UN annual general debate ponders world problems

The general debate of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly was held Tuesday, with world leaders pondering global issues.[Special coverage]

The general debate was themed "The Sustainable Development Goals: a universal push to transform our world."

Barack Obama, making his last appearance before the assembly as U.S. president, reviewed his administration's success in the eight years since his first appearance in 2008 as the global financial crisis was exploding.

"From the depths of the greatest financial crisis of our time, we coordinated our response to avoid further catastrophe and return the global economy to growth," he said.

"Our assistance is helping people feed themselves, care for the sick, power communities across Africa, and promote models of development rather than dependence," he said.

Although the world was less violent and more prosperous by many measures, yet societies were filled with uncertainty, unease and strife, Obama said, calling on countries to press forward with a better model of cooperation and integration.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said while her country recently voted to leave the European Union, it did not mean it was turning inward, adding that her country would be a "confident, strong and dependable partner internationally."

May expressed concerns over the 65 million forcibly displaced people around the world, saying the number is equal to the Britain's entire population and that countries must be able to exercise control over their borders.

"We must help ensure that refugees claim asylum in the first safe country they reach," she said. "The current trend of onward movements, where refugees reach a safe country but then press on with their journey, can only benefit criminal gangs and expose refugees to grave danger."

French President Francois Hollande lobbied for the approval of the Paris Agreement on climate change reached last year, noting that China and the United States -- the largest emitters of pollutants in the world -- already have acceded to the document.

"Appealing for Africa," he said, "the continent was full of potential,but impeded by insecurity, mass migration, desertification and drought."

The Syrian conflict will be viewed as an international disgrace if not ended quickly, he said, and called besieged Aleppo a "martyred city" where thousands of children had died in bombings. "I have one thing to say: it is enough."

King Abdullah II of Jordan said he was struck by the lack of understanding of the true nature of Islam found among many Western officials, think tanks, media leaders and policymakers.

"False perceptions of Islam and of Muslims will fuel the terrorists' agenda of a global struggle by polarizing and fractionalizing societies, East and West" and driving themselves deeper into mistrust and intolerance, he said.

Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez focused on diseases accompanying poverty.

"Noncommunicable diseases -- mainly cardiovascular ailments, cancer, diabetes and chronic pulmonary pathologies -- were the main cause of death in low- and middle-income countries," he said. "The poorest people in all countries suffer ailments directly related to smoking, alcoholism, unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyles."

"Vicious cycles are easily formed in these populations," he said. "Poverty exposes people to behavioral risk factors of noncommunicable diseases and in turn, these diseases tend to make poverty even worse."

Unless epidemics of noncommunicable diseases were strongly fought, their impact would continue to grow and the plausible global goal of reducing poverty "will move father away every day," Vazquez said.