United Nations

Serving as a U.N. peacekeeper can be a lucrative profession for young Africans. But Burundians seeking such work must pledge loyalty to their government, which is implicated in human rights abuses.

Internally displaced children in the Central African Republic said French peacekeepers were offering them food in exchange for sex acts. A year and a half later, the U.N.'s response is under fire.

Two years ago, the United Nations made a spur-of-the-moment decision to open its bases to hundreds of thousands who sought refuge from war. Today, those bases resemble permanent communities.

The 1997 Kyoto treaty set targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions that many nations didn't meet. This time, stakes are higher and all countries will be asked to set and meet their own limits.