National Post

Graphic: The state of Palestine
Becoming a non-member observer state at the United Nations may do nothing to change conditions in the West Bank and Gaza. The areas rely heavily on aid, poverty is rife, unemployment is high and living standards are low.

John Baird urges Ban Ki-moon to cancel visit to Iran-led summit
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has implored the UN Secretary-General to reconsider his upcoming visit to the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Iran, citing the Islamic Republic’s “egregious human rights record” and its president’s calls for the annihilation of Israel.

“Iran’s current rulers will use your presence to further their own, hateful purposes,” Mr. Baird wrote to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a letter obtained by the National Post. “Such a visit would only serve to legitimize and condone the record of this regime, which Canada views as the single most significant risk to global peace and security today.”

Syria is walking all over the UN
The massacre of the children of Houla and their families has deepened the sense of crisis in Syria, but the United Nations is unlikely to do anything about it.

Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan arrived in Damascus Monday for yet another round of emergency talks on his tattered and bullet-riddled six-week old UN peace plan.

When Syrian troops began their nine-hour artillery and tank assault Friday, activists in Houla pleaded with the UN peacekeepers to go to the town, in the hope their presence might protect residents. But the UN observers only arrived Saturday, in time to count the bodies.

Related: Canada among nations expelling Syrian diplomats following massacre of civilians

U.S., Russia clash over Syrian crisis
Western powers clashed with Russia on Tuesday as they pushed for a UN resolution ordering the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and an end to what the United States called his “reign of terror.”

The diplomatic showdown at the United Nations came as fighting escalated between Syrian government forces and rebels and a senior U.S. official predicted that Mr. Assad would be toppled sooner or later.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led the charge for UN action, backed by British Foreign Secretary William Hague, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé, and Arab League representatives.

“I don’t think Russian policy is about asking people to step down. Regime change is not our profession,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, arguing that while Mr. Assad was not an ally of Moscow, it was not up to other nations to interfere.

Ottawa puts freeze on Saadi Gaddafi’s $1.6M Toronto condo
Federal government lawyers have frozen a $1.6-million penthouse on the Toronto waterfront owned by Saadi Gaddafi, the fugitive son of the late Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

The Department of Justice filed a notice that prevents Mr. Gaddafi, who is the subject of an assets freeze imposed by the United Nations Security Council, from selling the downtown luxury condo.

The government took action after the National Post revealed that Mr. Gaddafi was the registered owner of the suite, which has a view of Lake Ontario and access to a pool, bowling alley and squash, basketball and tennis courts.

Mr. Gaddafi, 38, is wanted on an Interpol warrant issued in September. The Security Council froze his assets in March, describing him as a commander of “military units involved in the repression of demonstrations.” (Photo: Left: Tim Wimborne/Reuters; Right: Tyler Anderson/National Post)

UN reports ‘extraordinary progress’ in global fight against AIDS
The international community has made extraordinary progress in the past decade in the fight against AIDS, but a funding crisis is putting those gains at risk, the United Nations health agencies said.

A World Health Organization-led report said the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS and now infects about 34 million people around the world has proven a “formidable challenge” for scientists and public health experts.

“But the tide is turning,” it added. “The tools to achieve an AIDS-free generation are in our hands.”

UNESCO’s costly nod to Palestine
Palestinians won a symbolic victory Monday in their battle for statehood when they were granted full membership in the UN cultural agency, UNESCO.

But the decision could set back hopes for peace talks in the Middle East and put Washington and the UN on a collision course for their worst confrontation since president Ronald Reagan withdrew from UNESCO in 1984 and slashed U.S. funding to the UN.

Under U.S. laws introduced during the 19 years Washington suspended its membership in UNESCO for being corrupt, inefficient, anti-Jewish and anti-Western, Congress is obliged to withdraw funding to any UN body that admits Palestine as a full member.

Delegates walk out of the United Nations General Assembly in the midst of the speech by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the U.N. headquarters in New York. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi

In a bid for a UN seat, Palestinians brandish a blue chair
As Palestinians vie for a seat at the United Nations, a cloth chair has emerged as one of the would-be state’s most prominent world ambassadors.

Crafted by 35 Palestinian artisans, the Air Force blue, olive-wood chair is made to resemble the chairs used in the UN General Assembly in New York City. Since Sept. 4, the chair has been touring through the permanent and non-permanent member states of the UN Security Council.

Source

A town under siege
The Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughour was almost empty Thursday, said witnesses, and refugees were fleeing across the Turkish border as government troops prepared a crackdown.

UN silent in protecting Syrians from government
Peter Goodspeed: While diplomats dither over the correct way to admonish the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, the Internet has been filled with pictures of corpses, mutilated teenage torture victims and panicked crowds seeking shelter from snipers. But the United Nations Security Council, which authorized military action against Libya in March to defend its citizens from their government, has remained silent.

UN resolution looks to give “Mother Earth” same rights as humans

UNITED NATIONS — Bolivia will this month table a draft United Nations treaty giving “Mother Earth” the same rights as humans — having just passed a domestic law that does the same for bugs, trees and all other natural things in the South American country.

The bid aims to have the UN recognize the Earth as a living entity that humans have sought to “dominate and exploit” — to the point that the “wellbeing and existence of many beings” is now threatened.

It also establishes a Ministry of Mother Earth, and provides the planet with an ombudsman whose job is to hear nature’s complaints as voiced by activist and other groups, including the state.

“If you want to have balance, and you think that the only [entities] who have rights are humans or companies, then how can you reach balance?” said Pablo Salon, Bolivia’s ambassador to the UN. “But if you recognize that nature too has rights, and [if you provide] legal forms to protect and preserve those rights, then you can achieve balance.” (Photo: Getty Images/ThinkStock)

Libya declares ceasefire
Libya declared a ceasefire in the country to protect civilians and comply with a United Nations resolution passed overnight, Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa said on Friday. “We decided on an immediate ceasefire and on an immediate stop to all military operations,” he told reporters.

Photo: People celebrate after a UN resolution authorizing a “no-fly” zone and military attacks on Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, in Tobruk, east of Tripoli, March 18, 2011. (REUTERS/Suhaib Salem)

National Post front page for March 18, 2011

UN clears way for air strikes on Libya
Japan’s nuclear tribulations
Stigmatized, by no fault of their own
Former PMO aide’s fiancée stood to gain: contract