Attack on West Bank mosque draws condemnation from UN envoy

The senior United Nations envoy to the Middle East has condemned the burning and desecration of a mosque in the West Bank, describing the attack as part of a worrying wider pattern of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.

UN official welcomes European Union approval of Internet copyright treaties

The head of the United Nations agency tasked with safeguarding intellectual property rights today welcomed the European Union’s ratification of the so-called Internet Treaties.

Cyprus: UN peacekeeping mission extended for another six months

The Security Council today renewed for another six months the 45-year-old United Nations peacekeeping mission in Cyprus, citing “a rare opportunity to make decisive progress in a timely fashion” to reunify the Mediterranean island after a history of fighting between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities.

Copenhagen diaries - a staggering inability to do maths

Catherine Brahic, Environment news editor, Copenhagen Five hours, zero degrees centigrade, no food, no water. Snow flurries. Dozens of large (very large) Danish police manhandling the crowds, arms linked to form human walls and cordon off the hundreds of…

People with autism struggle to view self

People with autism have trouble reading the emotions of others. Now brain scans suggest they also find it hard to get in touch with their inner selves

Today on New Scientist: 14 December 2009

Today’s stories on newscientist.com, at a glance, including: psychiatry’s civil war, turning the tables on climate change deniers, and the emotion-reading superpowers of pregnant women

UN sends peacekeepers to protect Sudanese refugees in Central African Republic

United Nations peacekeepers were sent today to protect a camp of refugees from Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region in the north-east of the Central African Republic (CAR) and humanitarian staff working there after an attack, apparently by bandits, left three people dead on a nearby road.

UN launches $177 million appeal to tackle mounting humanitarian crisis in Yemen

The United Nations humanitarian arm today appealed for more than $177 million to provide the basic survival needs for some 1.6 million Yemenis suffering from acute poverty and a recent escalation in violent clashes in the country’s north.

Resumption of death penalty in Iraq sparks UN concern

The resumption of the death penalty in Iraq earlier this year is a source of great concern to the United Nations, according to the world body’s latest report covering the human rights situation in the country.

Top UN envoy welcomes peaceful end to voter registration in Sudan

The top United Nations envoy to Sudan today welcomed the peaceful ending of the registration process for next year’s elections, the first multi-party polls in the country in decades, with more than 75 per cent of people of voting age registering to cast their ballots.