International Center on Conflict and Negotiation (ICCN)

U.N. observers who were stranded overnight in a Syrian town after their convoy struck an explosive device have made it safely to the city of Hama, the United Nations said Wednesday.

The six observers were in Khan Sheikhoun, part of Idlib province, when they were attacked, said Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman for U.N.-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan.

No U.N. personnel were injured in the explosion Tuesday, but three vehicles were damaged, Fawzi said. A bombardment by Syrian forces continues in Khan Sheikhoun, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria. The regime is using "all kinds of heavy weapons, the LCC said.

Ratko Mladic, who is accused of orchestrating a horrific campaign of ethnic cleansing during the bloody civil war that ripped apart Yugoslavia, showed no remorse as his war crimes trial opened Wednesday, at one point even appearing to threaten victims in the court.

The former general drew his hand across his neck as if cutting a throat while staring at victims of the war that introduced the phrase "ethnic cleansing."

At other times, the man accused of being "the Butcher of Bosnia" stared at them, fire in his eyes, and he once growled at the survivors.

The 70-year-old former Bosnian Serb general has been indicted on 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 1992-95 war.

It's the diplomatic equivalent of hosting both the World Cup and the World Series in the same country on the same weekend.

On Saturday President Obama welcomes the leaders of the world's most powerful countries to the G8 conference at his country retreat at Camp David in Maryland. And the next day he hosts some two dozen NATO heads of state in Chicago.

The challenges of this Diplopaloozaa include some complicated logistics: How do you get eight world leaders and their delegations comfortably situated in the rustic wood chalets that make up Camp David, and which has never hosted this many heads of state before?

And the challenges, of course, also involve trying to resolve some very knotty problems:

-- In a time of contracting budgets, what kinds of commitments are plausible for NATO countries to make to Afghanistan after the alliance withdraws all its combat troops from the country in 2014?

-- What to do about the civil war in Syria?

Fifteen months into the crisis in Syria, and the Obama administration is, as one U.S. official describes it, in "a holding pattern," waiting for Russia to abandon its support for President Bashar al-Assad, waiting for sanctions to topple the economy and waiting for an organized Syrian opposition to present a coherent vision for a post-Assad Syria.

As the U.S. waits for what many believe is the inevitable failure of a United Nations-backed plan, American officials say they would rather U.N.-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan to pronounce his diplomatic efforts a failure himself.

Senior officials say the international monitors provided for in the current agreement with the Syrian government, however small in number, offer a small buffer against Assad's forces. Additionally, the U.S. and its allies on the U.N. Security Council want Russia to come to its own conclusion that Assad is not living up to his end of the agreement in ceasing the violence, and the plan is a failure. The concern is should the U.S. push for the next step, it would further alienate Moscow, which is skeptical about efforts to push out Syria's president. How the plan fails is as important as when it does, Western diplomats said this week.

Apparently contradictory views emerged Wednesday about when Libya's fledgling government should begin operating without training wheels.

A Libyan ambassador told the United Nations Security Council Wednesday that his country would like the NATO no-fly zone to be terminated by the end of this month, but he added that Libya's security concerns would need to be evaluated before a final decision could be made.

Political Islam is sure to be a factor as major change sweeps through formerly despotic nations. But exactly how is a question that is up for intense debate.

The idea of political Islam raises eyebrows among secularists, women, minority religions who fear their ways of life will come under serious threat if Islamic parties enforce their will. But some caution against looking at Islam's role too simplistically -- it is, after all, deeply rooted in the region.

A top adviser to President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia said Sunday that the handful of outstanding issues necessary for Russia to join the World Trade Organization could be resolved in a matter of hours, suggesting that a deal was imminent after 18 years of stop-and-go negotiations.

The adviser, Arkady V. Dvorkovich, made the comments after a meeting between Mr. Medvedev and the president of Switzerland. Switzerland has been acting as a mediator in thorny talks with Georgia, which, as a member of the trade organization, has the power to block Russia’s membership bid.

The United Nations Security Council voted by acclamation today to recommend the admission of the oil-rich Republic of South Sudan as the world body’s 193rd member government.

The General Assembly is scheduled to vote tomorrow to make the accession official. The flag of the new African nation would then be raised at UN headquarters, joining those that fly daily along First Avenue in Manhattan between East 42nd Street and East 48th Street.

"South Sudan will be a responsible member of the international community and will respect its obligations under international law," South Sudan Vice President Riek Machar told the Security Council.

"The 27 EU-ambassadors in Brussels have agreed to make internal security rules for information binding law in the member countries," according to an article in Wobbing Europe by Staffan Dahllöf.

In addition, the 15 top members of the European Parliament have decided that information "disadvantageous" to the EU shall not be disclosed to the public, the report states.

The EU ambassadors in Brussels this spring signed an agreement "to make sure that the agreed classification rules will be respected in the member countries," Wobbing Europe wrote.