The National Council of East Timor today endorsed a draft regulation on the establishment of a Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal with the human rights violations committed during the territory's 25-year struggle for independence.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today warned that millions of poor Afghans are facing the spectre of another low harvest because of seed and water shortages which have left some 40 per cent of the country's normally cultivated land fallow.
A top United Nations humanitarian official returning from an assessment mission in Afghanistan warned today that the country had the world's fastest growing problem of internal displacement.
China's ratification of the Bangkok Agreement has made one of Asia's oldest trade accords the world's largest in terms of market potential, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) announced today.
Resigning today from the National Council of East Timor, independence leader and Nobel laureate José Ramos-Horta appealed to the Council and all East Timorese to continue supporting the presence of the United Nations in the territory.
Afghanistan, already facing a "humanitarian crisis of alarming proportions," could see increased fighting during the summer months, coinciding with the country's "hungry season," according to a new report by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan's envoy to Afghanistan today concluded a two-day visit to Kazakhstan where he discussed with the country's top officials ways of moving towards a comprehensive political settlement of the Afghan conflict.
Peacekeepers from the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and international police officers arrested three persons today as suspects in murders committed during a riot in Viqueque on 12 March.
A team from the United Nations mission in East Timor has held "very successful" meetings with thousands of refugees in camps in West Timor, Indonesia, to inform the East Timorese of the situation in their home territory and encourage their repatriation, the UN peacekeeping operation said today in Dili.
The warring factions in Afghanistan have agreed to respect a ceasefire for three days starting tomorrow to allow a United Nations polio immunization effort to go forward, according to the Islamabad-based UN Coordinator for the country.
