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U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Syria
U.N. investigators are planning to return to Syria soon to follow up on several more allegations of chemical weapons use.
Ake Sellstrom, the head of the inspection team that visited after an August 21 attack, told CNN that the second visit could take place as early as next week.
The news will likely please Russia, who slammed a recent U.N. chemical weapons report as "one-sided" and called for inspectors to return to Syria.
FULL STORYU.N. report: Abuses on both sides of Syrian civil war
A new United Nations report affirms that both sides in the Syrian civil war have committed grave crimes in violation of international law.
Government forces continue to attack civilian populations in what amounts to crimes against humanity, says the report by the U.N. Human Rights Council, which was released Wednesday.
But anti-government groups, in their fight against President Bashar al-Assad, have themselves committed war crimes, including murder, torture and hostage-taking, the report states.
As the fighting rages, "it is civilians who continue to pay the price for the failure to negotiate an end to this conflict," the agency said in a prepared statement.
FULL STORYThe debate on Syria: To bomb or not to bomb?
U.N. evidence that could show whether chemical weapons were used in Syria will head to a lab Monday, but the answer may just be a formality.
The American president has already said there's no doubt Syria's government killed hundreds of civilians in a chemical weapon attack. Independent tests have revealed "signatures of sarin gas" in blood and hair samples from Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry said.
President Barack Obama wants Congress to sign off on limited strikes on Syrian targets - but some lawmakers bristle at the idea of getting ensnared in another overseas conflict.
FULL STORYRebels in Congo face deadline to hand in arms
Rebels in an unstable part of the Democratic Republic of Congo have until Thursday afternoon to hand in their weapons to U.N. peacekeepers or risk being disarmed by force.
The ultimatum comes amid the latest flare up of unrest in central Africa's volatile Great Lakes region.
The 19,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country, MONUSCO, issued the deadline on Tuesday. It's the first time it has said it will use its troops there to implement a security area around the city of Goma, by the border with Rwanda.
FULL STORY
U.N.'s Ban: Korean tensions 'gone too far'
[Updated at 8:22 a.m. ET] North Korea's announcement that it would restart all the facilities at its Yongbyon nuclear complex was followed by a plea for calm from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is himself South Korean.
Ban said he was "deeply troubled."
"The current crisis has already gone too far," he said in a statement from Andorra. "Nuclear threats are not a game. Aggressive rhetoric and military posturing only result in counter-actions, and fuel fear and instability.
[Posted at 2 a.m. ET] North Korea said Tuesday that it plans to restart all the facilities at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, including a uranium enrichment plant and a reactor that was shut down in 2007.
The announcement follows a new strategic line set out at a recent meeting of a key committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea on Sunday, the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Tuesday.
FULL STORYKhmer Rouge leader cleared for trial
The most senior surviving Khmer Rouge leader, Nuon Chea, has been declared fit for trial by a United Nations-backed court in Cambodia, the U.N. said Friday.
Nuon, the right-hand man to late leader Pol Pot and a former Cambodian prime minister, is reportedly 86 years old and is accused of murder and torture.
U.N. to send peacekeepers to DRC
The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday to deploy about 3,100 peacekeepers to a restive region in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the U.N. announced.
FULL STORYU.N. human rights inquiry angers North Korea
North Korea reacted with indignation to a United Nations decision to investigate allegations of human rights abuses inside the isolated state, claiming it has one of the best systems worldwide for protecting citizens' rights.
The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva said delegates agreed Thursday to set up a commission of inquiry to examine what it called "grave, widespread and systematic" violations of human rights in North Korea.
FULL STORYU.N. will probe Syria's chemical weapons claim
The United Nations will probe Syria's claim that rebels may have used chemical weapons in the country, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday.
Opposition groups, meanwhile, have insisted that the Syrian regime itself used such weapons.
Syria asked for a U.N. investigation of its claim, and Ban said he has a mandate to consider such a request from any member state. So the U.N. probe will focus on the government's allegation.
FULL STORYU.N.: Drones kill innocent people
A group of farmers is on its way to tend to crops. Suddenly, a missile slams into its midst, thrusting shrapnel in all directions.
A CIA drone, flying so high that the farmers can't see it, has killed most of them. None of them were militants.
It's a common scenario, a United Nations human rights researcher said Friday in a statement on drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal region of North Waziristan.
FULL STORY
U.N. panel: Syrians running out of havens
Syrian civilians are running out of places to take cover as indiscriminate shelling and aerial bombings destroy more neighborhoods, an independent U.N. panel said.
In addition, both government and rebel fighters have reportedly recruited boys to join their forces and are accused of violating international humanitarian law, the group said.
FULL STORYU.N.: Peacekeeper release agreed, but delayed
A U.N. agency has dispatched a team to collect 21 U.N. peacekeepers from Syrian rebels who detained them earlier this week, but the effort has been called off due to darkness, a U.N. spokeswoman says.
The team will try again Saturday, said U.N. Josephine Guerrero, spokeswoman for the U.N.'s peacekeeping agency.
The peacekeepers, identified by the Philippine government as Filipino, were detained in a Syrian village near the Golan Heights on Wednesday. Syrian opposition coalition President Moaz al-Khatib said Thursday that the rebels took the peacekeepers for the peacekeepers' own safety due to fighting there.
FULL STORYU.N. adopts new North Korea sanctions
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday for a resolution strengthening sanctions on North Korea.
The Security Council resolution targeting North Korea and its nuclear program includes tough new financial sanctions, travel restrictions, and inspection powers.
"These sanctions will bite and bite hard," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice told reporters after the unanimous resolution vote on Thursday.
FULL STORYSouth Sudan forces say they shot down U.N. helicopter
[Updated at 3:36 p.m. ET] The South Sudanese armed forces admitted shooting down a United Nations helicopter in eastern South Sudan on Friday.
The Sudan People's Liberation Army said it was an accident, according to spokesman Philip Aguer.
Four crew members were killed, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan said. The group reported that there were no passengers on board.
Aguer said that a craft was seen about 9 a.m. hovering near an SPLA command area. The army asked the U.N. mission whether it had sent a plane.
"The U.N. said there is no plane, they don't have plane in the area," Aguer said.
FULL STORYA UN twist to ‘Gangnam Style’
Showing a side of his personality rarely seen in public, the United Nations Secretary-General tried to match “Gangnam Style” moves with the master of cheesy dancing.
Two of the world’s most recognizable South Koreans stood side-by-side. One wore spectacles, a U.N. lapel and a pressed black suit. The other stood in a black checkered jacket and his signature loose bow tie. And both raised their arms - locked and ready to bounce on imaginary horses in “Gangnam Style” fashion.
Brahimi in Syria to broker cease-fire – but faces long odds
Will Lakhdar Brahimi succeed where his predecessor failed?
Brahimi, the special envoy to Syria, met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday. His aim: try and broker a cease-fire in Syria before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which begins Friday.
But if history repeats itself, the odds of a cease-fire between Syrian government forces and rebels are stacked against Brahimi.
The man he replaced, Kofi Annan, made numerous trips to Damascus but was unable to halt the incessant violence.
Opposition activists say more than 30,000 people have been killed since the Syrian crisis began in March 2011.
FULL STORYMonday's live events
President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney hold their first debate on Wednesday from the campus of the University of Denver. Watch CNN.com Live for all the latest coverage from the election.
Today's programming highlights...
9:00 am ET - UN General Assembly - It's the final day of general debate at the United Nations General Assembly today. We expect to hear from Syria, Cuba and North Korea during the session.
Thursday's live events
President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney hold their first debate October 3 from the campus of the University of Denver. Watch CNN.com Live for all the latest coverage from the election.
Today's programming highlights...
9:00 am ET - UN General Assembly debate resumes - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are among the speakers scheduled to address today's session of the UN General Assembly.
U.S. delegation will not attend Ahmadinejad's U.N speech, spokeswoman says
The U.S. delegation "has decided not to attend" the speech to be delivered by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before the United Nations General Assembly, Erin Pelton, spokeswoman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said in a statement Wednesday.
"Over the past couple of days, we've seen Mr. Ahmadinejad once again use his trip to the U.N. not to address the legitimate aspirations of the Iranian people but to instead spout paranoid theories and repulsive slurs against Israel," Pelton said.
The Iranian leader's addresses to the assembly have often generated controversy in the past. The tensions over Tehran's disputed nuclear program and speculation over a possible attack on Iran by Israel offer ample material for drama this time around.
In previous years, several delegations have walked out during Ahmadinejad's speeches, which have assailed the United States and criticized countries that he said used the Holocaust as an "excuse to pay ransom to Zionists."
Five things we learned from Day One of the U.N. debate
He will be taking to the podium Wednesday, a day after President Barack Obama told the assembly that while Washington remains committed to a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear program, the United States "will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and to fill energy shortages, but Western leaders believe Tehran is an aspiring armed nuclear power. U.N. inspectors have also expressed doubts about the program's aims.
Wednesday's live events
President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney hold their first debate October 3 from the campus of the University of Denver. Watch CNN.com Live for all the latest coverage from the election.
Today's programming highlights...
8:30 am ET - Romney in Ohio - GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is getting a celebrity boost while campaigning in Ohio. First, he'll be joined by golf legend Jack Nicklaus in Westerville. Later, TV host Mike Rowe will assist Romney at a manufacturing roundtable in Bedford Heights.
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