Musadeq Sadeq / AP
Displaced Afghan children from Helmand Province wait for winter relief assistance from the United Nations Refugee Agency at a refugee camp in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, on Sunday, Dec. 30. About 600 displaced families received relief assistance from the UN agency.
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More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
Abbas Momani / AFP - Getty Images
Palestinians celebrate in the West Bank city of Ramallaha on Nov. 29 after the U.N. General Assembly voted to recognize Palestine as a non-member state.
By NBC News and wire services:
The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution on Thursday giving implicit recognition to Palestinian statehood despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinian Authority by withholding funds for the West Bank government.
A resolution that lifts the Palestinian Authority's U.N. observer status from "entity" to "non-member state," like the Vatican, easily passed the 193-nation General Assembly with 138 nations voting in favor, with 41 abstaining, including the United Kingdom. Nine were opposed. Full Story
Marko Djurica / Reuters
A Palestinian man shouts slogans during a rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Nov. 29 to support a resolution giving implicit recognition to Palestinian statehood.
Andrew Gombert / EPA
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, center, Palestinian Foreign Minister Reyad al-Maliki, right, and other members of the Palestinian delegation react after a United Nations vote on a resolution to upgrade the status of the Palestinian Authority to non-member observer status on Nov. 29.
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Oswaldo Rivas / Reuters
A girl eats next to a relative in Terrabona, Nicaragua, Oct. 11, 2012. One out of every eight people in the world is chronically undernourished, the United Nations' food agencies said, warning that progress to reduce hunger has slowed since 2007 - 2008 when high food prices sparked riots in several poor countries.
Jason Szenes / EPA
Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel, addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, New York, on Sept. 27.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed a diagram in the shape of a bomb that he said shows the progress of Iran's nuclear enrichment progress at the United Nation's General Assembly on Thursday.
NBC News' Andrea Mitchell reports-- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that a “clear red line” be set to stop Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, telling the U.N. General Assembly that with a nuclear Iran, no one in the world would be safe.
In a speech at the U.N. Thursday, Netanyahu said that Iran will have enough enriched uranium to build a bomb by next summer. He said his "red line" to stop Iran from gaining nuclear weapons is to stop it from accumulating that uranium -- because it would impossible to know when Iran has achieved the next step: building a detonator to fire a weapon. Read the full story.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the UN general assembly Thursday that sanctions are not stopping Iran's nuclear program.
Words between Israel and Iran have not been kind at the General Assembly. On Wednesday, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad complained about 'continued threats' by 'uncivilized Zionists,' according to NBC News.
Timothy A. Clary / AFP - Getty Images
Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and President of the Palestinian Authority, organizes his papers during the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations in New York on Sept. 27.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also spoke at the U.N. General Assembly, where he asked that the Palestinian U.N. status be upgraded to a "nonmember state," according to NBC News:
This statement is in contrast to last year, when Palestine asked the U.N. Security Council to recognize it as a full member state. That bid failed.
"Despite all the complexities of the prevailing reality and all the frustrations that abound, we say before the international community there is still a chance - maybe the last - to save the two-state solution and to salvage peace," Abbas told the United Nations General Assembly Thursday through a translator. Read the full story.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas addressed the United Nations General Assembly in a speech seeking to upgrade the status of Palestine to a full member state.
Andrew Kelly / Reuters
New York police officers look at men dressed as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a protest against the two leaders, outside the Warwick Hotel in New York City on Sept. 25. Ahmadinejad is staying at the hotel during his visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images
United Nations peacekeepers stand deployed with an armored personnel carrier in Goma on July 10, 2012. The United Nations' Stabilisation Mission for the Congo (MONUSCO) deployed peacekeepers at key positions around the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province following a threat by M23 rebels to advance on the city.
The United Nations Security Council expressed deep concern at the sharply deteriorating situation in eastern Congo on Monday, condemning attacks by a group of renegade soldiers in the country's North Kivu province.
The M23 insurgents, dominated by Congolese Tutsis, take their name from a March 2009 peace deal that ended a previous rebellion in North Kivu and led to their integration into the national army. They deserted the government ranks earlier this year, Reuters reports, accusing the government of not respecting the agreement.
The M23 seized several towns earlier this month and now occupy positions less than 20 miles from the provincial capital Goma, according to Phil Moore, a photojournalist who has covered the situation extensively in recent months. Moore wrote in a blog post on Sunday that the risk of a march on Goma looms in the air, but that the local population seem unfazed by the military build-up in their streets.
Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images
An Indian United Nations peacekeeper digs new defenses on a hill on the outskirts of Goma on July 13, 2012. The commander in charge of this hilltop said that this position would be "the last line of defense" against an advance by M23 rebels, should they threaten Goma.
Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images
Brigadier-General Harinder Singh, the United Nations brigade commander for North Kivu, is followed by General Lucien Bahuma, the new commander of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) for North Kivu, following a strategy meeting above the village of Kibumba I, around 20km from the city of Goma, on July 11, 2012.
Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images
A Congolese man watches over a slow-burning wood pile covered in turf, used to produce charcoal, in the hills of Masisi territory near Kitchanga on July 16, 2012.
Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images
A woman carries a large bundle of firewood on her back near the town of Kitchanga in North Kivu province on July 16, 2012. Many people in this part of eastern Congo, in Masisi territory, rely on rapidly dwindling woodland for their livelihoods, either directly as firewood or through producing charcoal which is transported to Goma, the provincial capital, for sale.
Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images
Soldiers from the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) stand guard on the road between Goma and Rutshuru near the village of Kibumba I on July 11, 2012. The FARDC has deployed forces around Goma to repel any possible advance by M23 rebels on Goma.
Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images
Roger Meece, Special Representative to the United Nations Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, left, and Julien Paluku, governor of North Kivu province, second left, leave a press conference in Goma on July 12, 2012. Meece said that the mandate of the UN mission in Congo was to protect civilians and therefore the use of force to prevent the advance of M23 is legitimate.
Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images
Residents of Kitchanga sit outside a small shop in the small town in Masisi territory on July 16, 2012. M23 rebels are believed to be marching through the Virunga National Park from Rutshuru towards this town, which could potentially be used as a staging ground for a western march on Goma, the provincial capital. The town is currently held by the Congolese government army, but with many soldiers being ex-CNDP (Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple - a rebel group that was integrated into the army in 2009), there are fears that they could defect to join M23, which is largely formed of former CNDP fighters.
Issouf Sanogo / AFP - Getty Images
Ivory Coast's soldiers patrol on the road where UN soldiers were killed last week, following an attack in the southwest, close to the border with Liberia in Para on June 17. Seven Niger troops, 10 civilians and at least one Ivorian soldier were killed in the June 8 attack while patrolling villages south of the small town of Tai, near the Liberian border, the worst attack on ONUCI since its 2004 deployment. The zone has been prone to unrest for the past year, with bloody operations blamed in a recent report by Human Rights Watch on forces loyal to former president Laurent Gbagbo, whom the New York-based non-governmental organization accused of recruiting child soldiers.
Issouf Sanogo / AFP - Getty Images
A burnt vehicle wherein UN soldiers were killed last week, following an attack in the southwest, in Ivory Coast near the border with Liberia.
Luc Gnago / Reuters
The population of Tai collect water distributed by the United Nations peacekeepers in western Ivory Coast near the border with Liberia on June 18. The area has been hit by a series of attacks in recent weeks, killing at least 22 people, including seven United Nations peacekeepers. Ivory Coast has said the attacks were carried out by Liberian mercenaries and pro-former president Laurent Gbagbo Ivorian militias who crossed over from Liberia.
Another attack in the same region of Ivory Coast has claimed four more lives, Reuters reports:
"They were young Liberians mixed with natives from here. They were singing as they attacked the village. They were sure of themselves," said Karim Sako, a cocoa buyer who helped evacuate three people with machete wounds.
"UNOCI is there. The (Ivorian army) is there. But it is these fighters that control our forests now, and we are afraid to work," he said.
See more images from Ivory Coast in PhotoBlog.
Ricardo Moraes / Reuters
Indigenous children from the Paresi tribe talk at Kari-Oca village in Rio de Janeiro on June 13.
Felipe Dana / AP
Guarani Iandewa tribal women dance at the Kari-Oca village, where indigenous people from around the world are staying during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro.
Felipe Dana / AP
Caiapo tribe members sit on a curb at the Kari-Oca village, where indigenous people from around the world are staying during Rio+20, in Rio de Janeiro.
The United Nations' Rio+20 conference is expected to draw some 50,000 participants including delegates, environmental activists, business leaders and indigenous groups from around the world.
The event, the UN's largest, runs through June 22 in Rio de Janerio, with three final days of high-profile talks among some 130 top leaders from nations around the globe.
Felipe Dana / AP
A boy of the Guarani Kaiowa tribe poses for a photo at the Kari-Oca village.
Reuters
Residents attend a burial ceremony for what activists say are victims of shelling by the Syrian army, in the Khalidiya neighbourhood in Homs, Feb. 4. Syrian forces killed more than 200 people in an assault on the city of Homs, activists said, the bloodiest day of an 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, ahead of a Saturday vote on a U.N. resolution calling for him to cede power.
From NBC, msnbc.com and news services:
"Assad must halt his campaign of killing and crimes against his own people now. He must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately," Obama said.
"The Syrian regime's policy of maintaining power by terrorizing its people only indicates its inherent weakness and inevitable collapse," Obama said. "Assad has no right to lead Syria, and has lost all legitimacy with his people and the international community."
Full story: Russia, China reject UN move to rebuke Syrian president
Reuters
Residents gather before a burial ceremony for what activists say are victims of shelling by the Syrian army, in the Khalidiya neighbourhood in Homs, Feb. 4.
Sang Tan / AP
Protesters with their hands painted red chant slogans as Syrians protest outside the Syrian Embassy in London, Feb. 4, after a Syrian government forces assault on the city of Homs, Syria, resulted in hundreds of deaths. Syrian forces unleashed a barrage of mortars and artillery on the battered city of Homs for hours before dawn on Saturday, sending terrified residents fleeing into basements and killing more than 200 people in what appeared to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, activists said.
Sang Tan / AP
A protester holds a megaphone and a toy gun among Syrians protesting outside the Syrian Embassy in London, Saturday, Feb. 4.
Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters
Broken glass is seen in the Syrian embassy after it was ransacked by protesters in Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 4. Syrian demonstrators ransacked their country's embassy in Cairo and broke into the missions in London and Kuwait, part of protests around the world against the worst bloodshed of the 11 month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. The Cairo crowd smashed furniture and equipment and set fire to parts of the embassy building overnight.
Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters
An employee at the Syrian embassy looks at damaged items scattered on the floor after the building was ransacked by protesters in Cairo, Feb. 4.
Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters
The burnt walls of the Syrian embassy are seen after the building was ransacked by protesters in Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 4.
Mohammed Zaatari / AP
United Nations and emergency personnel gather at the site of a roadside bomb attack on a U.N. peacekeepers' vehicle in Bourj al-Shamali, near the port city of Tyre, Lebanon on Dec. 9.
AP Reports:
BEIRUT — A roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Friday, wounding five French soldiers and a Lebanese bystander, officials said.
This was the third bombing this year targeting the international force known as UNIFIL, which is deployed to keep the peace along Lebanon's southern border with Israel. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Read the full story: 5 French peacekeepers wounded in Lebanon bombing
Hassan Bahsoun / EPA
A United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon soldier who was injured by a road bomb during a patrol, speaks with a medic, in Tyre, south Lebanon, on Dec. 9.
Ali Hashisho / Reuters
A Red Cross member stands near a damaged U.N. vehicle on the outskirts of the city of Tyre, southern Lebanon on Dec. 9.
Ali Hashisho / Reuters
A wounded French U.N. peacekeeper of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon stands next to a Red Cross member after receiving treatment at the site where a bomb exploded on the outskirts of the city of Tyre, southern Lebanon on Dec. 9.
Several French peacekeepers are rushed to the hospital after a bomb goes off in southern Lebanon. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
Reuters: "We're just hoping to get back to the climate when the sovereign debt crisis is solved," said one political aide who is not leaving Brussels. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said he had nightmares after the stress of the negotiations in Copenhagen.
Journalists are also staying away in droves. For Copenhagen, media interest reached a peak of more than 3,200. Less than half that number has registered to attend the Durban talks, according to provisional figures from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Valdrin Xhemaj / EPA
An electrical worker at work on an electrical pylon as smoke rises from a power plant in the town of Obilic, Kosovo, Dec. 1. Media reports state that delegates from 195 countries are presently gathering in Durban, South Africa, during the 17th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 17).
China is the world's biggest emitter with 25 percent of the global total in 2010, according to figures from energy company BP, followed by the United States with 19 percent.
Asked about the risk that the Kyoto Protocol is abandoned, EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said: "I would call it a risk as long as you do not have anything to put in place instead, so that is the challenge."
Alexander Joe / AFP - Getty Images
Performers wearing large masks dance in Durban on Dec. 1, as part of the entertainment for the UN-Climate change Conference. New tensions and alignments are emerging at the UN talks, reflecting subtle but far-reaching changes in the geopolitics of climate change. Delegates and veteran observers say the shifts challenge the very heart of the nearly two-decade-old climate process, which until now has neatly divided the world into two blocs -- the north and the south, the rich and the poor.
Of the three 2020 targets the EU pledged in 2007, two are binding - to cut carbon by 20 percent by 2020 and to increase the share of renewable energy by 20 percent - and it is on track to meet them. The third target to improve energy efficiency, through measures such as insulation, by 20 percent is not compulsory and so far the EU is only expected to half meet it.
Nic Bothma / EPA
A delegate works on his tablet on the floor of the COP 17 Exhibition Center during the COP 17 / CMP 7 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference 2011 in Durban, South Africa, Dec. 1. COP 17 is the 17th session of the Congress of the Parties (COP) comprising 194 countries meeting to discuss the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) between 28 November and 09 December 2011.
Nic Bothma / EPA
Cyclists power lights on an installation depicting a Baobab tree part of a renewable energies display on Durban's beachfront during the COP 17 / CMP 7 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference 2011 in Durban, South Africa, 29 November 2011. COP 17 is the 17th session of the Congress of the Parties (COP) comprising 194 countries meeting to discuss the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) between 28 November and 09 December 2011.
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