World News

10 October 2000 (Newsroom) — Under intense lobbying from the United States and numerous human rights and religious groups, the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday rejected Sudan’s bid to win a seat on the Security Council.

“For the first time in history religious and spiritual leaders from the major religious traditions and from all regions of the world met at the United Nations to pledge themselves to work for peace. They signed this ‘Commitment to Global Peace’ and resolved to join together to address the pressing problems of conflict, poverty and the environment.” Commitment to Global Peace

6 October 2000 (Newsroom) — The prospect of Sudan gaining a seat on the United Nations Security Council may help galvanize opposition against a repressive regime that condones slavery, religious persecution, and bullying its African neighbors, human rights and religious freedom activists contend.

26 September 2000 (Newsroom) — Deep and profound differences separate the world’s great religions, as a controversial faith document published early this month by the Vatican illustrates.

Government plans to regulate the FM radio industry are an attempt to muzzle stations broadcasting in indigenous languages and will violate constitutional guarantees of freedom of the press, religious and political leaders in this East African nation charge.

A VOM-sponsored hospital in Southern Sudan was targeted by bombs of the radical Islamic Government of Sudan (GOS) early Tuesday morning, killing one Christian worker and one other person and injuring several others.

Religious leaders sign “Commitment to Global Peace”The statement includes 11 promises to work for global peace, education and the abolition of nuclear weapons, among other things.

NEW YORK (BP)–Under the watchful eye of opponents of world government, heads of state from 150 countries gathered in New York Sept. 6 for the United Nations Millennium Summit, a three-day event organizers say is meant to combat war, poverty and disease.

WASHINGTON (BP)–The Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders failed to accomplish one of its main objectives in four days of meetings but evidenced widespread opposition to efforts at religious conversion.

After nearly eight months of heated competition in election campaigns by five presidential candidates, by 6:30pm of March 18th the victory of Chen Shui-bian and Liu Hsiu-lian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was assured.

An interreligious meeting held in New York 28-31 August was a significant attempt to develop a relationship between the religious community and the United Nations, according to a World Council of Churches (WCC) official who attended.

On the sidelines of today’s opening of the United Nation’s historic “Millennium summit” – billed as the largest-ever gathering of world leaders – US President Bill Clinton will confer separately with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a last-ditch bid to broker a compromise in their high-stakes fight over Jerusalem.

Topless muses, nude dancers, and masked revelers stumbled home this week following dusk-to-dawn Carnival parades on both sides of the globe. The larger parades, Mardi Gras and Rio Carnival, witnessed above average arrests according to police.

An Israeli official confirmed Monday that PLO chief Yasser Arafat has salted away $20 million in pilfered funds in a Swiss Bank account, a nest egg that Israeli security believes he has offered to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in exchange for a safe haven if forced to leave Gaza.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah were to meet with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in Damascus on Wednesday for talks ahead of the Arab summit in Amman slated for the end of the month.

There were calls in recent days for calmer heads to prevail over the building of a water pumping station along a tributary of the upper Jordan River on the Israel-Lebanon border.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is concluding a visit to Russia, where he has finalized deals for the purchase of conventional arms from Moscow and for continued assistance with Iran’s controversial nuclear program.

Arab leaders have gathered in Amman for a significant Arab League summit that appears set to follow a familiar script, taking a united stand against Israel, but not quite trusting the Palestinians, while remaining divided on regional troublemaker Iraq.

The Labor party on Friday voted for eight ministers to fill its allotted seats in the emerging government of Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon, with MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a reserve brigadier general, besting several challengers for the position of defense minister and elder party statesman Shimon Peres winning the foreign ministry post by default.

Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon looks set to meet his Wednesday deadline for presenting his government to the Knesset, after his coalition negotiating team initialed a deal with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party Sunday night giving him a parliamentary majority of 64 seats.