Women in certain parts of Congo are 134 times more likely to be raped than a woman in the United States. A woman is raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo nearly every minute and is 134 times more likely to be raped there than in the US, according to a new study which found rates 26 times higher than earlier estimates. More than 400,000 women aged 15 to 49 were raped in a 12 month period, the researchers... 

The Libyan capital Tripoli has been hit by another heavy bombardment. Reports suggest numerous airstrikes were carried out by NATO fighter jets early on Tuesday. The UN humanitarian chief has called for a pause in hostilities, from all sides. According to witnesses, eight airstrikes were carried out by NATO forces within a period of about three hours, which is unusually intense, Al Jazeera informed.... 

A reported willingness by the White House to vote for the creation of a Palestinian state in the UN signals unprecedented trust issues with Netanyahu’s government and will likely exacerbate US-Israeli relations. US President Barack Obama announced a decision to recognise the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, adding that the US will vote as such in the United Nations, reported... 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that the flotilla, scheduled to head toward the Gaza Strip in May, is a provocation and goods can easily be transported to the strip via land. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Friday to stop the impending flotilla that is supposed to set sail to the Gaza Strip in May. The Israeli... 

At the United Nations headquarters, signs of a brewing debate as heated as the 2003 invasion of Iraq can be found aplenty. Parallel to the growing criticisms of the Barack Obama administration’s military gambit in Libya in the US Congress, which saw the House of Representatives speaker John Boehner demand an explanation from President Barack Obama on the “contradictions” of his Libya... 

Protesters shout slogans against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during a demonstartion at court square, in Benghazi, Libya, on Friday. After days of prevarication through the peak of the Libyan crisis, the United States government finally moved on Friday evening to impose unilateral sanctions against the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The Obama administration’s latest move came even as the... 

An Israeli border police officer walks out from a Palestinian house during clashes with Palestinian demonstrators during a protest against the expansion of the nearby Jewish settlement of Halamish in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. The United States has vetoed a draft UN resolution condemning the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, turning a deaf ear to international... 

Kenya is one of the countries experiencing population explosion. Half of its population is aged 25 years and below. Of all the issues that will be aired from the pulpit of the UN’s development summit this week, one is likely to stand out by its absence: What should be done about the world’s population explosion? To many campaigners, demographic growth is the gorilla in the UN’s living... 

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer demanded Friday that a reference to the state’s controversial immigration law be removed from a State Department report to the United Nations’ human rights commissioner. The U.S. included its legal challenge to the law on a list of ways the federal government is protecting human rights. In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Brewer says it is “downright... 

Map locates Sange, Dem. Rep. Congo where a tanker carrying oil exploded. A tanker truck hauling fuel on a rural eastern Congo highway overturned, gushing oil and exploding in a massive fireball that killed about 220 bystanders, including many who had been watching the World Cup in flimsy roadside shacks, officials and witnesses said Saturday. The Red Cross said at least 61 children and 36 women were... 

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) secretary-general Hamadoun Toure The world needs a treaty to prevent cyber attacks becoming an all-out war, the head of the main UN communications and technology agency warned Saturday. International Telcommunications Union secretary general Hamadoun Toure gave his warning at a World Economic Forum debate where experts said nations must now consider when... 

Rajendra Pachauri The Indian head of the UN climate change panel defended his position yesterday even as further errors were identified in the panel’s assessment of Himalayan glaciers. Dr Rajendra Pachauri dismissed calls for him to resign over the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change’s retraction of a prediction that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035. But he admitted that there... 

Iran’s ambassador to UN demands Security Council take steps against comments made by Ephraim Sneh, who said Israel would attack Iran if sanctions weren’t in place by Christmas. Iran’s ambassador to UN demands Security Council take steps against comments made by Ephraim Sneh, who said Israel would attack Iran if sanctions weren’t in place by Christmas Iran’s ambassador... 

University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit Officials at a key global-warming research center in the United Kingdom have authenticated a series of e-mails and other documents apparently taken from their computer system by a hacker, but they cannot explain what scientists in internal exchanges meant by references to a “trick” that would “hide the decline” of global temperatures... 

The U.N. General Assembly is likely to approve a resolution that urges Israel and the Palestinians to carry out independent investigations of alleged war crimes during their conflict in Gaza last winter within three months and calls for possible Security Council action if they do not. The 192-nation world body has scheduled a meeting Wednesday to consider a resolution adopted by the Geneva-based Human...