General Assembly president received death threats

Authorities are examining supposed death threats made against the president of the U.N. General Assembly.

Former Nicaraguan foreign minister and Roman Catholic priest Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann claimed that he was the target of “death threats posted on the Internet.” "This matter is being looked into by the pertinent authorities," U.N. spokesman Enrique Yeves said yesterday though he did not provide details as to what was mentioned or what sites the threats came from.

Meanwhile, d'Escoto finds himself on one side of a diplomatic quarrel with Israel:

The statement also reacted to Israeli press reports that D'Escoto tried to prevent (Israel's UN ambassador Gabriela Shalev) from speaking last week at a plenary session to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"This is a malicious and absolute lie that could best be characterized as 'slander'," D'Escoto said through his spokesman. "Information from the media attributes senior diplomatic officials in the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations as the source for this irresponsible accusation."

D'Escoto also slammed Israel's "arbitrary detention" and denial of entry to Richard Falk, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories.

D'Escoto and his outspoken nature have led him to be the center of controversy several times; in October, for instance, he claimed that “there are members of the Security Council right now who have done things infinitely worse than Iran could ever do.”

Image- CBC
Sources- The Latin Americanist, AFP, Times of India, IHT