Acting on a damning report of UN security failures in the bombing of its Baghdad headquarters last August, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan fired his chief of global security, demoted a second senior official, penalized three staff members and received -- but did not accept -- the resignation of his own deputy, his spokesman said Monday.
Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette of Canada offered her resignation in response to a letter to her from Annan expressing disappointment over the security lapses, said the spokesman, Fred Eckhard. But Annan declined it, deeming the failures "collective and not the responsibility of any one individual."
Tun Myat of Myanmar, the global security chief, was dismissed and Romiro Lopes da Silva of Portugal, the deputy to the Baghdad mission head, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who died in the blast, was reassigned to a lesser post in the World Food Program and barred from ever again serving in a security capacity.
On Aug. 19 last year, a car packed with explosives destroyed part of a hotel in Baghdad that was serving as headquarters for the UN.
Twenty-two people died in the attack, which had a devastating effect on the world organization.
The report, produced by an outside panel commissioned by Annan, said UN officials were "blinded by the conviction that UN personnel and installations would not become a target of attack, despite the clear warnings to the contrary." It cleared Annan himself.
The blame lay with security officials advising him, Eckhard said.
Two of the three lower-level officials, Pa Momodou Sinyan of Gambia and Boulos Paul Aghadjanian of Jordan, face internal punishments and are accused of "profound lack of responsibility and ineptitude" for not having installed blast-resistant film over windows. Most injuries were caused by flying glass.
The third staffer, Robert Adolph, is to be reassigned to a non-security position.
The bombing led to Annan removing all foreign staff members from Iraq in October. The organization has been conducting its operations from Jordan and Cyprus and is only now beginning its return to help rescue stalled plans for Iraq's political transition set for June 30.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS