All Blog Posts from World Watch

Hundreds of protesters, some wearing green sashes to indicate they're on hunger strike, have gathered in tents across from U.N. Headquarters for the start of a three-day event in support of Iran's beleaguered opposition movement.

At noon on Wednesday, as Iranian-born diva and protest organizer Googoosh gave her opening speech, organizers say the crowd swelled to about 500. That number included almost 200 hunger strikers. Most of the participants are Iranian Americans — all of whom spoke of events back in Tehran, where protests are not being tolerated.

As police and Basiji militiamen crackdown hard on potential demonstrators in Tehran, the protesters, including academics and some big names from the Iranian entertainment world gathered, hoping to bring visibility to the pro-democracy movement.

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The United Nations' three-day Head-of-State Summit on the global financial crisis had promise. The goal was to convene a summit of world leaders at U.N. Headquarters in New York to assess the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression. Over 100 million people per year, the summiteers noted, will fall into extreme poverty.

On the first day, the message was clear: developing countries are the victims of the financial crisis and they need money. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, "surely, if the world can mobilize more than $18 trillion to keep the financial sector afloat, it can find more than $18 billion to keep commitments in Africa."

Security ahead of the "United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development" was tight. New York City Police blocked the perimeter of the U.N., and plans were readied for the red carpet treatment of presidents arriving at the General Assembly.

The problem was, almost no one showed up. Of the 140 nations participating, only a dozen presidents and prime ministers are attending, and it was postponed from early June because the "outcome document" – a set of proposals for the reform of the world financial system – had no consensus.

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Huddled behind doors for three hours, the U.N. Security Council tried but failed to agree to a statement regarding North Korea’s missile launch. The U.S. sent its top U.N. diplomat, Ambassador Susan Rice, and China’s Ambassador Yesui Zhang rushed to the closed-door session. Japan’s Ambassador said the launch was a clear violation of international law.

Ambassador Rice said the North Korean launch violated the 2006 U.N. Security Council Resolution (1718) and the Security Council should act with a clear and strong response.

“We need to see where we come out. The U.S. view is that the most appropriate action would be a Security Council resolution,” she added.

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As the international community feared, North Korea has launched a long-range missile over Japan. As a result, Japan immediately called for emergency U.N. Security Council consultations on Sunday to deal with the launch, to condemn North Korea, and to possibly strengthen sanctions on Pyongyang.

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A week before President Barack Obama joins the largest developing and industrialized countries’ finance ministers and heads of state in London, the U.N. has issued its economic recommendations.

The bottom line: A drastic overhaul will be necessary to pull the world out of the recession, according to the Commission of Experts on Reforms of International Finance and Economic Structures, chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics. But that's easier said than done.

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After a week of negotiations, the U.N. Security Council voted 14-0, with a U.S. abstention, for a cease-fire in the embattled Gaza Strip. The U.S. abstained, and neither Israel nor Hamas is beholden to the agreement in New York.

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