UN Radio: Syria Calls for Condemnation of Israel

UN Radio: Syria Calls for Condemnation of Israeli Attack on its Territory

Syria Calls for Condemnation of Israeli Attack on its Territory

Syria has submitted a draft resolution to the Security Council condemning an Israeli attack on its territory on Sunday. The Security Council held a meeting on the same day on this matter and most speakers denounced the attack. The Israeli attack followed a suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel on Saturday, which was condemned by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. A number of speakers in the Security Council deplored the bombing but cautioned that it could not excuse the attack by Israel on Syria. The representative of Syria to the United Nations Ambassador Faysal Mekdad said Israel's actions are aimed at worsening an already dangerous situation that threatens world peace and security:

"We believe that Israel should desist from committing further attacks and the international community should shoulder its responsibility in preventing Israel."

The UN Secretary-General has urged all concerned to respect the rules of international law and exercise restraint.

UNHCR Mourns Death of Humanitarian Worker in Somalia

The UN refugee agency today expressed shock and sadness over the murder of a veteran humanitarian aid worker in Somalia, Dr. Annalena Tonelli from Italy. She was shot on Sunday night on the grounds of a hospital in Borama, in northwestern Somalia. In June Dr. Tonelli won UNHCR's highest honour, the Nansen Refugee Award for her thirty-three years of work with Somalis.

World Habitat Day: Rapid Urbanization is Increasing Slums

A new report by the UN-HABITAT released today warns that rapid urbanization is increasing the number of slum dwellers. According to the report one in every six people today lives in slums and the number is expected to increase to about two billion people by 2030. The head of the HABITAT, the UN agency dealing with human settlements, says that the problem of slums can be solved if there is political will and investments in infrastructure and services in urban areas. Anna Tibaijuka also says that slum dwellers themselves should be seen as an asset not as a liability in improving urban settlements:

"So we are encouraging city managers, central governments to adopt policies, which will really encourage the slum dwellers themselves to be able to turn around their own situation, valuable things like regularization of their tenure, avoiding arbitrary evictions and the like."

The report was released as the UN observes World Habitat Day with the theme, Water and Sanitation for Cities.

Caribbean Preparatory Meeting Opens in Trinidad and Tobago

The preparatory meeting for the Caribbean region on the Barbados Plan of Action opened in Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago. UN Radio's Donn Bobb reports:

"Trinidad and Tobago has called for a greater spirit of collaboration on matters of the environment in the Caribbean. Environment Minister Reggie Dumas told a Caribbean regional meeting on small island developing states or SIDS, as they are called, that there is a need to find common Caribbean positions on critical issues of development:

'We need to build a regional consensus on our approaches to our sustainable development effort and implementation of the SIDS POA. We need to put appropriate arrangements in place to effectively coordinate our efforts.'

The meeting being held in Trinidad and Tobago was called to discuss the region's objectives and expectations at next year's conference in Mauritius which will review the progress achieved in ensuring positive long term development of small islands developing states. For UN Radio this is Donn Bobb from Port of Spain, Trinidad."

UN Mission in Afghanistan Expresses Serious Concern About Security The UN Mission in Afghanistan has expressed its serious concern about repeated security incidents involving aid workers in the country. In the latest incident last Saturday, a group of deminers from the Demining Agency for Afghanistan was attacked near Kandahar City. One driver was injured and vehicles were ridden with bullets. The UN mission says what is particularly alarming in this incident was that the assailants reportedly intended to kill the deminers but were distracted when an aid worker in another vehicle started up the engine.

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