The United Nations first contact to the United States after reports appeared in the German magazine Der Spiegel in August claiming that the national security agency had been eavesdropping on its secret communications. Reaching back to the days of the Cold War, the UN headquarters in New York has long been the target of American surveillance partly to identify possible foreign spies who may be posing as diplomats. But President Obama recently ordered the NSA to curtail its electronic surveillance on the organization itself as part of a wider review of its spy activities.
The president elected of Georgia has told the BBC he will work to improve relations with Russia despite the legacy of his country’s disastrous war with its neighbor five years ago. Diplomatic relations between the two states have been non-existent ever since. Bidzina Ivanishvili who was elected Georgia president last weekend said that he was ready to draw up a roadmap toward reconciliation with Russia.
“We want to stabilize our relationship with Russia to decrease the tension that we have since 2008 and even before. We want to enhance our bilateral relationship with them but furthermore we want to stabilize Georgia’s Europe-Atlantic environment.”
However analysts say his plan to sign a trade agreement with
the European Union next month is unlikely to help relations.
World News from the BBC
The Pakistani government has said that civilians made up only 3% of the total number of people killed in US drone strikes in the country since 2008. The figure provided by the defense ministry is much lower than estimates by independent organizations. According to the officials, in over 300 drone strikes more than 2,000 militants were killed but only 67 civilians.