21 July 2014 – The Security Council today called for an international investigation into last week’s downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger flight in eastern Ukraine, and demanded that armed groups allow unfettered access to the crash site and ensure that its integrity is maintained. In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member body condemned “in the strongest terms” the downing of flight MH17 on 17 July in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, which resulted in the tragic loss of 298 lives.
World trade growth has not returned to its pre-crisis rate; it fell to just 2% in 2012, and Unctad points out that imports to developed regions, including the US and Europe, are still below 2007 levels. It suggests this downward trend "highlights the vulnerabilities developing countries continue to face at a time of lacklustre growth in developed countries".
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon told the committee in Iceland: 'The Snowden case is something I consider to be misuse.' Speaking to a gathering of the foreign affairs committee of the Icelandic parliament in Reykjavik on Tuesday, Ban said that in his personal opinion "the Snowden case is something I consider to be misuse." The UN chief added that the opening up of digital communications should not be "misused in such a way as Snowden did"
Jake Wallis Simons on Telegraph Blog, April 25th, 2013: "The UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur, Richard Falk, has provoked outrage by claiming in an essay in Foreign Policy Journal that American foreign policy was to blame for the Boston marathon bombings" ... "... the notion that Islamic terror arises merely as a response to US, Israeli and British action is gravely insidious." Jake Wallis Simons is a Telegraph features writer.