Two of the surviving former leaders of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime charged with mass killings during the 1970’s requested to be acquitted today, as closing arguments began at the United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal in the south-east Asian country.

Members of the United Nations-appointed inquiry into human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) today reiterated that they are not biased against Pyongyang, as they are poised to finalize their investigative work this week.

The United Nations and humanitarian partners in the Philippines appealed today for $46.8 million to meet the acute needs of the victims of the Bohol earthquake which is believed to have affected more than 3 million people.

Good progress has been made by Japan in remediation efforts in areas affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, a group of United Nations experts have said in a preliminary report, while encouraging the Government to better communicate its decontamination goals to the public.