Search results for

Friday night in Syria, there was the third massacre in the space of one week. This time a dozen workers found shot to death, their bodies dumped in a field. Host Scott Simon speaks with United Nations spokesperson Kieran Dwyer about the options left on the table for conflict resolution in Syria.

The U.N. Security Council discusses President Bush's call to lift sanctions against Iraq. France meets the United States part way, suggesting an immediate suspension of sanctions targeting Iraqi civilians. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.

With the U.N. Security Council locked in a debate over a new resolution demanding that Iraq disarm or face war, the Bush administration's mantra continues: War is the president's last choice, but Saddam Hussein has very little time left. The message was delivered again by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in an interview with NPR's Juan Williams for Morning Edition. Her remarks held out faint hope for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, if the Security Council acts.

Amid intense fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, diplomatic efforts to end the conflict are in full force this weekend. The United States and France put forward a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an end to the fighting and for U.N. peacekeepers to patrol the Israeli-Lebanese border.

The head of the U.N. mission in Syria said monitoring activities were being put on hold because of escalating violence in the country. Scott Simon talks with NPR's Deborah Amos about the situation.

NASA has already scoped out most of the comets and asteroids large enough to do global damage. But the United Nations thinks an international consortium of space programs need to get together in an effort to stop smaller — but potentially still dangerous — asteroids from hitting Earth.

That's good news, say experts, but the bad news is funding for AIDS programs has dropped for the first time.

Israeli airstrikes have hit several UNRWA schools where people are sheltering, the Gaza Health Ministry says at least 23 people, many of them women and children, were killed and more than 70 wounded.

A new report commissioned by U.N Secretary General Kofi Annan calls for the expansion of the Security Council. The report also sets out criteria for the use of force, and encourages the Security Council to consider preventive action to deal with latent threats. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.

Author James Traub talks about Kofi Annan's legacy at the U.N. The secretary-general gives his farewell speech in Independence, Mo., on Monday.