Conflict

The speeches may be scripted, but the U.N. General Assembly can sometimes be the only direct window into the regional challenges that command global concern. On Saturday, world leaders were speaking on behalf of some of the most unstable and unsettling current conflicts. That includes India’s fight over the Kashmir region with bitter rival Pakistan, Haiti’s domestic crises spilling into a migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and questions about the Ethiopian government’s role in reported starvation deaths in the Tigray region. Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry didn’t shy away from addressing his country’s turmoil following a major earthquake and the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moise, in recent months — alluding to but not directly addressing reports that may implicate Henr

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N.’s top humanitarian official in Myanmar said Thursday the Asian nation’s people are living in “a severe crisis,” with a level of poverty not seen for at least 20 years. Andrew Kirkwood said in a virtual briefing to U.N. correspondents that the number of people in the country needing aid has tripled to 3 million since the military takeover on Feb. 1 while a total of 20 million are living in poverty, or nearly half the population. Speaking from Yangon, the country’s largest city, Kirkwood said the crisis is the result of increasing communal strife, the military ouster of the country’s democratically elected government and the coronavirus pandemic, which had “a devastating third wave” of infections this summer. “So, effectively, what we have here is a crisis,

North Korea fires missile, insists on right to weapons tests A television news broadcast shows file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul on Tuesday, after North Korea fired an "unidentified projectile" into the sea off its east coast. (Photo: AFP) SEOUL: Nuclear-armed North Korea fired what appeared to be a short-range ballistic missile into the sea on Tuesday, the South's military said, as Pyongyang's UN ambassador insisted it had an undeniable right to test its weapons. The projectile was fired from the northern province of Jagang into waters off the east coast, according to the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a Japanese defence ministry spokesman told AFP it "appears to be a ballistic missile". Less than an hour later, Pyongyang's United Nations a...

NEW YORK (AP) — In person and on screen, world leaders returned to the United Nations’ foremost gathering for the first time in the pandemic era on Tuesday with a formidable, diplomacy-packed agenda and a sharply worded warning from the international organization’s leader: “We face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetime.” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres rang the alarm in his annual state-of-the-world speech at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly’s high-level meeting for leaders of its 193 member nations. More than 100 heads of state and government kept away by COVID-19 are returning to the U.N. in person for the first time in two years. But with the pandemic still raging, about 60 will deliver pre-recorded statements over coming days. “We are on the edge of an abyss — and

PARIS (AFP, REUTERS) - France on Friday (Sept 17) recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia for consultations in a ferocious row over the scrapping of a submarine contract, an unprecedented step that revealed the extent of French anger against its allies. President Emmanuel Macron ordered the recalling of the envoys after Canberra ditched a deal to buy French submarines in favour of US vessels, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. Mr Le Drian said in a statement that the decision was made to “immediately” recall the two French ambassadors due to “the exceptional seriousness of the announcements made on Sept 15 by Australia and the United States”. A diplomatic source in France said it was the first time Paris had recalled its own ambassadors in this way. Australia