UNITED NATIONS: More than 120 world leaders meet Wednesday on the heels of a climate change summit to tackle other crucial issues on the international agenda from terrorism and the spread of nuclear weapons to growing poverty resulting from the global financial crisis.American President Barack Obama makes his debut during the meeting, hoping his international star power can throw new muscle behind a policy agenda that is already struggling to deliver.
Besides Obama, a host of new faces will also step to the podium at this last General Assembly ministerial session in the U.N.'s landmark headquarters before it closes for renovation later this fall -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, China's President Hu Jintao and Japan's newly elected Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will also urge leaders to take steps to free the world of nuclear weapons, to address the "red flags of warning" about a global economic recovery and make a fresh push to achieve U.N. anti-poverty goals especially reducing maternal and child mortality rates which remain very high, according to his prepared text.
Ban will call for a revival of negotiations to achieve a comprehensive settlement in the Mideast and a two-state solution where Israel and Palestine live side-by-side in peace. And he will pledge to see the Afghans "through their long night" and stand as well with the people of Pakistan.
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