News stories by Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, September 15 (IPS) - As the race for the election of a new Secretary-General (UNSG) gathers momentum, the spotlight is on the 193-member General Assembly, the highest policy making body at the United Nations, which has refused to assert itself and continues to play a subservient role in the elections of UNSGs.

UNITED NATIONS, September 11 (IPS) - When over 130 world leaders arrive in New York for the high-level segment of the General Assembly next week– it will be rare to hear hard-hitting, headline-grabbing political statements from the podium.

UNITED NATIONS, September 10 (IPS) - First, it was the mass deportations of undocumented aliens, then a crackdown on liberal-minded academics from prestigious US Universities, and now, restrictions on foreign journalists based in the US.

UNITED NATIONS, August 28 (IPS) - As the UN commemorates its 81st anniversary, one lingering question remains: what is the future of the world body? Will a hostile US downsize its operations at the United Nations, cut down its funding, continue defaulting in its payments — and perhaps eventually, withdraw from the world body?

UNITED NATIONS, August 19 (IPS) - When smoking was common in the corridors of the UN, in the delegate’s lounge and in committee rooms during the 1970s and 90s, the office of the Secretary-General sent a memo that read: “Smoking was Discouraged” in the UN building—sounding far short of a ban.

UNITED NATIONS, August 14 (IPS) - Pakistan, one of few South Asian countries to oscillate between democratic governments and authoritarian regimes, is cracking down on journalists, including foreign correspondents covering the political situation in the world’s fifth most populous nation, with an estimated population of over 250 million people and ranking behind India, China, the United States, and Indonesia.

UNITED NATIONS, August 7 (IPS) - The highly- unpredictable five-month-old US-Iran war has been plagued by on-again, off-again peace agreements — with such monotonous regularity — the conflict seems never ending. But according to several news reports, the US faces a new threat — it may soon run out of key weapons systems.

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 (IPS) - An age-old axiom in Statistics reads: Figures Cannot Lie, But Liars Can Figure. And more so, in military conflicts, including the five-month-old US-Iran war, where casualty figures are difficult to track down because of lack of transparency and false accounting.

UNITED NATIONS, July 29 (IPS) - Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (Republican of Kansas) rose to public attention in the 1950s with his allegations that hundreds of “Communists” had infiltrated the State Department and other federal agencies.

UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (IPS) - A proposal to restrict US visas to foreign journalists assigned to cover the US has triggered a strong protest from the New York-based Foreign Press Association (FPA).