The first World Intellectual Property Day is being observed today to honour inventors and highlight the significance of creativity and innovation in people's daily lives.
China, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, today announced its intention to support Secretary-General Kofi Annan's bid for a second term in office, a UN spokesman reported.
Marking the 15-year anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the President of the United Nations General Assembly today stressed the importance of better preventing and managing such disasters in the future.
Addressing a forum of African leaders in Abuja, Nigeria, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called for a major new global campaign -- and a massive mobilization of fresh funding - in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
In light of the "appalling and deteriorating" humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, the United Nations Security Council this afternoon expressed shock at the expected resumption of large-scale fighting there.
The lead United Nations human rights body today condemned all forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which it said "could never be justified under any circumstances."
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today warned that millions of poor Afghans are facing the spectre of another low harvest because of seed and water shortages which have left some 40 per cent of the country's normally cultivated land fallow.
A Somalian police training school supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has welcomed 350 new recruits - many of whom are former militia members - to begin training as part of a larger programme to improve the police force countrywide, the UN agency said today.
The first ever "Africa Malaria Day" was marked widely today as the United Nations and its partners used the occasion to inform communities about malaria prevention and treatment and to mobilize action against a disease that kills over a million people a year, with nine tenths of the victims in Africa and most under the age of five.
Noting that Angolan authorities have recently taken steps to establish a reconciliation and amnesty process, members of the United Nations Security Council today said they wanted to see more involvement in the effort on the part of the UNITA rebel army.