UNESCO

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6 Countries Seek Protection for Remarkable Road

Qhapaq Nan among 12 sites to be reviewed this week by World Heritage Committee

(Newser) - A 3,000-year-old road that runs from Colombia to Chile and winds through four other countries along the way is officially seeking protection. The South American countries (Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, and Bolivia are also among them) have banded together to ask that 435 miles of the Qhapaq Ñan or...

UN Cultural Agency Halts US Voting Rights

Israel's voting rights also suspended over failure to pay dues

(Newser) - The US failure to pay its dues has cost Washington its voting rights with the UN's Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The US and Israel stopped paying in 2011, after Palestine was allowed to join the agency; any country that stops paying for two years loses its right to...

UN to Australia: You Have Year to Protect Barrier Reef

Will be listed as 'in danger' if government doesn't curb development, pollution

(Newser) - Australia's Great Barrier Reef may lose its world heritage status if the country doesn't clean up its act. UNESCO has postponed a decision to put the 133,000-square-mile coral reef system on its " World Heritage in Danger " list, giving the Australian and Queensland governments a year...

Syria Fighting Destroys 12th-Century Minaret

Both sides trade blame over shelling of mosque in Aleppo

(Newser) - An ancient minaret at a mosque in Syria has been reduced to a pile of rubble, reports AP . Insurgents are blaming the government, and the government is blaming insurgents, but either way the minaret of the 12-century Umayyad Mosque is history. The mosque is located in Aleppo's Old City,...

Ax-Wielding Islamists Attack Timbuktu's Holy Sites

They destroy mausoleums of saints in UNESCO-listed city

(Newser) - UNESCO moved Timbuktu to its list of heritage sites in danger just days ago; the Malian city now more likely belongs on a list of heritage sites in peril. Reuters reports that al-Qaeda-linked Islamists today began attacking local saints' mausoleums, which they consider idolatrous. Armed with Kalashnikovs and using pick-axes...

Mali's 'Very Existence' Threatened by Coup

Fears of food, gas shortages as refugees flee

(Newser) - Since we last checked in, the situation in Mali following a soldiers' coup has spiraled, with rising concerns over food and gas shortages, violence, and indeed the country's "very existence," according to Le Monde . An update:
  • The coup has driven more than 200,000 people from their
...

John Oliver Visits Africa for &#39;Epic&#39; UNESCO Segment
 John Oliver Visits Africa for 
 'Epic' UNESCO Segment 
The Daily Show
Mar 16, 2012 10:30 AM CDT

John Oliver Visits Africa for 'Epic' UNESCO Segment

He ridicules US decision to cut off funds

(Newser) - The Daily Show made the rare decision to forego a guest last night in favor of a John Oliver piece that, according to Jon Stewart, was "so epic that it could not be contained." Oliver looked into the US move to cut off funding to UNESCO , the UN'...

Venice: Cruise Ships Are Killing Us

Tourism surging, residents worry about Costa Concordia disaster

(Newser) - Fragile, waterlogged Venice has long been unhappy with the onslaught of ever-larger cruise ships that inundate its picturesque port. But the wreck of the Costa Concordia has sent fears soaring, and many in the city are calling for regulations to cut down on the 650 cruise ships that come to...

Israel Punishing Palestinians With Rushed Settlements

Funds also frozen after Palestine's UNESCO membership

(Newser) - Palestine's membership in UNESCO has met a fierce response from Israel. A day after Palestine joined the United Nations' cultural body , Israel ordered the accelerated construction of 2,000 new homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. In what officials acknowledge is punishment for "unilateral actions,"...

US Cuts Off Funding to UNESCO Over Palestine

Political workaround unlikely to go anywhere

(Newser) - The US has officially cut off all funding to the UN’s Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization over its acceptance of Palestine as a full member. The impact will be felt immediately, because the US had a $60 million dues payment due in November, the AP reports. The Obama administration’...

Palestine Named Member of UN Cultural Body

Controversial move prompts cheers at UNESCO

(Newser) - Palestine became a full member of UNESCO today, in a highly divisive move that the United States and other opponents say could harm renewed Mideast peace efforts. US lawmakers had threatened to withhold roughly $80 million in annual funding to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization if it...

Palestine Bid for UNESCO Membership Moves Forward

Initial approval granted yesterday

(Newser) - Palestine's bid for statehood took one step forward yesterday as it gained initial approval for full membership in the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Membership in UNESCO would allow Palestine to apply to protect its monuments and historical sites as World Heritage Sites, which would increase conflict...

Family Tells UN: We Own Machu Picchu

Asks UN agency to consider their case

(Newser) - Talk about a property dispute: A Peruvian family says it owns the land of the Machu Picchu ruins, and is taking the case to the United Nations. Seventy-year-old Edgar Echegaray Abril still has the sale deed showing that his family bought the land with gold in 1910. Yes, they sold...

Gadhafi May Be Hiding Weapons at Historic Site

Development could endanger Roman ruins at Leptis Magna

(Newser) - Libyan rebels say Moammar Gadhafi is hiding weapons at a UNESCO World Heritage site—and if arms are there, NATO won’t "rule out" bombing it, CNN reports. "We will strike military vehicles, military forces, military equipment or military infrastructure that threaten Libyan civilians as necessary,” said...

Man Plans Race Around the World—in Blimps

Trip would take about six months

(Newser) - Don Hartsell has a dream. He’s put up $2 million in hopes of creating a round-the-globe blimp race. The ships would take off at the prime meridian on Sept. 23, 2011, and wouldn’t cross the finish line until March 20, 2012. “We want to establish an event...

UN's Dance Dance Resolution: Protect the Tango

Cultural tradition placed on protected list, as with physical heritage sites

(Newser) - The tango is a cultural treasure worthy of the same kinds of protection as the Great Wall of China or the California redwoods, the United Nations declared today. The dance, submitted for such recognition by Uruguay and Argentina, “embodies and encourages diversity and cultural dialogue,” the UN Educational,...

Half the World's Languages Will Vanish by 2100

More than 2400 tongues at risk of extinction, as last speakers die out

(Newser) - Globalization has many benefits, but the preservation of the world's languages is decidedly not among them. Ever since the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago, smaller tribes have assimilated into bigger ones and seen their native tongues lost, and the process has been speeding up, reports the Washington Post....

China to Lop Off Tall Buildings in Hangzhou

Hangzhou aims to become World Heritage site

(Newser) - Hoping to turn the city into a World Heritage site, China is lopping top floors off tall buildings in Hangzhou, the BBC reports. Two hotels, a TV tower, and other buildings will get the shrinking treatment in a $5.8 million effort; the city’s government has said that all...

Sacred History Resonates in Kathmandu
 Sacred History
 Resonates in
 Kathmandu
GLOSSIES
Aug 17, 2008 3:00 PM CDT

Sacred History Resonates in Kathmandu

Traditional building practices coexist with global trade in Nepal's capital

(Newser) - Decades of restoration have kept up the medieval splendor of a region long hidden from the world: Kathmandu Valley. Started by Germany in the 1960s and later spearheaded by a Harvard professor, the repairs have maintained many of the area's stupas and pagodas, Lucinda Lambton writes for Vanity Fair—but...

UN Eyes Congo After Gorilla Murders
UN Eyes Congo After Gorilla Murders
Jul 28, 2007 3:47 PM CDT

UN Eyes Congo After Gorilla Murders

Quadruple homicide, with 2 others missing, affects rare species

(Newser) - Four mountain gorillas were shot to death in a nature preserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and UNESCO is flying in to help with the unsolved crime, CNN reports. The massacre of an alpha male and three females follows the recent killing of three other mountain gorillas—only 700...

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