goes Ignored

At the UN, Financial Disclosure Are Withheld While Freedom of Information Is Promised, Of Hollywood and Dictators' Gift Shops

UN's Annan Says Dig Into Toxic Dumping, While Declining to Discuss Financial Disclosure

A Still-Unnamed Senior UN Official in NY Takes Free Housing from His Government, Contrary to UN Staff Regulations

UN Admits To Errors in its Report on Destruction of Congolese Village of Kazana, Safeguards Not In Place

As UN Checks Toxins in Abidjan, the Dumper Trafigura Figured in Oil for Food Scandal, Funded by RBS and BNP Paribas

Targeting of African Americans For High Cost Mortgages Grew Worse in 2005, While Fed Downplays Its Own Findings

The UN and Nagorno-Karabakh: Flurries of Activity Leave Frozen Conflicts Unchanged; Updates on Gaza, Gavels and Gbagbo

The UN Cries Poor on Lawless Somalia, While Its Ex-Security Chief Does Business Through Ruleless Revolving Door

At the UN, Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly's Surface, While Incoming Council President Dodges Most Questions

"Horror Struck" is How UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments Would Leave U.S., Referral on Burma But Not Uzbekistan

Security Council President Condemns UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments, While UK "Doesn't Do It Any More"

At the UN, Incomplete Reforms Allow for Gifts of Free Housing to UN Officials by Member States

Rare UN Sunshine From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell in its Ear on Nigeria

Annan Family Ties With Purchaser from Compass, Embroiled in UN Scandal, Raise Unanswered Ethical Questions

At the UN, from Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovars to Lezgines, Micro-States as Powerful's Playthings

Inquiry Into Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond

On the UN - Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost

Stop Bank Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says, Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger

Ship-Breakers Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest UNIFIL Troop Donor

With Somalia on the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion

In UN's Lebanon Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL, Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"

UN Decries Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message

On Lebanon, Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening

Africa Can Solve Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace Talks and Kofi Annan's Views

At the UN, Jay-Z Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka Kilcher in the Basement

In the UN Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a Shebaa Farms Solution?

UN Knew of Child Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN Facilitated

Impunity's in the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for Kazana

UN Still Silent on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin

UN's Guehenno Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues

With Congo Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is Distracted

In DR Congo, UN Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper

Spinning the Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese Army

At the UN, Dow Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended

Kofi Annan Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers

UN Silent As Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News Analysis

UN's Guehenno Speaks of "Political Overstretch" Undermining Peacekeeping in Lower Profile Zones

In Gaza Power Station, the Role of Enron and the U.S. Government's OPIC Revealed by UN Sources

UN's Corporate Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and UNDP Continues

BTC Briefing, Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations

Conflicts of Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts

UN Grapples with Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without Explanation

UN Gives Mugabe Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned

At the UN, Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe

UN Acknowledges Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions

In Uganda, UNDP to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and see The New Vision, offsite).

Disarmament Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending

Disarmament Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance

Alleged Abuse in Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given: What Did UN Know and When?

Strong Arm on Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of Karamojong Villages

UN's Selective Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs

UN Habitat Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at Vancouver World Urban Forum?

UN's Annan Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants Freedom of Information

UN  Waffles on Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from Algiers

UN & US, Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty and Senator Tom Coburn

Human Rights Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News Analysis

In Praise of Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial Exclusion

UN Sees Somalia Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and Everything But Congo

Corporate Spin on AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence

The Silence of the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank

Human Rights Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins from SUVs

Child Labor and Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu

Press Freedom? Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security Council

The Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens

Background Checks at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from Turkmenbashi's Single Book

Ripped Off Worse in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds

Burundi: Chaos at Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated by Forty Until 4 AM

The Chadian Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come

Through the UN's One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations, Even Nuclear Areva

Racial Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks

Mine Your Own Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the Paparazzi

Human Rights Are Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still Murky

Iraq's Oil to be Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear

Kofi, Kony, Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala

As Operation Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if Iraq's Oil is Being Metered

Cash Crop: In Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in their Camps

The Shorted and Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't Add Up

UN Reform: Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance Contract

In the Sudanese Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says

Empty Words on Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia

What is the Sound of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War at UN

Kosovo: Of Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of Ferronikeli Mines

Abkhazia: Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia

Post-Tsunami Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives

Citigroup Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference

Other Inner City Press reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on www.InnerCityPress.com --

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