UN off to a rocky new year

UNITED NATIONS - The year 2019 started off at the United Nations with Somalia expelling the UN envoy, followed soon after by Guatemala pulling out of a UN-sponsored anti-corruption commission.

After a tough year that saw the United States, the UN's top financial backer, cut funding, pull out of the Human Rights Council and scrap UN-backed agreements, the UN is taking more hard hits.

Some UN watchers are questioning whether the global organization created at the end of World War II to safeguard world peace is facing a slow demise, increasingly under attack by governments with nationalist agendas.