Europe

Dag Hammarskjöld

Annan marks centenary of 'visionary' former UN leader Hammarskjöld's birth

29 July 2005
Swedish-born former United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld "embodied the very definition of a visionary," for he was deeply aware that development, security and human rights were not only ends in themselves, but that they reinforced each other, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today in a message marking the centenary of Mr. Hammarskjöld's birth.
Kofi Annan

Secretary-General welcomes IRA disarmament decision

28 July 2005
Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed the announcement by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) of its decision to end armed actions in Northern Ireland and to disarm.
Bluefin tuna is overexploited in the Mediterranean

Mediterranean countries must cooperate against over-fishing, says UN agency

27 July 2005
Just months after publishing a report showing the Mediterranean as one of the regions where fish stocks are in greatest need of recovery, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today called on countries in the region to continue working together to strengthen fisheries management so as to rebuild stocks.

UN starts airlifting Uzbek refugees to Kyrgyz capital pending transfer abroad

27 July 2005
The United Nations refugee agency today started airlifting 455 Uzbeks who fled unrest in their homeland in May to the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek pending a further transfer to other countries amid intensified pressure from Uzbekistan for the return of 12 among the group.

UN health agency pays tribute to British tobacco control pioneer Richard Doll

26 July 2005
The World Health Organization (WHO) has paid tribute to British epidemiologist Richard Doll, whose pioneering research established a link between tobacco use and major diseases that kill millions of people each year, particularly lung cancer and other smoking-related illnesses.
Forest fire in the Mediterranean region

Train local communities to prevent forest fires, UN tells Mediterranean countries

25 July 2005
Mediterranean countries could save lives and billions of euros every year if they better trained and mobilized communities in preventing and controlling forest fires, which destroy up to 700,000 hectares annually in the region, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.

UN agencies help 10,000 families affected by floods in Bulgaria

21 July 2005
United Nations agencies are assisting 10,000 Bulgarian families affected by heavy flooding following a Government request for help, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today.

Human traffickers in Kosovo convicted with UN help

21 July 2005
In the severest ever human trafficking sentence in Kosovo, three Albanian citizens have been jailed for up to 12 years for luring young women to the United Nations-administered province with false promises of legitimate work, only to try to force them into prostitution.

Secretary-General renews call for political solution to Georgian-Abkhaz conflict

20 July 2005
While the resumption of the United Nations-led Georgian-Abkhaz peace process is encouraging, only "genuine commitment" by both sides will lead to a lasting political settlement to the hostilities between Government and separatist forces in northwest Georgia, which uprooted nearly 300,000 refugees more than a decade ago, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in his latest report.
Søren Jesen-Petersen

UN administrator reports slowdown in political process in Kosovo

20 July 2005
There has recently been a slowdown in the political process of moving ethnically-divided Kosovo along the road towards determining its final status, the United Nations administrator of the province said today.