Russia put its growing ties with Israel to the test on Monday by announcing plans to back a controversial Palestinian bid to win UN statehood despite strong resistance from the Jewish state. The decision does not come as an outright surprise but still underscores the growing diplomatic isolation Israel finds itself in following a violent new flare-up in relations with regional powers Egypt and Turkey. Russia’s... 

United Nations human rights watchdog has accused Australia of racism over its treatment of boat people and Aborigines. School students are being targeted in a major new push to force acceptance of multiculturalism by “embedding” it in the national curriculum. Young Australians will be trained in “cultural competency” during classes as part of the Gillard Government’s plan... 

Iranian nuclear experts at the research centre of the uranium conversion plant in the Isfahan. The country is only a matter of months from creating a nuclear weapon. Iran is only a matter of months from being able to create a nuclear weapon, according to experts. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 54, has long been pushing his country’s nuclear capabilities, and at the current rate of uranium enrichment... 

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... 

Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who supervised the burning of the Koran last month, said he’s not backing down after receiving death threats. Jones said he feels no responsibility for the violence sparked by his church’s action, including the violent protest at a United Nations complex in Afghanistan Saturday that left at least 11 people dead – and 20 killed in weekend violence. Jones... 

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu responds to questions during a press briefing in Beijing where China reiterated its opposition to the use of force in Libya amid Western air strikes there and called for an immediate ceasefire in the country’s conflict. China Tuesday called for an immediate cease-fire in Libya, where a United Nations “no-fly zone” is being enforced. After... 

China opposes the intervention by foreign forces in the unrest in the Middle East and relevant missions should be led by the United Nations, a Chinese spokesman said Saturday. A similar unrest in China is “preposterous and unrealistic”, said Zhao Qizheng, spokesman for China’s top advisory body which is convening its annual session in Beijing. There would not be such a situation... 

Russia urges Israel’s government to freeze construction of settlements in the West Bank, which violates international law and hinders Palestinian-Israeli talks, Russia’s permanent representative at the United Nations Vitaly Churkin told a UN Security Council session on Friday. According to Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency the UN Security Council on Friday failed to pass a resolution... 

An injured Ivorian lies on the ground outside the UN building in Abidjan on December 20. At least 296 people have been killed in Ivory Coast since a presidential stand-off escalated in mid-December, the United Nations mission in the crisis-hit west African nation has said. At least 296 people have been killed in Ivory Coast since a presidential stand-off escalated in mid-December, the United Nations... 

A partially built Israeli 'separation barrier' and the sprawling Gilo neighborhood (Right) as seen from the Palestinian village of Walaje. Washington is desperately trying to head off a United Nations resolution condemning Jewish settlements in Jerusalem and the disputed West Bank territories that is presenting Barack Obama with one of the most acute dilemmas of his presidency. Senior Palestinian... 

The United Nations said on Wednesday it will ask the Security Council to approve up to 2,000 additional peacekeepers for Ivory Coast to help protect the man it says is the west African nation’s new president. “I expressed my intention to request more troops and I expect to formalize it in the coming days,” Alain Le Roy, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations,... 

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... 

Activist Samar al-Hajj, organiser of the Mariam women-only aid ship which plans to break the Gaza blockade, speaks during a press conference at the entrance of Tripoli's harbour on August 19. Israel said Friday it could use force to stop a new aid boat to Gaza, as Lebanon refused to bow to warnings against authorizing an all-women ship to head for the blockaded Palestinian territory Israel informed... 

A most intriguing report prepared by the Foreign Military Intelligence Directorate of the Russian General Staff (GRU) on the killing of one of their “operatives” posted at a United States space weapon laboratory states that the death of Doctor-Scientist Maria Beloyvan last week was “directly attributed” to knowledge she had gained about the Americans “inter-dimensional space communication”... 

A Stanford Professor has used United Nation security officers to silence a journalist asking him “inconvenient questions” during a press briefing at the climate change conference in Copenhagen. Professor Stephen Schneider’s assistant requested armed UN security officers who held film maker Phelim McAleer, ordered him to stop filming and prevented further questioning after the press conference...