The United Nations pledged full cooperation today with the European Union (EU) in tackling the “critical and broadly more challenging phase” confronting Kosovo after the “essential step forward” achieved through municipal elections earlier this month.

In the first visit to Lithuania by a United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon on Sunday hailed the country for rising above struggles such as invasion, war and the horrors of the Holocaust and for upholding universal values such as tolerance and mutual understanding.

The recent racist attacks in France against Guyanese-born Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira are unacceptable, the United Nations human rights office said today, warning that this is another sign of rising discrimination in many European nations.

The sustained attention of the international community is vital to helping Bosnia and Herzegovina on the path to prosperity and political stability, the Security Council heard today, as it extended the mandate of the European peacekeepers tasked with ensuring the continued compliance by all sides with the 1995 peace agreement that ended fighting in the country.