Search results for

North Korean state media are praising Kim Jong Il's chosen heir and bestowing him with titles — signs that party leaders in the communist state are standing behind the plan for him to succeed his father.

The United Nations has just released a grim report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan over the last year. Casualties rose 14 percent in 2013, with nearly 3,000 people killed and more than 5,500 injured.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposes major changes to the world body. The reforms would expand the Security Council and keep countries that violate human rights off the Human Rights Commission.

The United States and France point to a positive response to a draft U.N. resolution calling for a halt to fighting and asking U.N. peacekeepers to monitor the Israeli-Lebanese border. But Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Siniora calls the text "inadequate." His government plans to press the Security Council to amend some of the wording.

After last-minute revisions, and a push from Russia, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approves a U.S. resolution aimed at additional international help in Iraq. Resolution 1511 is expected to generate financial aid and peacekeeping troops from previously reluctant sources. It also clarifies the U.N. role in reshaping postwar Iraq. Hear NPR's Bob Edwards and NPR's Michele Kelemen.

To learn more about the Israeli ground invasion in Gaza, Audie Cornish turns to Robert Turner, who's in Gaza City. Turner is director of operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

The World Health Organization has added nearly 400 more deaths from the current outbreak since its last report earlier this week.

UN climate negotiations are in overtime in Azerbiajan as countries scramble to land a deal on how to finance the damages brought on by climate change. The impacts often are felt most by poor countries that have contributed the least to global warming.

The resolution would declare Sunday's referendum on leaving Ukraine invalid. Meanwhile, Ukrainian official say Russian troops took over an area outside of Crimea Saturday.

U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says he supports a prominent Shiite cleric's calls for direct elections for an interim authority in Iraq. The cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, wants elections before the transfer of power the U.S. wants to occur on July 1. U.N. officials say elections by that date are unlikely, though they could occur late this year or early next year. Hear NPR's Deborah Amos.