Adressing the United Nations as the first time as President of the United States,Barack Obama gave a blunt and sober message to the assembly of world leaders: The US cannot fix the worlds problems alone.

From BET.com

“We have sought in word and deed a new era of engagement with the world,” Obama said, echoing the cooperative theme he promised as a candidate and has since used as a pillar of his foreign policy. “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility.”

He said if the world is honest with itself, it has fallen woefully short.

“Extremists sowing terror in pockets of the world,” Obama said. “Protracted conflicts that grind on and on. Genocide and mass atrocities. More and more nations with nuclear weapons. Melting ice caps and ravaged populations. Persistent poverty and pandemic disease.”

Obama is also expected to meet with the leaders of China and Russia to discuss security concerns.

Darfur War is Over, U.N. Commander Says The war in Darfur, Sudan, which has lasted six years and has killed 300,000 people according to United Nation estimates, is over, according to a U.N. military commander. The fierce fighting that took place in the region earlier this decade has been replaced by smaller disputes due to the split of key rebel groups, Gen. Martin Agwai said, reports the BBC. “Banditry, localized issues, people trying to resolve issues over water and land at a local level. But real war as such, I think we are over that,” he said.  Agwai, who is due to leave his post this week, also said the region’s main problem now is political. But critics are throwing some shade on the general’s declaration. “There has been a large decline in fighting in Darfur,” Sudan analyst Gill Lusk told the BBC. “But it is the government that turns the tap on and off – they can restart the violence whenever they want.” Even though fighting has decreased, with 26 different rebel groups, it’s hard to get them to reach a peace deal with the government, said Scott Gration, the United State’s envoy to Sudan. In 2003, ethnic rebel groups attacked government forces, accusing the government of mistreating the nation’s Black Africans. Many have called the widespread violence by pro-government forces that followed genocide. The government denies being behind the attacks on its citizens, but President Omar al-Bashir is currently facing war crimes charges from an international court, the BBC reports.

Opposition Continues to Protest in Antigua The opposition Antigua Labor Party (ALP) is continued its protest against the government’s current administration with a large rally on Thursday. The group was protesting the nation’s increasing unemployment, the high fuel prices and the Antiguan government’s decision to reach out to the International Monetary Fund for help, the BBC reports. But the ruling party has said ALP is just attempting to promote “a campaign of intimidation.” The group will keep protesting until their demands are listened to, the ALP said.

Today, the United Nation celebrates its very first World Humanitarian Day, reports the BBC. The event pays tribute to aid workers all over the world.  There were 122 international aid workers killed last year, and they often find themselves to be the target of violent attacks. In fact, more aid workers were killed last year than U.N.-peacekeeping troops.  Six years ago on this date, U.N. offices in Baghdad were bombed, killing 22 workers. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will go to New York to attend a wreath-laying ceremony to remember those who lost their lives in the attack. With Humanitarian Day, the U.N. hopes to show how important their work is internationally and to increase support, the BBC reports.

Armed Somali militants attacked a United Nations base 250 miles outside of the capital, Mogadishu.  U.N. security forces, however, retaliated, killing three of the militants. They had attacked the Wajid compound, which the U.N. uses to store aid supplies. “We don’t know what they had planned, but we think they wanted to take over the whole compound and kidnap foreign aid workers,” a U.N. official told Reuters. Estimates say that about 30 percent of the nation depends of food aid, the BBC reports. Militants often target humanitarian workers and many agencies have pulled back their work in the nation.

Representatives from African, Asian and the Caribbean nations reeling from the worldwide economic crisis met at the U.N. headquarters in New York to make a plea. At the meeting the officials asked wealthy countries, who they say are to blame for the bad economy in the first place, to help out struggling nations financially. Money from exports have decreased and migrant workers don’t send as much money home as they used to, representatives said at the conference, reports the BBC. Poorer nations need “specific arrangements for the flow of resources to our governments,” said Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow, who spoke for the Caribbean. There were mostly Latin American and Caribbean presidents and prime ministers at the conference, which was set up allow undeveloped countries voice their concerns, the BBC reports.

Billion People are Hungry

There are currently one billion people worldwide suffering from hunger, according to numbers from the United Nations. The world’s struggling economy only made matters worse, pushing the number up by 100 million people to its highest level ever according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). “It’s the first time in human history that we have so many hungry people in the world. And that’s a contradiction, because a lot of the world is very rich despite the economic crisis,” said FAO spokesman Kostas Stamoulis. In addition world’s safety could be jeopardized. “The silent hunger crisis – affecting one-sixth of all humanity – poses a serious risk for world peace and security,” Jacques Diouf, an FAO official told the BBC. “We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger in the world and to take the necessary actions.” Most of the world’s hungry, about 642 million people, live in the Asia-Pacific region and 265 million live in sub-Saharan Africa, leaving only 15 million people in developed countries are suffering from hunger. Higher food prices, higher unemployment rates and lower pay are all factors resulting in the increased amount of hungry people. Governments worldwide should look towards increasing their respective nation’s agriculture sector as a solution, Diouf said. “Investment in agriculture must be increased because for the majority of poor countries a healthy agricultural sector is essential to overcome poverty and hunger and is a pre-requisite for overall economic growth.”
Jamaican Sprinter’s Home Burglarized

Gold medal winning Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt’s home was burglarized last week, according to police. Bolt was competing in the Czech Republic at the time of the incident, which took place during the early morning hours of last Wednesday, reports AFP. The thieves stole about $1,000 in electronics from his Kingston area home. Sadeke Bolt, Bolt’s half brother, was in the home sleeping at the time of the robbery and was the one who reported the crime to police.

Former President Bill Clinton, continuing his longstanding role as an advocate to Haiti, will now serve as the special envoy to the tiny impoverished island nation. The official announcement is expected today, United Nations insider said Monday. Clinton has traveled repeatedly to Haiti, most recently two months ago with wife/Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Ban Ki Moon, the general-secretary of U.N. Haiti may be the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, but after years of bloody revolution and political strife, there is relative governmental stability and slight economic growth.  Arizona,” Harrison points out.

Sounding a lot like the Bush administration eight years ago, the Obama administration announced Friday that it might steer clear of the United Nation-sponsored anti-racism conference. The Obama administration is insisting that the U.N. Human Rights Council modify its final document, dropping all anti-Israel references. In 2001, the Bush administration refused to participate in the Durbin, South Africa-based conference because the draft resolution targeted Israel and its treatment of Arabs. Zionism, Israel’s movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state, is a racist one, the statement said. Eight years ago, just like today, the United States was under intense pressure from Jewish lobbyists and conservative groups to boycott the conference. This year, Canada has joined Israel in renouncing the conference, and several European nations reportedly are also considering staying home from the World Conference Against Racism, which will be held in Geneva from April 20-25. The Obama administration is waiting to see the progress on conference negotiations before deciding whether the United States will participate. But early indications are that there’s a ways to go. On Friday, the State Department said that in its current form, the statement looks too much like the one from 2001. “Sadly … the document being negotiated has gone from bad to worse, and the current text of the draft outcome document is not salvageable,” spokesman Robert Wood said in a statement. “As a result, the United States will not engage in further negotiations on this text, nor will we participate in a conference based on this text. …We would be prepared to re-engage if a document that meets these criteria becomes the basis for deliberations.”

U.N. official says both sides are to blame for Congo crisis. Both rebels and government forces are to blame for violence in Congo that has forced 250,000 people from their homes, according to a United Nations official. In his report for the U.N. Security Council, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wrote that the country’s army and police “were responsible for a large number of serious human rights violations during the reporting period [from July to November], namely arbitrary executions, rape torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.” The Tutsi rebel forces, led by Gen Laurent Nkunda, also took part in atrocities including “mass killings, torture abductions, forced recruitment of children, forced displacement and destruction of camps, forced labor and sexual violence,” said the report. It also says that the government arrested human rights activists and journalists. Last week, an additional 3,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops were approved to be deployed into the nation to help stop the fighting.

Jamaica is “not in crisis,” says official. The current economic crisis is hitting the world hard, but Jamaica’s finance minister insists the problems are not so bad in his country, reports the BBC. Unlike other countries like the United States, Audley Shaw doesn’t believe Jamaica needs a national rescue plan. While he expects tourism to be down, Shaw says Jamaica’s economy is “not in crisis.” The nation’s economy will be soothed by an expected decrease in its energy bill along with reasonably priced loans from financial agencies. Shaw did announce some budget and debt reforms.

There’s an Obama baby-naming boom in Kenya. Ever since President-elect Barack Obama won the election over his Republican rival last week, little baby “Obamas” have been popping up all over the world, reports United Press International. This is especially the case at a hospital in Kisumu, Kenya. Officials at Nyanza Provincial Hospital say that 43 babies, between Nov. 4 and Nov. 8, were named after Obama or some of his family members. Twenty-three boys were given “Barack Obama” as their first and middle names and 20 girls were named after his wife, Michelle Obama. One mother, Pamela Odhiambo, says she gave birth to little “Michelle Obama” during Obama’s victory speech. “It’s a new start, a new beginning,” said Odhiambo.

The U.N. is forced to cut food aid to Zimbabwe. The United Nations’ food charity has to cut back on food distribution in Zimbabwe because the international aid agency is running low on money. Although the U.N.’s World Food Program (WFP) has fed 2 million people in October, a number they expect to grow to 4 million this month and rise to more than 5 million by early 2009, it lacks the funds to keep it going in 2009. “There is currently no food in the pipeline for distributions in January and February – just when the crisis is reaching its peak,” said the agency in a statement. The U.N. also asked for $140 million in more funding so it will be able to keep distributing aid in the nation until at least the end of March. A “disastrous” harvest in the country has resulted in millions of Zimbabweans being hungry; the demand was such that the WFP had to reduce cereal and pulse rations. The country has had a rough time with food shortages for the past seven years. Critics of longtime leader Robert Mugabe say that the country’s food problems were made worse when he enforced his policy of kicking White farmers off their land to redistribute to Blacks. Black Zimbabweans gained their independence from White rule in 1980.