United Nations Security Council

After days of diplomatic wrestling, the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Thursday night calling for an "immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire" in the Gaza Strip that would lead to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave. Arab and Western diplomats seemed unconvinced that their handiwork would silence Israeli guns or stop the militant group Hamas from firing rockets into Israel.

A senior North Korean diplomat warned Tuesday that the government will retaliate if the U.N. Security Council takes action over its rocket launch, insisting that his country sent up a peaceful satellite and not a missile. North Korea's deputy U.N. ambassador, Pak Tok Hun, accused the Security Council of targeting his country while allowing many other countries to launch satellites.

More than a week after North Korea launched a rocket over northern Japan, the U.N. Security Council made it clear Monday that the action was an unacceptable violation of international law and agreed to toughen sanctions against the nation. The council condemned the April 5 launch and said that by the end of the month it would expand sanctions established in 2006 in a resolution aimed at stopping North Korea from developing ballistic missiles and other weapons.

Politically divided Lebanon and Bosnia-Herzegovina were among five countries elected to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, in a move diplomats hoped would help strengthen the two countries' fragile institutions. In an uncontested election, the United Nations General Assembly voted for Bosnia, Brazil, Gabon, Lebanon and Nigeria to serve on the council in the next two years. All five had been selected in advance by their regional groups. On Jan. 1 they will replace Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Libya and Vietnam as non-veto-holding members of the 15-nation body, the powerhouse of the United Nations with the authority to impose sanctions and deploy peacekeeping forces.

To what degree is the elected government of Iraq obligated to pay for the sins committed by the late dictator Saddam Hussein? Should neighboring Kuwait forgive Iraq's new leadership $24 billion in outstanding debt for the destruction wrought by the 1990 invasion, a seven-month occupation, looting and the violent retreat of Iraqi forces? And is it relevant that Iraq may need the money more than Kuwait does?