NEW YORK: The United Nations Security Council Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution calling for nuclear disarmament during a session lead by U.S. President Barack Obama.The Security Council meeting, the first presided over by a U.S. president, demonstrated increased international political will to advance the nuclear disarmament agenda Obama proposed during his speech in Prague in April, the White House said in a release.The measure, UNSC Resolution 1887, expresses the Council's concern about the threat of nuclear proliferation and the need for international action to prevent it.The resolution calls for nuclear disarmament, urging all countries to work toward establishing effective measures to effect nuclear arms reduction and disarmament, officials said.A second element called for a strengthened Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty that sets realistic and achievable goals for disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.The resolution also calls for better security for nuclear weapons material to prevent it from falling into terrorists' hands. It also underscored the panel's intent to take action if it finds nuclear weapons or related materials are provided to terrorists.The resolution demanded compliance with Security Council resolutions on Iran and North Korea, calling on both countries to negotiate solutions. The document reaffirmed that the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency plays a critical role in preventing nuclear proliferation and ensuring access to peaceful uses of atomic energy under safeguarded conditions.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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