Europe

UN’s Kosovo envoy voices concern at apparent attack on monastery

31 March 2007
The senior United Nations envoy to Kosovo has voiced concern about a recent apparent attack on the Deçan/Deæani monastery, which he said holds great value for the province's Serb community, currently outnumbered nine to one by the ethnic Albanian majority.

UNESCO posthumously honours slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya

30 March 2007
Anna Politkovskaya, the esteemed Russian journalist and outspoken human rights campaigner who was killed last October, will be awarded the prestigious 2007 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, the first time the honour has been bestowed posthumously in its 10-year history.

Serbian loses appeal against UN war crimes tribunal decision to transfer case

28 March 2007
The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia today dismissed the appeal of a former Serbian military commander indicted over his role in the 1991 attacks against the world-renowned historical district of the Croatian city, Dubrovnik, after he had contested the decision to refer his case to Serbian authorities.

Big Bird and Cookie Monster join UN in teaching Kosovo’s children tolerance

27 March 2007
Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch are playing their part in bridging the ethnic and linguistic divide in Kosovo, teaching tolerance to children in the Albanian-majority Serb province in a United Nations-backed project that adapts the world famous Sesame Street programme to local needs.
Asha-Rose Migiro

Migiro welcomes closer working relationship between UN and European Union

27 March 2007
Two weeks after a report showed that hundreds of millions of people have benefited from a United Nations-European Union (EU) partnership – in such areas as protecting refugees, helping children and promoting democracy – Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro today welcomed the start of a workshop bringing the two organizations closer in the administrative realm.
Amb. Dumisani S. Kumalo

Security Council hails removal of buffer wall in Cypriot capital

27 March 2007
The Security Council today welcomed the removal by Greek Cypriots of a wall in the long-running buffer zone dividing the island into northern and southern segments, voicing hope that similar confidence-building measures will lead to the resumption of talks aimed at reaching a durable peace deal on the Mediterranean island.
Martti Ahtisaari, Special Envoy for Kosovo

UN envoy on Kosovo’s status says ‘independence is the only option’

26 March 2007
The only viable option for Kosovo is independence, with an initial period of supervision by the international community, the senior United Nations official overseeing the Serbian province’s future status process has concluded in a report endorsed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and sent today to the Security Council.
Nuclear fuel pellets

UN pushes ahead with multinational enrichment plan to prevent nuclear proliferation

23 March 2007
Pushing ahead with efforts to set up a multinational framework for uranium enrichment to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation and the possibility of their falling into the hands of terrorists, the United Nations atomic watchdog agency is exploring with Russia the possible establishment of an international enrichment centre in Siberia.

Kosovo: UN regrets withdrawal of Romanian police in probe of demonstrators’ deaths

23 March 2007
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Kosovo today asked Romania to make available police officers it had withdrawn, despite a request that they be kept there for a few more weeks, should they be needed in the probe into the deaths of two people when UN police used rubber bullets against pro-independence demonstrators last month.

Juvenile justice system set up in Kosovo with UN help

23 March 2007
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has teamed up with the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) to support the development of the juvenile justice system in UN-administered Kosovo, focusing on rehabilitation rather than prison.