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- Resolution on Syria faces Council vote
A long-awaited resolution threatening Syria over its deadly six-month crackdown on anti-government protests is slated to voted upon by the UN Security Council late this afternoon. It was unclear whether Russia would veto the resolution, which was drafted by France, Britain, Germany and Portugal, and calls for "measures" against the Syrian regime if military operations against civilians persist. Reuters (10/4)      - U.S. aid to Palestinian Authority is frozen after UN bid
Development projects in the occupied territories of the West Bank have been suspended after the U.S. Congress froze $200 million in financing in retaliation for Palestinian efforts to attain recognition of statehood at the United Nations. The administration of President Barack Obama was pressuring lawmakers to reverse their decision, which already has prompted the U.S. foreign aid agency to delay two projects -- valued at $81 million -- to boost the Palestinian private sector and improve overall investment. Reuters (10/3), ABC News/The Associated Press (10/4) - Espionage and the UN
It is a "well-known, yet seldom spoken truth" that the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly ushers in a frenzy not only of speech-making and diplomacy, but of spying. In fact, the gathering is the "Super Bowl" of UN spy games, reports the Associated Press. ABC News/The Associated Press (10/4)  - Soros commits $27.4 million for African villages
Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has reiterated his commitment to the Millennium Villages project, which over the past five years has been trying to help 500,000 people in 10 countries across Africa to meet UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Soros on Monday pledged $27.4 million to aid development within participating villages, as well as up to $20 million in loans to support business projects there. The Christian Science Monitor/The Associated Press (10/4) - East Africa famine response was too slow, UN official says
Antonio Guterres, who has served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees since 2005, said Monday that the crises sweeping across the Horn of Africa have become the worst he has ever seen even though "all of us could see this escalation coming from a long way away." The international community reacted too slowly to the drought that has evolved into a famine threatening the lives of more than 13 million people, Guterres said. AlertNet (10/3)  - Mandy Moore talks malaria in D.C.
American singer Mandy Moore on Monday discussed her recent trip to Cameroon in support of the Nothing But Nets campaign, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation, that combats malaria with insecticide-treated mosquito nets. Moore appeared at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., with Barbara Bush, daughter of former U.S. President George W. Bush. Politico (Washington, D.C.)/Click blog (10/3) - Inside the world of child brides
 BBC presenter Nel Hedayat travels to India and Bangladesh, countries with two of the highest rates of child marriage, to chronicle what life is like to be one of the 10 million girls worldwide who are married off each year before they reach the age of 18. The 23-year-old Hedayat has a legacy of child marriage in her family, as both of her grandmothers and an aunt were married as children in her native Afghanistan. BBC (10/3) - U.S. energy policy needs to focus on renewables
 Bill Richards and J. Read Smith, co-chairs of the National 25x'25 Alliance, recommend a "long-term, stable energy policy to generate jobs and revitalize our economy" that focuses on renewable sources such as solar, wind, hydro and geothermal. "There has never been greater need for public policy and funding to maximize the economic benefits of our nation's vast sustainable resources," they write. The Tennessean (Nashville) (10/3) - Emission-reduction projects could swamp UN CO2 market
Auditing firms that determine compliance for the world's biggest greenhouse-gas market could begin to turn away businesses because they cannot keep up with the surge in emission-reduction projects in need of validation, said Jonathan Hall, president of the Designated Operational Entities and Independent Entities Association. Over the past three months, a record number of projects, 592, entered the validation stage for UN Certified Emission Reduction credits. Bloomberg Businessweek (10/3) - New app boosts UN's mHealth credibility
The first official app of the United Nations further cements the world body's increasing role in mHealth, providing information for various health care and humanitarian initiatives. "Only five years ago, who would have imagined that today a woman in sub-Saharan Africa could use a mobile phone to access health information on bringing her pregnancy safely to term? Or that today a young person in the Middle East could use a mobile phone to help manage diabetes?" said Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, president of the 66th session of the General Assembly. MobileMarketingWatch.com (10/4)  | - Yemen's Saleh is urged to step down
Western powers, including the U.S., are formulating a draft resolution to be presented to the UN Security Council calling upon Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to relinquish power after months of popular unrest. In a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, leaders of the country's youth movement urged the International Criminal Court to arrest Saleh for "crimes against peaceful protesters." Bloomberg Businessweek (10/3), The Times of India/Agence France-Presse (10/2) - U.S. is expected to slash foreign aid despite global crises
The foreign aid budget of the U.S. is expected to take a disproportionately large hit -- potentially the biggest cuts in overseas aid in nearly 20 years -- when U.S. lawmakers meet to reduce the country's looming debt. Among the projected cuts are projects providing food and medicine for Africa, relief for Asian countries affected by disasters, and political and economic assistance for the fledgling democracies in the Middle East. The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (10/3)
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