..., RIA-Novosti reported. In March, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered the government to introduce changes in legislation to implement the provisions of the Convention. The Convention first came into force on May 3, 2008, after being adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2006, according to the UN website. There are more than 13 million disabled people in Russia, or 9.2 percent of the population, Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova said in February, Interfax reported...

... boasted before the onslaught of the civil war in 1992, which razed two-thirds of the city. They all charge the equivalent of about $1 per ticket. Later the Taliban banned cinema, music and television outright during their five-year rule, deeming them un-Islamic and ending a rich tradition in a country that started showing films in the 1920s during the rule of King Amanullah Khan and shot its first movie in Lahore in 1951. Now Afghan directors are desperately trying to salvage what is left of their...

UNITED NATIONS — There continue to be problems in Syria, but an unarmed UN observer mission is deploying and the overall situation there is improving, Russia's UN ambasador said. "Things are moving on in a positive direction. Many obstacles, but I think they can be overcome," Vitaly Churkin told reporters Tuesday...

China and Russia are resisting a Western push for the UN Security Council to threaten Sudan and South Sudan with sanctions if the two countries fail to comply with demands to halt their escalating conflict. UNITED NATIONS — China and Russia are resisting a Western push for...

... arrive at a Syrian port over the weekend, Al Arabiya television said in a report that Western diplomats in New York described as credible. Syria is one of Russia's top weapons customers. The United States and European Union have suggested that the UN Security Council should impose an arms embargo and other UN sanctions on Syria for its 14-month assault on a pro-democracy opposition determined to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad. Syria has blamed rebels for thousands of deaths, including the...

... demands that the government stop its attacks and pull back its forces, Russia sent another delivery this month. The shipments appear to be legal, as neither Russia nor Iran has signed up to Western sanctions barring such trade, and Moscow has blocked UN Security Council sanctions that would apply to all countries. But following the convoluted paper trail of the shipments shows how difficult it is for the West to enforce sanctions designed to restrict Syria's military capability, as long as Moscow...

... Kosovo's Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj has voiced strong support for Syria's opposition, saying his government had already established diplomatic contacts with Syrians fighting to oust President Bashar Assad. Hoxhaj was responding to comments by Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who warned the UN Security Council that Kosovo should not be allowed to become a training center for rebels. Speaking after a regular council meeting on Kosovo, a former province of Serbia, Hoxhaj made clear that Pristina...

... principles of gradual, reciprocal steps," Lavrov said. Russia advocates a "step-by-step" approach, under which Iran would take measures to ease concerns that it is seeking nuclear weapons in exchange for relief from sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council as well as by Western nations. Moscow opposes any new sanctions on Iran, and Lavrov suggested that U.S. President Barack Obama should veto additional punitive economic measures approved by the U.S. Senate on Monday if they reach his...

... though this profligacy is dwarfed by the American lifestyle — which would require no less than four planets to sustain on a humanity-wide scale, according to the World Wildlife Fund. WWF's Living Planet report was released Tuesday, ahead of the UN's Rio +20 summit on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June. It warns that the world is currently consuming resources 50 percent faster than they can be replaced — and that figure is rising. The biannual report, produced in...

... time he was arrested in 1985, he had recruited his best friend, his brother and his son into his spy ring. The exhibit's debut in New York seems appropriate. "New York is a hotbed of spies," Melton said. "There are more spies at the UN than diplomats. 179137 179738

... conference. Of the 96 children, only 14 have managed to return to Russia, but illegally, Bergseth said. E-mails sent to UNICEF’s offices in Geneva and New York, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights and child rights division, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and Norway’s children’s ombudsman went unanswered as of late Thursday. 171293 179742

... vexing international problems. Much the same can be said of Russia's role in resolving the crisis in Syria, owing to the strategic relationship that the two countries have maintained since the Cold War. Indeed, with the growing possibility that former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's peace plan for Syria might fail and that civil war might erupt, Russia could be the international community's only effective interlocutor left. In addition, it is essential to align the positions of Russia and the West...

... he wasn’t interested in it, McCain said in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro on Wednesday. McCain, for one, criticized Russia over its position on the conflict in Syria, as Russia cooperated with China earlier this year to block a UN Security Council resolution that would have urged Syrian President Bashar Assad to give up power. McCain echoed the thoughts of Anders Åslund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, who said Putin’s excuse...