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A day before arriving in Mozambique to attend the annual African Union summit, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today urged African leaders to invest in children as a first priority, arguing that it is the only chance for sustaining development and progress on the continent.

The new head of the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has met in Bunia with the commander of the multinational Force, local relief workers and regional leaders, to discuss a range of ongoing security and humanitarian concerns aimed at preventing chaos when the force pulls out in September.

The United Nations reported today that swollen riverbeds and floodwaters have finally begun to subside following Namibia's worst flood in over two decades, but it could still be months before the waters recede to levels that will allow thousands of people to return to their homes.

The 2003 edition of the World Small Arms Survey - focusing the spread of small arms and human development - was launched today at United Nations Headquarters in New York where government representatives are meeting for the first time to consider implementation of a UN Action Plan for eradicating the illicit small arms trade.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today completed its fifth and last convoy repatriation of Eritreans from the Sudan for this season, after restarting a voluntary operation that had been suspended because of the rainy conditions.

United Nations envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello has condemned a rocket propelled grenade attack on a compound used by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Mosul, northern Iraq, on Saturday.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today strongly deplored the terrorist attacks over the weekend in Pakistan and Russia, calling them vicious and without any possible justification.

A senior United Nations rights expert today expressed alarm over reports that six detainees may be brought to trial before a military commission by the United States Government, saying such "drastic measures to counter terrorism" are in defiance of the world body's resolutions.

The senior United Nations human rights official has called on the government of Uzbekistan not to execute detainees who have appealed their convictions to the UN Human Rights Committee.

Two senior United Nations officials stressed today that while installation of a transitional government in Kinshasa may help return law and order to war-ravaged northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), real progress - and lasting peace - would take hold only when perpetrators committing crimes in the region were brought to justice.