News From the United Nations 8.4.08

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced today that Iran will install 6,000 centrifuges.  Though Iran claims the centrifuges are intended for peaceful purposes, the United Nations Security council has called for an immediate halt to production.  8 April is Iran’s National Day of Nuclear Technology.

– — –

The United Nations and Columbia have reached an agreement regarding land rights and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in South America.  The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and the government of Columbia agreed upon a ‘legal framework’ that aims to protect the rights of those who have lost land through various conflicts.  The agreement restores land rights to many of the 2.4 million Columbian IDPs

– — –

In concert with Google, the UNHCR has launched a dynamic search platform that will index and display real-time results of the world’s most troubled areas.  Using the Google Earth application, users will be able to zoom in to areas of global conflict.

The Google Earth ‘layers’ will contain multi-media features, including text, audio, and video presentations that correlate to graphical icons on the world map.

UNHCR hopes that by working with Google the organization will be able to highlight lesser-known components of the organization’s work.  One of the first regions to be highlighted are the conflict regions surrounding Sudan, Darfur, and Chad.