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The United Nations health agency today announced that the South-East Asia Region has completed five years without any case of wild poliovirus, a highly infectious disease that invades the nervous system and for which there is still no cure.

Nearly 24 million children living in crisis zones in 22 strife-torn countries are being deprived of a school education, threatening their own future and that of their societies, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported today.

Despite considerable progress in Mali, the United Nations peacekeeping chief today warned that the peace process in the country remains fragile, and stressed the need to urgently defeat political, security and humanitarian challenges.

As the United Nations prepares to mark the sixth anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti and pay tribute to the more than 200,000 victims who perished, including 102 UN personnel, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on the international community to “stand with Haiti” as it moves forward to rebuild.

A humanitarian convoy has finally reached the besieged Syrian town of Madaya with life-saving health and food supplies from the United Nations and its partners for the 42,000 desperate residents after reports of people starving to death under encirclement by pro-Government forces.

Marking the 70th anniversary of the first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said the body has truly become the “Parliament for all people.”

Human rights experts from the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) today called on the United States Government to promptly close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility and end impunity for abuses in the so-called ‘global war on terror’ such as ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ and extraordinary rendition.

Before there was a United Nations Secretary-General, a Security Council or an iconic Headquarters in New York, there was the General Assembly, the most representative body ever of world nations, meeting for the first time in a London hall facing Westminster Abbey, the 1,000-year-old coronation site of Britain’s kings and queens.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned yesterday’s attack on a hospital supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Sa’ada province, Yemen, which killed at least four people and injured many others.

The United Nations Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, concluded today his regional consultations with meetings in Tehran, where he received assurances from his interlocutors that regional current tensions would not affect Iran's engagement in facilitating the holding of upcoming Geneva talks on ending the crisis in Syria.