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Alliances January 12, 2017

Obama administration under pressure to turn attention back to Iraq

As Al Qaeda-aligned insurgents make unprecedented post-war gains in Iraq, U.S. military officials and others in the Obama administration are keeping their distance.

Alliances January 12, 2017

Lawmakers urge new US strategy as Boko Haram rampages through Africa

One of the most brutal and murderous Islamist militant groups has been steadily gaining ground, inflicting a streak of atrocities shocking by even their standards -- and it's not Al Qaeda or the Islamic State.

Alliances January 12, 2017

'Slush fund'? USAID under fire for paying Afghan, other governments to pass laws

A U.S. agency whose mission is to foster democracy by providing financial aid to foreign governments is under fire for what some lawmakers charge is blatant political bribery to get foreign officials to pass policies favored by the Obama administration.

State Department December 31, 2016

Official: Cuba terror listing won’t affect US push for embassy, diplomatic ties

The Obama administration plans to proceed on forging diplomatic ties with Cuba – and potentially opening an embassy -- regardless of whether the country stays on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Aid September 22, 2016

While the UN talks, new tide of Iraqi refugees threatens to drown relief efforts

The first swells of a mammoth new refugee flood are starting to overwhelm international relief efforts in northern Iraq, as more than a million residents in and around the Iraqi city of Mosul are beginning to flee before a vicious battle is joined between ISIS and forces trying to displace the terrorist forces.

UNITED NATIONS August 25, 2016

As cholera ravaged Haiti, UN peacekeepers around the world made a mess

United Nations peacekeeping missions around the world for years poured untreated or untested sewage into public waters or agricultural lands in some of the most ravaged countries they protect, failed to dispose safely of wastewater, sewage and garbage, and only sporadically kept the environmental safety and sanitation records that missions are supposed to report regularly for themselves and for U.N. headquarters.

UNITED NATIONS August 11, 2016

Amid Haiti cholera epidemic, UN peacekeepers spill sewage and ignore water treatment, says internal report

While the United Nations touted its efforts in Haiti aimed at ending the world’s worst modern cholera epidemic -- a calamity many experts assert the U.N. itself caused -- U.N. peacekeepers were blatantly violating their own sanitary rules for containing the disease, according to an internal U.N. report that was suppressed for months.

Corruption July 12, 2016

Fraud? What fraud? Watchdogs find UN in 'a state of near denial' about internal corruption

EXCLUSIVE: The United Nations, which spends tens of billions of its member states’ dollars annually, apparently has a simple approach to dealing with fraud in its sprawling operations – ignore it.

UNITED NATIONS June 7, 2016

UN refugee agency handed over hundreds of millions to partners without monitoring, report says

EXCLUSIVE: Over the last two years, as the global refugee crisis spiraled out of control, the United Nations’ refugee organization has handed over nearly a billion dollars to private organizations and national governments, much of it without verifying whether those partners had the expertise to buy the goods, or the means to detect fraud in the purchases, according to a report by a U.N. watchdog.

UNITED NATIONS May 23, 2016

As refugees suffer, UN throws a grandiose humanitarian summit

While tens of millions of people endure displacement, starvation and violent death from long-running wars and unexpected disasters, the United Nations is hosting an international humanitarian summit, hoping to shake up a tottering global aid system.

Geopolitics May 23, 2016

US lifts Vietnam arms embargo in move to counter China

President Obama lifted the decades-long U.S. arms embargo against Vietnam on Monday in an apparent effort to shore up the communist country's defenses against an increasingly aggressive China – though he faced criticism that the move takes away U.S. leverage to press for human rights freedoms.