United Nations

Key world powers agreed Wednesday on a draft of a United Nations resolution that would sharply increase export and financial sanctions against North Korea as punishment for its recent nuclear weapons and missile tests. After more than two weeks of debate, the United States, Britain and France joined North Korea's traditional protectors, China and Russia, in signing off on the draft. The full 15-member U.N.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees suspended aid to the Gaza Strip on Friday, accusing Hamas of stealing a delivery of humanitarian supplies for the second time this week. The announcement by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency deepened tensions between the international body that assists the majority of Gaza's 1.5 million people and the Islamic militant group that controls the coastal strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert boasted Monday that he successfully pressured President Bush last week to reverse course on U.S. diplomacy over fighting in Gaza, in an episode that could sharpen tensions between the close allies at a sensitive moment. Speaking to an audience in Ashkelon, Israel, Olmert said he had called Bush last Thursday and convinced him that the United States should not vote for a pending U.N. Security Council resolution urging a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

The Obama administration moved closer Thursday to resuming diplomatic contact with Iran as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed an international meeting on Afghanistan that could bring U.S. officials face to face with their longtime adversaries. Clinton suggested that the United Nations host a meeting on Afghanistan on March 31 that would include "key regional and strategic countries," as well as NATO members and other world powers and international groups.

The United Nations took over command from a European Union protection force in eastern Chad on Sunday, and there were growing fears of more rebel violence and the possible arrival of tens of thousands more refugees from Sudan's Darfur region. The European Union formally handed over command to the U.N. mission in Chad and Central African Republic after a yearlong mandate expired. The hand-over, which sees about 5,000 U.N.

An American U.N. worker abducted more than two months ago turned up Saturday, lying alongside a road in western Pakistan with his hands and feet bound, pleading "Help me," said the man who found him. John Solecki was found in a village 30 miles south of Quetta near the Afghan border after his captors called a local news agency to tell them where to look, officials said. Mohammed Anwar, who owns a restaurant along the main highway to Karachi, said he found Solecki in the dirt near a wall.

The United Nations will open its first global racism conference in eight years today with the United States and at least seven other countries boycotting the event out of concern that Muslim countries plan to demand that it denounce Israel and bar criticism of Islam.

Former President Clinton will be named special U.N. envoy to this impoverished Caribbean nation that has been mired in political and social turmoil for decades, his spokesman said Monday. An official announcement is expected from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today, Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna said. Clinton is popular among many of Haiti's poor because as president in 1994, he used the threat of military force to oust a dictatorship there. U.S.

Former political prisoner Win Tin says he wasn't surprised that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Myanmar to plead for the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi ended in failure. Ban said Saturday that he was "deeply disappointed" that Senior Gen. Than Shwe refused to allow him to see Suu Kyi, adding that she should be released "without delay." He said Myanmar's human rights record was a matter of serious concern.