Asia Pacific

UN anti-terror meeting in Kazakhstan ends with call to fight scourge in all its forms

28 January 2005
Delegates to a United Nations meeting on terrorism have agreed that global action plans to fight the scourge should encourage countries to become parties to the dozen international anti-terror treaties already on the books and underscored the world body's central role in the effort.

Annan expresses shock after bomb attack kills former UN official from Bangladesh

28 January 2005
Secretary-General Kofi Annan today voiced his shock and sadness at the death of a former United Nations official who was killed in a fatal bomb attack at a political rally in Bangladesh.
Shelter in Aceh for women and children

Build up logistics, cooperation with private sector before next tsunami strikes – UN

28 January 2005
Briefing Member States on the key lessons learned from the United Nations-coordinated relief response to last month's devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, the world body's top relief official today stressed the need to build up logistics, communications and cooperation with the private sector before the next disaster strikes.

UN seeks $67 million for increased risk of malaria, dengue fever after tsunami

27 January 2005
Warning of an increased risk of deadly mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever sweeping across South Asian countries ravaged by last month’s tsunami, the United Nations health agency issued an urgent appeal today for $67 million to ward off a potentially severe public health crisis over the next six months.

UN needs $202 million to feed 6.5 million hungry people in DPR of Korea

27 January 2005
With millions of children, women and elderly in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) barely living at subsistence level, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today it needed $202 million for 2005 to feed the 6.5 million most desperately hungry, over a quarter of the total population.

Further sporadic human cases of bird flu can be expected in Asian countries – UN

27 January 2005
With the number of human bird flu cases in Viet Nam since mid-December now reaching 10, nine of them fatal, the United Nations health agency has warned that further sporadic cases and occasional family clusters can be expected considering the current spread of outbreaks in poultry in some Asian countries.
Louise Arbour

UN rights chief heads to Afghanistan to support moves to deal with past abuses

27 January 2005
The top United Nations human rights official is due to arrive in Afghanistan later today to offer her support to local efforts to tackle past human rights abuses during the country's many years of civil war and Taliban rule.

UNESCO begins work on blueprint to safeguard Jerusalem’s cultural heritage

26 January 2005
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today began work on a blueprint for safeguarding the cultural heritage of the Old City of Jerusalem.

UN refugee agency signs deal allowing Montagnards to return to Viet Nam or re-settle

26 January 2005
The United Nations refugee agency has signed an agreement with Viet Nam and Cambodia to allow a group of about 750 Montagnard refugees and asylum-seekers to either re-settle in a third country or return to their homeland in Viet Nam.
Jan Egeland briefs press

One month into tsunami relief effort, UN faces even bigger rehabilitation task

26 January 2005
One month after a massive tsunami ravaged a dozen Indian Ocean countries on 26 December, the top United Nations emergency official today drew up a positive balance sheet of a "remarkably, singularly effective, swift and muscular" international response that saved tens of thousands of lives against tremendous odds.