Annan Rejects Bush Claim That World Is Safer Now

[papau]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=8&u=/nm/20040721/ts_nm/security_un_bush_dc

Annan Rejects Bush Claim That World Is Safer Now

By Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The world is no safer than it was three years ago, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday, countering President Bush's claims he had made the world a safer place.

Annan, at a news conference, also criticized a Bush administration decision to withhold $34 million from the U.N. Population Fund, saying the agency was saving women's lives.

Annan's remarks could renew strains on ties between the United States and United Nations, which -- while devastated by Bush's inability to win U.N. backing for the U.S.-led war on Iraq-- had improved following U.N. help in setting up a new government in Baghdad in time for the U.S. occupation to end.

"No, I cannot say the world is safer today than it was two, three years ago," the U.N. leader said.

He was responding to a reporter who asked for comment on the Bush funding move and also whether Annan felt the world had become safer in the last two or three years.

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[Skinner]

1. Duplicate.

Original is here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=700522