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'Horizon of hope' is dark, Ban says

 
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon shakes hands with President Barack Obama at the General Assembly.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon shakes hands with President Barack Obama at the General Assembly.
Published Sept. 25, 2014

Scolding the powerful and the power-hungry, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon opened the 69th annual session of the General Assembly on Wednesday, in a 13-minute speech that rued the state of the world, from the conflict in Ukraine to the bombing of U.N. schools in Gaza to beheadings in Iraq and Syria — all before warning of the Ebola outbreak.

"It has been a terrible year for the principles of the United Nations Charter," he said. "From barrel bombs to beheadings, from the deliberate starvation of civilians to the assault on hospitals, U.N. shelters and aid convoys, human rights and the rule of law are under attack.

"This year the horizon of hope is darkened," Ban said. "Our hearts and minds are made heavy by unspeakable acts and the deaths of innocents. Cold War ghosts have returned to haunt our times. We have seen so much of the Arab Spring go violently wrong."

His address referred to the new chasm between Israel and Palestinians, instability in Ukraine, new conflicts in Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the threat of terrorist groups in Mali, Somalia and Nigeria. The extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, he said, have sunk to "new depths of barbarity with each passing day."

Several leaders including Jordan's King Abdullah and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed the challenges — financial and social — of hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria.

Abdullah, whose country is sheltering nearly 1.4 million Syrians, said the refugee crisis "demands a global solution."

Ban saved the issue of fighting Ebola for last. He said the outbreak in West Africa needs a "20-fold surge in care, tracking, transport and equipment."

ukraine argues for sanctions: Ukraine's prime minister is urging countries not to lift sanctions against Russia until his country regains control over its entire territory, including Crimea.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Wednesday night told the annual U.N. General Assembly of world leaders that "we know what terrorism means."

He demands that Russia pull back its forces from eastern Ukraine, "stop the supply of Russian-led terrorists" and start "real talks, peace talks."

The months-long fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces has been a major theme this week.

Neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor recently elected Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is attending the U.N. assembly.

The Security Council has met repeatedly on the crisis but failed to take action because Russia holds veto power as a permanent council member.

Times wires