Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd gave strong backing to the UN on Saturday and accused Sudan's government of obstructing deployment of a UN-African Union (AU) peacekeeping force to help end the five-year conflict in Darfur.
Rudd also called for the newly expanded UN political mission in Afghanistan to "become fully effective and fully operational as soon as possible" in order to improve civilian and military coordination and confront the increasing violence in the country.
After an hour-long meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Rudd announced that Australia will seek a seat on the UN Security Council for 2013 to 2014 and intends to "run like fury."
Australia last served a two-year term on the UN's most powerful body in 1986 and "I think 30 years is a fair enough old wait between drinks," he said.
He said he expected a difficult race because there are already two candidates for the Western seat -- Finland and Luxembourg -- and there will likely be more.
While many people criticize the UN, Rudd said, "I believe it's important to see the cup as being half full rather than being half empty and for people of good will to support the activities of the United Nations around the world."
As for the secretary-general, Rudd said, "he seems to me to be a fine bloke, a decent fella."
Rudd flew to New York from Washington where he met on Friday with US President George W. Bush. The two leaders played down signs that Rudd has distanced his government from some of the pro-US policies of his immediate predecessor, John Howard. Rudd calls the president "George" and Bush describes Rudd to reporters as a "fine lad" and a "straightforward fella."
Rudd stressed on Saturday that "there are three pillars of Australia's foreign policy, our alliance with the United States, our membership in the United Nations, and our policy of comprehensive engagement in Asia -- and we're prosecuting all three."
He thanked the US administration for arranging more than half a dozen high-level meetings, including with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox.
The Australian leader reserved his sharpest criticism for the Sudanese government, which has demanded that the 26,000-strong AU-UN force for Darfur be comprised almost entirely of African contingents. While there are Chinese engineers, Khartoum has refused to approve troops from Nepal and Thailand.
"I indicated to the secretary-general our concern and frustration, together with that of other states about the continued obstruction being provided by the government of Sudan," he said.
"The government of Sudan generally has not welcomed any more substantial military commitments than that from Western powers. I regard that as unfortunate, but that is the reality," he said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
RSS