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The head of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) today welcomed the end to the presidential campaign deadlock after candidate Francisco Xavier do Amaral and his supporters announced they would ask the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to remove all party symbols from the ballot for the upcoming election.

Seeking to bolster international commitment to saving some 11 million children who die annually of preventable and treatable causes, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO) today opened an expert meeting in Stockholm aimed at designing a response strategy.

By reducing the number of suspects targeted for investigation and ending all enquiries over the next couple of years, as well as adding a pool of temporary judges, the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) would be able to wrap up its work no later than 2008, according to the President of the court.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will head to Central America later this week with stops in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras before arriving in Mexico to open the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, a UN spokesman announced today.

Antigua and Barbuda became the 22nd country to ratify a key United Nations counter-terrorism treaty, paving the way for the accord to become law next month, UN officials said today.

Reacting with alarm to press reports of a reassessment by the Pentagon of the United States stance on the development and possible use of nuclear weapons, the senior United Nations disarmament official has warned that Washington's posture could deal a serious blow to global non-proliferation efforts.

Holding its first-ever meeting in Afghanistan, a group comprising the country’s neighbours and other influential States today voiced its full backing for the Afghan peace process while urging other members of the international community to support reconstruction in the war-torn nation.

The United Nations top official in Kosovo, Michael Steiner, has welcomed a second round of a weapons amnesty programme designed to encourage citizens to turn in illegal firearms and ammunition in anonymity and without fear of punishment or prosecution.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria today announced the appointment of an international panel of experts that is expected to clear the way for the first disbursement of grants next month.

The high dependency on food imports in the Near East poses a formidable challenge for countries throughout the region and exposes them to a number of food security risks, including higher prices, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today.