US Senator Patrick Leahy on Wednesday gave his personal support to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose resignation has been demanded by a fellow senator, saying the US Congress shouldn't make the UN a political football.
The Vermont Democrat, who is also a member of the US delegation to the UN General Assembly, was the third member of Congress to come to UN headquarters to back Annan after Senator Norm Coleman urged him to step down over allegations of the corruption in the UN oil-for-food program.
Leahy said the White House assured him that its intent last week, when US Ambassador John Danforth expressed confidence in Annan and said he should remain at the helm of the UN, was to take the heat off calls for the secretary-general's resignation.
He said he talked to US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice about Annan. "I know they support the secretary-general. I do, too," Leahy told reporters after a private meeting with Annan.
The Bush administration wants a thorough investigation of the oil-for-food allegations and Leahy said he believes all members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, should wait for the results of the inquiry being led by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.
The call for Annan's resignation by Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, made headlines and led to an outpouring of support for the secretary-general from nations around the world. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Representative Tom Lantos of California, both Democrats, came here to personally back him.
But five Republican members of the House of Representatives endorsed Coleman's call and announced support for a bill that would withhold some US dues to the UN if the organization doesn't fully cooperate with investigations of the program.
Leahy said there is a potential that UN dues could become "a wedge issue" between Democrats and Republicans "and I think it's unfortunate."
As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he said he worked hard several years ago to get Congress to pay its back dues to the UN and doesn't want to see the same problem suddenly repeated.
"With all its imperfections the UN is a lot better than not having the UN, and the US -- with all the concerns it may have about various actions of the UN -- is a lot better off being an active member of the UN than not being," Leahy said.
"You always have people who will take shots at the UN, some of it legitimate, but I think we ought to take a deep breath," he said.
"This is not a time to make a political football out of the UN. We need them in the Sudan. We need them throughout parts of Africa. We need them" for peacekeeping in many countries and to help with elections, including in Iraq, he added.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS