AP and Bloomberg stories below, but i just gotta say the whackiest part is when he goes off about this so called 13 Imam who is supposed to appear, and he says that he will come back with Jesus Christ (the muslim one?). Quite bizarre and creepy coming from a seemingly intelligent, sharp and shrewd yet evil little man. UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he has a vision of a new world order that would be absent the "hegemony of arrogance." Ahmadinejad, known for past fiery denunciations of the United States and Israel, cited what he termed the "continued threat by the uncivilized Zionists to resort to military action against our great nation is a clear example of this bitter reality." His remarks Wednesday came as he addressed the U.N. General Assembly. He did not reference Iran's nuclear program. The United States, Israel and Western nations claim Tehran is using what it insists is a peaceful nuclear program as cover for building a weapon. Israel has threatened a military strike against Iranian nuclear installation. President Barack Obama insists time remains to solve the dispute through diplomacy. © 2012 The Associated Press. Bloomberg- .Empty Seats at UN Signal Decline of World Body Hamstrung by Veto While the familiar clashes among countries echo through the 193-member United Nations General Assembly hall this week, empty seats will bear mute testimony to the world body's waning significance. Some of the most important leaders -- China's Hu Jintao, Russia's Vladimir Putin, Germany's Angela Merkel and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- are skipping this year's annual meeting. U.S. President Barack Obama made only a brief appearance and didn't formally meet one-on-one with foreign officials. The 67-year-old UN's influence has always been limited by the veto power of the five permanent members of the Security Council. Now, however, global technological, financial, environmental, social, religious and demographic forces are further curbing its ability to act and eroding its foundation in the 17th century concept of sovereign nation-states. "The concept of a world of nation-states, which dates to the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, and the idea that they have a monopoly on international relations and on the conduct of war, is no longer valid," said Max Manwaring, a professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. "It's been replaced by non-state actors and proxies of states, and public opinion has become the primary center of gravity. Whatever you can do to manipulate people's views is fair game." While governments try to preserve their independence, Islamist terrorist groups, Somali pirates and Mexican drug cartels, to name a few, have "made a mockery" of the notion that countries control their own borders, Manwaring said in an interview. Obsolete Idea Built to help nations defuse conflicts before they escalate to open warfare, the UN is ill-equipped to tackle such transnational challenges in an Internet age that can flash financial news and videos throughout the globe faster than the Security Council can muster a quorum, much less reach a consensus. "At a time when anyone with a cell phone can spread offensive views around the world with the click of a button, the notion that we can control the flow of information is obsolete," Obama said during his speech yesterday to the General Assembly. In this increasingly borderless environment, an anti-Islam video posted on YouTube has sparked a wave of deadly anti- Western protests across the Muslim world, and the self- immolation of a 26-year-old Tunisian fruit vendor triggered rebellions across the Middle East.

• published: 26 Sep 2012
• views: 54575