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WORLD NEWS Saturday 12 OctOber 2019

UN chief orders travel, meetings, heat cut over cash crisis

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — has exhausted "all regular
Meetings canceled. Esca- budget liquidity reserves,"
lators stopped. Official trav- despite several measures
el limited. U.N. documents it has taken to reduce ex-
delayed. Air conditioning penditures.
and heating reduced. Lim- Pollard said the payments
its on interpretation to the received so far this year
U.N.'s six official languages. represent only 70 percent
And the fountain outside of the total amount as-
U.N. headquarters paid for sessed, compared to 78
by U.S. school children and percent at the same time
opened in 1952 shut down. last year, "resulting in a gap
These are some of the of $230 million."
measures Secretary-Gen- To fully implement the U.N.
eral Antonio Guterres has budget, she said, the U.N.
ordered effective Monday would need to collect at
at all U.N. facilities and op- least $808 million between
erations around the world October and December.
to deal with the United Pollard told a news confer-
Nations' worst cash crisis in ence that countries "have
nearly a decade. their own internal reasons Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations delivers a speech at the C40 World
The U.N. chief said in a let- "for delaying paying their Mayors Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, Friday Oct. 11, 2019.
ter to the heads of all U.N. dues, "and for many of Associated Press
entities circulated Friday them it's their own political
that the emergency mea- internal situations."
sures "will affect working The scale of assessments Suspect in German attack admits to
conditions and operations was revised at the end of
until further notice." 2018, making China the shooting, ordered held
U.N. management chief U.N.'s second-largest con-
Catherine Pollard told the tributor behind the U.S. BERLIN (AP) — German me- testified for several hours. he didn't do that."
General Assembly's bud- Some countries may not dia say the suspected gun- His lawyer, Hans-Dieter The attack happened on
get committee on Friday have made budgetary pro- man in a botched attack Weber, told broadcaster Yom Kippur, Judaism's ho-
that 128 countries had paid visions for their increased on a German synagogue Suedwestrundfunk on Fri- liest day, and was broad-
$1.99 billion in dues for the dues and some, like the that ended in the deaths day "it would be pointless cast live on a popular
U.N.'s 2019 operating bud- U.S., have different calen- of two people outside the to dispute anything, and streaming site.q
get by Oct. 4. dar years for their budgets, building has admitted car-
But she said $1.386 billion she said. rying out the shooting.
is owed for this year by 65 According to figures Pol- The German man, iden-
countries — including more lard presented Friday, the tified by prosecutors as
than $1 billion by the United United States owes $1.055 Stephan B., was ordered
States. billion to the U.N.'s regular held in custody pending
Pollard said "the regular budget compared with formal charges at a closed-
budget has been facing $842 million at the same door hearing before a
severe liquidity issues in re- time last year. The U.S. also judge on Thursday night.
cent years, with a growing owes $3.7 billion to the sep- He is suspected of two
downward trend whereby, arate budget for the U.N.'s counts of murder and sev-
each year, the situation 14 far-flung peacekeeping en of attempted murder
becomes more dire than operations. from the attack in the city
the year before," Pollard There was no immediate of Halle.
said. "The cash deficits oc- response to a request to News agency dpa report-
cur earlier in the year, linger the U.S. State Department ed that the man admitted
longer and run deeper." for comment on when the to the crime and a right- People place down flowers and candles at the marketplace in
For the second succes- Trump administration plans wing extremist motive, and the old town of Halle, Germany, Friday, Oct. 11, 2019.
Associated Press
sive year, she said, the U.N. to pay its arrears.q federal prosecutors say he