Asia Pacific

On anniversary of Hiroshima, Annan voices hope nuclear arms can be eliminated

6 August 2004
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today voiced hope that countries meeting next year to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) will take action to eliminate nuclear arsenals in their entirety, six decades after atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

UN names human rights expert to monitor situation in DPR Korea

6 August 2004
A Thai law professor with extensive international human rights experience has been named as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Floods in Bangladesh

Bangladesh will need at least a year to recover from devastating floods - UN

5 August 2004
Bangladesh will need at least a year to recover from the devastating floods that have caused massive damage to its land, people and economy, with tens of millions of people facing grave food shortages, waterborne diseases, a badly mangled infrastructure and extremely poor prospects for the next rice crop, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Food distribution in the DPR of Korea

DPR of Korea: UN welcomes Japanese food aid for millions of hungry

5 August 2004
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today warmly welcomed a $40 million Japanese donation to help millions of needy people in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the second piece of good news this week for a population hit by a decade of floods, droughts and economic hardship.

UN condemns killing of 2 aid workers in Afghanistan

5 August 2004
United Nations officials in Afghanistan today denounced the killing Wednesday of two German aid agency workers in an ambush in the country’s southeast.
UNESCO head Koïchiro Matsuura

Philippines: UNESCO chief condemns murder of journalist

5 August 2004
The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today condemned the assassination of a radio broadcaster in the Philippines, the third journalist killed in the Southeast Asian nation this year, calling it “a crime against society as a whole.”

UN health agency de-lists certain generic HIV/AIDS drugs pending further tests

4 August 2004
Three generic HIV/AIDS medicines have been removed from the international list of medicines available to developing countries because the manufacturer had not ensured the drugs were equivalent to the original medicines they were supposed to copy, the United Nations health agency said today.

With more rain expected in flood-hit Bangladesh, UN plans expanded relief drive

3 August 2004
Amid warnings that more monsoons could hit flood-ravaged Bangladesh in the coming weeks, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is calling on donors to support the agency's steadily mounting relief campaign, which has already delivered rice and high-energy biscuits to 1.8 million people.

Australian lawyer chosen as UN monitor of extrajudicial and summary executions

3 August 2004
An Australian lawyer with a long record of working for the United Nations and of teaching law has been appointed Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

DPR Korea: UN food distribution to resume following Russian aid shipment

2 August 2004
The United Nations emergency feeding agency will be able to resume cereal distribution to nearly 2 million hungry people in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) following a major shipment of Russian aid, but has still only received little more that a quarter of the total aid sought for 2004.