The Resolution affirmed the Council’s commitment to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons and to ensure nuclear safety and security. Obama said he’d hoped the Resolution would strengthen the global nonproliferation regime. He added that he wanted all countries to stop producing nuclear materials within four years. Obama underscored the United Nations institution was created at the “dawn of the atomic age.” But now, the goal should be a global partnership to commit to put an end to the production, smuggling, trade and financing of nuclear materials.

“Once more, the United Nations has a pivotal role to play in preventing this crisis.  The historic resolution we just adopted enshrines our shared commitment to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.  And it brings Security Council agreement on a broad framework for action to reduce nuclear dangers as we work toward that goal.  It reflects the agenda I outlined in Prague, and builds on a consensus that all nations have the right to peaceful nuclear energy; that nations with nuclear weapons have the responsibility to move toward disarmament; and those without them have the responsibility to forsake them.”
The United States is expected to host a summit next April to keep nations on the four year agenda. The Summit proceedings further isolated North Korea and Iran and President Sarkozy of France emphasized that Iran has violated five security council resolutions and must be sanctioned and held accountable. He reiterated that North Korea has also threatened global security with the launch of missiles in April–and by ignoring several warnings by the Security Council to stop building its nuclear program.

United Nations US Ambassador Dr. Susan Rice met with reporters directly following the opening session:

“So we are very pleased at the outcome today. We view it as building important momentum going into next year’s Nonproliferation Review Conference, going into the president’s own Nuclear Security Summit next year. And of course, we had Secretary Clinton as well here today speaking before the CTBT session, underscoring our commitment to ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.”

The Ugandan representative said Africa was not interested in nuclear weapons but nuclear energy–which he said costs only 4-5 cents compared to 14 cents use in solar energy.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown from the United Kingdom added:

“Today we are at a watershed moment…a future of arms race or arms control.”

Regulations governing rating agencies must be tightened to prevent future economic distress a handful of Senators argued Wednesday during a hearing with the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said that rating agency regulation reform was essential due to the pivotal role poor financial regulation played in the collapse of the U.S. financial market.

“There are two areas alone that deserve special recognition for the [financial] problems. One was, of course, failure the to regulate the brokers who were out marketing products they knew had problems… and the second is the ratings agencies.” said Dodd. The modernization of financial regulations “may be the most important piece of legislation that this committee will deal with or has dealt with in decades,” he said.

The committee discussed the effects of the Rating Accountability and Transparency Enhancement Act of 2009 once passed, as well as adopting the administration’s proposed overhaul on the regulations for ratings agencies. Both proposals advocate an increase in transparency, a system to expose conflicts of interest, and greater SEC supervision.

Testifying before the committee, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Financial Institutions Michael Barr said it was important to show the market that the government was serious about regulatory reform.

“[We need to have regulations that] permit transparency in the system, restore honesty and integrity to the process that was so sorely lacking in the last bit of time,” he said.

In response to an assertion made by Sen. Johanns (R-Neb) that more regulation could cause higher costs to be passed on the American public, Barr said that every consumer were already negatively affected by unsatisfactory rating regulations.

“I think, unfortunately, the whole country is paying the price. Every consumer is paying the price today of a significant failure of our financial regulatory system,” Barr said.

“I think we need to have a system in the future in which the level playing field and high standards are established in a way so that it makes it much less likely that we are going blow up our financial system and cause this amount of harm to the average American home owner, consumer small business person,” Barr continued.

Rapid Ratings International, Inc. Chairman and CEO James H. Gellert said that the administration’s proposal was a mix of “positive steps and disturbing developments” that would stifle potential innovation and competition, and ultimately cause smaller ratings agencies to go out of business.

“The Treasury proposal…threatens to erect more hurdles to competition in this industry,” Gellert said.

How did Supreme Court confirmation battles become so contentious? And why do some nominees face loads of opposition while others sail through? TRNS Legal Affairs Correspondent Matthew S. Schwartz interviews various Supreme Court experts to try to figure out how things got quite so heated.

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Correspondent Michael Ruhl’s investigative report into the recent pandemic of piracy off of the Horn of Africa. The report focuses on why the piracy is taking place and what can be done to stop it. It includes perspectives from Somali Ambassador-at-large Abdi Awallah Jama, George Mason University Political Science Professor Hazel McFerson, Maersk-Alabama Captain Richard Phillips, and CENTCOM Commander General David Petraeus. (07:30)

Correspondent Michael Ruhl reports on the security and humanitarian crisis presently plaguing Somalia. Ruhl interviews Somalia’s Ambassador-At-Large to the U.S., Abdi Awaleh Jama, and also speaks with Joel Carny from Refugees International.

Read the full article here

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Correspondent Michael Ruhl reports on the recent release of the unemployment statistics for March.

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By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service