Iran Loses To Japan For Security Council Seat

I didn't even know they were making a bid for it, but Iran has lost to Japan for the Asian non-permanent U.N. Security Council seat. They needed two-thirds of those voting in order to get a seat, but only got 32 votes. I'm not sure how many votes two-thirds is, but Austria got their seat with 133 votes. Thankfully we won't have Iran trying to dictate where U.N forces go or don't go.

They Won't Accept Help

Showing again that some countries just won't let others help, the military government of Myanmar has seized UN relief shipments into their country which has forced the UN to stop sending in more food and supplies. The Government has not given a reason to the UN yet, but the company line for why the government is not accepting other types of help is "We can handle our own situation better with out others." It makes you wonder what the government is hiding.

Darfur peacekeeping force approved

It seems that the UN in its great wisdom has decided to approve a peacekeeping force to be sent to Darfur. My initial response is - it's about time. My second response is the same as the question posed in this Time article, will it be enough. Given the vast amount of bureaucracy that has been built into the force, I'm sure it won't be enough. For this kind of mission to succeed the force must be a force, not simply observers. It's unfortunate that the organization that is supposed to represent the world's desire for peace is so impotent - both by the nature of how it's organized and by its own choice. The people of Darfur deserve a force that is allowed to save them. In this case all they got was a bunch of people that get to watch them die.