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Amid the deteriorating situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the capital, Kinshasa, is gripped by clashes between demonstrators and security forces, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today urged maximum restraint on all sides, while the head of United Nations peacekeeping operations briefed the Security Council on broader efforts to help stabilize the vast country.

During an informal meeting of the General Assembly this morning to address concerns of a rise in anti-Semitic violence worldwide, top United Nations officials echoed the view of keynote speaker, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who lamented the ‘renewed advance of this radical inhumanity.’

Strongly condemning the resurgence of deadly violence across the Central African Republic (CAR), the United Nations Security Council today reinvigorated its sanctions against those individuals implicated in the country’s ongoing sectarian tensions which have pushed it to the brink of all-out conflict.

Private sector services, such as business and administrative services, and real estate, as well as related industries, will employ more than a third of the global workforce over the next five years, according to new data released by the United Nations labour agency.

Ten years ago today, world leaders in Hyogo, Japan agreed on a framework to better manage risk and curb the impact of disasters in the wake of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami – which claimed some 227,000 lives – and in March, they are set to meet for a United Nations conference in another Japanese city to take stock of whether the world has lived up to that promise.

After weeks of relative calm, the United Nations political chief said the Security Council was meeting today amid the ‘worst hostilities’ in eastern Ukraine since the Minsk Protocol was agreed on 5 September, with the urgently needed sustainable ceasefire presently existing in name only.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is reporting that thousands of people in North Darfur are now confirmed as displaced following ongoing fighting in the region, a UN spokesperson announced today.

The United Nations Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) has confirmed it used force in response to machine gun fire directed at its troops and towards the town inhabited by civilians, yesterday in Tabankort, in the restive north of the country.

During a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp today, United Nations Deputy-Secretary-General Jan Eliasson called for reflection on how better to prevent horrific crimes witnessed during the Holocaust and other genocides.

Amid a flare-up in fighting and ongoing political tensions between the Government and opposition members, the organization of legitimate elections in Burundi remains ‘one of the most pressing challenges’ facing the African country in 2015, the top United Nations political official declared today.