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Wrapping up their work for August in the shadow of last week's deadly attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq, members of the Security Council today focused on ways of providing better support for UN peacekeeping operations in various parts of the world.

With transit costs eating up anywhere between 15 and 50 per cent of their export earnings, low-income landlocked countries won improved market access under an historic agreement concluded today at United Nations-sponsored talks, promising reductions in red tape and transportation costs and time.

Iraq is facing an upsurge in violent crime, including kidnapping and murder, as well as a strong possibility of increased drug trafficking, and despite progress achieved by United States-led authorities, much more needs to be done to fight organized crime, according to the findings of a United Nations crime-fighting mission released today.

Following reports earlier this week of fresh fighting between government and rebel forces in Liberia, the top United Nations envoy for the country has told the rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) that all hostilities must cease.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today welcomed the announcement by the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies (Shell) that it would not explore or develop oil and gas resources within any of the natural World Heritage sites.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed six-party talks being held in Beijing, in an effort to defuse nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula as "an encouraging development" that he hoped would strengthen peace and stability.

A former Yugoslav admiral, charged before a United Nations tribunal with war crimes for the shelling and bombing of the historic Croatian coastal city of Dubrovnik in 1991, pleaded guilty today to an amended indictment of violations of the laws or customs of war, including murder and cruel treatment.

The United Nations refugee agency said today it has postponed the first repatriation convoy of Iraqi refugees from Iran pending a security review after last week’s terrorist attack against UN headquarters in Baghdad.

The United Nations Security Council today reaffirmed its readiness to establish a follow-on UN stabilization force to support Liberia's welcome political transition, and joined West African leaders in a pledge to ensure the full implementation of a recent peace accord signed by the parties.

The United Nations refugee agency voiced deep concern today over the arrests of Indonesian Acehnese asylum seekers outside its office in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur and called on the authorities to grant temporary protection to all civilians fleeing the conflict in the Indonesian province.