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The United Nations has dispatched a long range military patrol to help defuse tensions and reduce chances of reprisal attacks at the site of deadly ethnic clashes in Southern Sudan where Government and separatist forces fought a two-decades-long war until a peace accord in 2005.

The head of the United Nations agency mandated with protecting press freedom today condemned the killing of Bobi Tsankov, a journalist who had taken on organized crime in Bulgaria, and called on authorities to bring the perpetrators – who committed the act in the centre of the capital in broad daylight – to justice.

Children cannot consent to their own exploitation, making the use of children in warfare “particularly abusive,” a top United Nations official said today at the trial of a Congolese warlord accused of enlisting child soldiers.

A team of United Nations independent experts today called for those behind the 2007 incident where 17 people were killed in the Iraqi capital to be brought to justice, following the dismissal of an indictment against five private security guards by a United States court.

The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today paid tribute to Paul Ahyi, a Togolese painter and sculptor who had served as a UNESCO Artist for Peace since September 2009 until his death earlier this week.

A controversial United Nations-backed Government offensive against rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), during which Congolese soldiers are alleged to have committed massacres and gang-rape, has been replaced by a new UN-supported operation with a central focus on protecting civilians.

An independent United Nations human rights expert said today there are strong indications that the video of alleged extrajudicial executions by Sri Lankan soldiers that aired last August on British television is authentic, and called for an inquiry into possible war crimes committed during the conflict with Tamil rebels.

The first batch of thousands of child soldiers, who served in the Maoist army during Nepal’s decade-long civil war, returned to civilian life today, the United Nations announced, voicing hope that the discharge will speed up the peace process in the Asian nation.

The United Nations is sending health care kits and other supplies for 30,000 victims of massive flooding in Kenya, where thousands of others are feared to be at risk if heavy rains persist.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon phoned the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders today ahead of intensive United Nations-backed talks on reunifying the Mediterranean island, urging them to show flexibility on the many issues under discussion, from governance and power-sharing to the economy and property.