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Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today he would nominate United States Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, a veteran manager of complex organizations, to head the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the world's leading body addressing the needs of youngsters.

With less than two weeks left before Iraq’s elections, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today the United Nations had fulfilled its role as technical adviser, and he appealed to the Government to make the vote as inclusive as possible despite the “far from ideal” situation of violence prevailing in the country.

Two Bosnian Serbs were sentenced today by the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for their roles in the massacre of 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the Srebrenica enclave in July 1995.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today launched a 3,000-page document which research team leader, Special Adviser Jeffrey Sachs, called "a unique report" recommending that rich countries double their investments in poor countries to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving extreme poverty by 2015 and going beyond to eliminate it by 2025.

Alarmed by the recent upsurge of violence between Israelis and Palestinians after hopes of a fresh start with the election of a new Palestinian president, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan vowed today to do whatever it takes to get the so-called Road Map peace plan back on track.

Ten years after an earthquake killed nearly 6,500 people and injured 40,000 in 20 seconds in Kobe, Japan, 4,000 delegates from 150 countries have gathered at ground zero this week for a United Nations conference on disaster reduction, its deliberations given added urgency by nature's latest assault, the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami.

The three-day polio vaccination campaign launched throughout Sudan on 10 January has been "exceptionally successful," reaching more 5 million children under five, with the various warring factions in Africa's largest country allowing it to proceed unhindered, according to preliminary United Nations figures.

Elections scheduled to take place at the end of this month in Iraq must be as inclusive as possible, the United Nations envoy to the country said today, calling for greater efforts to reach out to Arab nationalists, especially the Sunni Muslims who have voiced reservations about the polling process.

Former fighters in Afghanistan are continuing to turn in their weapons at a “high rate,” a spokesman for the United Nations mission in the country (UNAMA) said today.

Calling recent violence a setback to the Middle East peace process, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today appealed to Palestinians to support their new leader in efforts to achieve the long-sought goal of statehood.