Sunday 22 April 2012

U.S. Loses Battle to Make Public Internal U.N. Reports On Waste, Fraud and Abuse

... “We are very disappointed, but we are not going away or giving up on this issue. In the long run, this is where the world is moving, and the U.N. should move with it,” declared Joseph Torsella, the Ambassador for Management and Reform for the U.S. mission to the U.N., who has spearheaded the fight. “We want to convey our determination, along with lots of other allies, to continue this fight.”
This amounts to a second setback for Torsella, who launched an agenda of change at the U.N. in January that stressed fiscal stringency and management accountability. Since then, Torsella has lost one other significant fight: to get the U.N. to rescind a cost of living increase for New York staff -- the bulk of the Secretariat -- while U.S. civil servants suffered a pay freeze...

Statement by Former Staff Members of UNCTAD: Silencing the Message or the Messenger …. Or Both?

This is a statement signed by former senior UNCTAD staff members including Secretary General Rubens Ricupero, Deputy Secretary-Generals and Directors, regarding the pressure placed on UNCTAD and the G-77 by major developed countries in the preparations for UNCTAD XIII. The statement has been released in a press conference held today and presented to Ambassador Maruping, President of the Trade and Development Board of UNCTAD and Chair of UNCTAD XIII Preparatory Committee.
Click here to read

Texas GOP Blasts United Nations Agenda 21

As the United Nations prepares for its next global conference on “sustainable development” in June, the Texas state GOP recently followed in the footsteps of the Republican National Committee (RNC) by passing a resolution blasting the controversial UN sustainability scheme known as Agenda 21, as well as all of the entities working toward its implementation. Advocates of liberty and national sovereignty celebrated the move as yet another victory in a decades-old battle against the plan.

Dutch court rules UN immune in Srebrenica case

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The Dutch Supreme Court rejected Friday an attempt by relatives of Bosnian Muslim men murdered by Serb forces in 1995 to sue the United Nations for failing to protect them during Europe's worst massacre since World War II.
The Netherlands' highest court ruled that the United Nations has immunity from prosecution, ending moves by a group called the Mothers of Srebrenica to hold the world body responsible in Dutch courts.

UK aid funded firms 'linked to Nigeria fraudster Ibori' - VIDEO

Britain's Department for International Development is accused of allowing tens of millions of pounds in UK aid to be invested in Nigerian money laundering fronts, BBC Newsnight has learned.

New World Bank chief to focus on 'market-based' growth –VIDEO

The World's Bank's new president, Jim Yong Kim, has said that capitalist "market-based growth is a priority for every single country".
Dr Kim told the BBC that market-led growth will help create jobs and lift people out of poverty, two issues that were key to global economic growth.
He was chosen as the new president of the World Bank on Monday.

Showdown: Iran Must Be Stopped John Bolton Reveals Why America and Israel Must Act Now to Stop a Second Holocaust

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton delivers a clear — and dire — message in a Newsmax magazine special report: Iran's quest for nuclear weapons poses a grave and immediate threat to the United States and world peace.

Obama, Annan, Assad and mass murder

... Worse yet, Kofi Annan, under whose nose genocidal atrocities in Rwanda and Srebrenica were perpetrated, was dispatched to Damascus. ...
... Jonathan Schanzer and Claudia Rossett, writing in the New Republic say we should have smelled a rat as soon as Annan was dispatched. They remind us that, in addition to the Rwanda and Srebrenica mass murders, Annan was been behind the monstrously corrupt oil-for-food program:...

Can the Global Fund's new management change its fortunes?

Gabriel Jaramillo became general manager of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria in February. He has made the fund leaner, and hopes to win back donor confidence

UN ambassadors' wives produce video urging Asma al Assad to stop violence in Syria - VIDEO

Asma al-Assad, the wife of the Syrian dictator, is the subject of an online campaign launched by the wives of the British and German ambassadors to the United Nations imploring her to help stop the killing.

UN CTBTO Boss sells Hillsboro Beach mansion for $10 million


Broward Daily Business Review
321 words
18 April 2012
by Eric Kalis ekalis@alm.com
A Hungarian diplomat has sold a Hillsboro Beach mansion for $10 million to a Fort Lauderdale trust, according to Broward County records.
Tibor Toth sold an 11,288-square-foot oceanfront residence at 991 Hillsboro Mile to a trust managed by Fort Lauderdale attorney David Hardin on March 30. Broward County recorded the all-cash sale Monday.
Toth could not immediately be reached for comment. Calls to Hardin were not returned by deadline.
For the past seven years, Toth has served as the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty Organization based in Vienna, according to an online biography. Before that, Toth was Hungary's permanent representative to the United Nations. His involvement with CTBTO dates back 30 years, and he has spent most of his diplomatic career discouraging the use of nuclear weapons.
Toth paid $2.75 million for the 0.66-acre Hillsboro Beach property in March 2002 and constructed the mansion five years later, according to Broward County records.
The three-story home with six bedrooms and 9 bathrooms had been listed for sale most recently at $15.9 million. The residence includes an eight-space garage, billiard and wine-tasting rooms, a home theater and a swimming pool, according to listings.
The house had been listed for nearly four years, with a peak asking price of about $18 million in September 2008, according to the Multiple Listing Service.
Toth did not use the Hillsboro Beach mansion as his primary residence, according to the sale deed. He also owns a 19,416-squarefoot mansion on 2.43 acres at 3901 S. Ocean Blvd. in Highland Beach, according to Palm Beach County records. Toth paid $3 million for the oceanfront property in September 2003 and finished the home five years later.
Eric Kalis can be reached at (305) 347-6651


CTBTO Spokesperson and Chief, Public Information
Annika Thunborg,T +43 1 26030-6375
E annika.thunborgping@ctbtopong.org
M +43 699 1459 6375
I www.ctbto.org

CORRECTION


Dear blogger,

Please note that the article that has been posted on http://reformdesa.blogspot.com/2012/04/un-ctbto-boss-sells-hillsboro-beach.html
has been corrected in the Daily Business Review. You are kindly asked to either remove the original blog post or publish the correction and the corrected version of the article as it appears in the Review, copied below.

Many thanks!

Annika Thunborg
Spokesperson and Chief of Public Information
Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)
UN, Vienna, Austria
www.ctbto.org

Connect with CTBTO on:
facebook   twitter   youtube   flickr


CORRECTION
• An article in the April 18 editions about a $10 million mansion sale in Hillsboro Beach incorrectly identified the seller, Tibor Toth, as a Hungarian diplomat who is executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty Organization. According to a spokeswoman for the organization, the seller of the home is not the diplomat who works for the test ban organization. The Review regrets the error.'

THE CORRECTED ARTICLE

Hillsboro Beach mansion sells for $10 million
By Eric Kalis
Daily Business Review
April 18, 2012
A Hillsboro Beach mansion has been sold for $10 million to a Fort Lauderdale trust, according to Broward County records.
Tibor Toth sold an 11,288-square-foot oceanfront residence at 991 Hillsboro Mile to a trust managed by Fort Lauderdale attorney David Hardin on March 30. Broward County recorded the all-cash sale Monday.
Toth could not immediately be reached for comment. Calls to Hardin were not returned by deadline.
Toth paid $2.75 million for the 0.66-acre Hillsboro Beach property in March 2002 and constructed the mansion five years later, according to Broward County records.
The three-story home with six bedrooms and 9½ bathrooms had been listed for sale most recently at $15.9 million. The residence includes an eight-space garage, billiard and wine-tasting rooms, a home theater and a swimming pool, according to listings.
The house had been listed for nearly four years, with a peak asking price of about $18 million in September 2008, according to the Multiple Listing Service.
Toth did not use the Hillsboro Beach mansion as his primary residence, according to the sale deed. He also owns a 19,416-square-foot mansion on 2.43 acres at 3901 S. Ocean Blvd. in Highland Beach, according to Palm Beach County records. Toth paid $3 million for the oceanfront property in September 2003 and finished the home five years later.
Eric Kalis can be reached at (305) 347-6651.


ERIC KALIS
REAL ESTATE REPORTER | DAILY BUSINESS REVIEW
1 SE 3RD AVENUE: 900 | MIAMI, FLORIDA 33131
PHONE: (305) 347-6651 | FAX: (305) 347-6626

Monday 9 April 2012

As predicted since 20th Sept 2011 - the plan to remove Roberto Villareal and replace him with Elia Yi Armstrong (South Korean) - was a successful one


Elia Yi Armstrong
(South Korean)

appointed:

Chief of Branch
Socio-Economic Development Branch
Division for Public Administration & Development Management
UN-DESA

The pianist, Elia Yi Armstrong, (see her CV) has finally worked out the plan to fire Roberto Villareal and position herself as the newest D1 at DPADM.

Yes, despite her current term at UNDP as Ethics Officer will end at the end of June 2012 (as per contract) Haiyan Qian, has selected thru a competitive process (check here to see process) Elia Yi Armstrong, who has a BA in Piano and a Master of 9 months from London Schools of Economics (despite her CV shows she was working in Chicago at the time she was supposedly studying for her full-time Master in London).

Well...good luck to Roberto Villareal, who was "demoted" for lack of managerial skills and removed from his job, in a well coordinated plan - which started already 12 months ago.