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United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has condemned the suicide bomb attack on Wednesday in Tel Aviv, which followed on the heels of a terrorist attack the previous day near the settlement of Emanuel in the West Bank.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended that the Security Council adjust the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) so that it can help ensure the implementation of an independent commission's recent decision on the two countries' border.

Citing a "regrettable" lack of progress in jumpstarting negotiations between the Georgian and Abkhaz sides, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended that the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) be extended six months, until 31 January 2003.

Backing a recent statement by the diplomatic "Quartet" on the Middle East, the United Nations Security Council today called on the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to cooperate with the effort to achieve the goals set in that declaration.

Warning that some 13 million people in southern Africa were on the brink of starvation in the region's worst food crisis in nearly a decade, the United Nations today launched a broad $600 million humanitarian appeal to help secure food and other relief supplies to combat the looming disaster.

Three Afghan factions in a district near Mazar-i-Sharif yesterday began turning over their weapons under United Nations monitoring, in the first voluntary disarmament exercise ever in the country.

On the fourth anniversary of the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged States to ratify this key weapon against genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed Switzerland’s intention to join the United Nations, saying that the country’s involvement in UN activities and its long-time role as host to many of the organization’s agencies has already given it a “head start” in knowing what it takes to be a member of the UN family.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today said it will study the Palestinian territories to outline the state of the ecosystem and identify major areas of environmental damage requiring urgent attention.

With the situation in the Middle East at its worst in decades, the international community must press for reaching a final Israeli-Palestinian settlement, while the parties themselves must take steps to stem the violence and establish a clearly defined political horizon for resolving their differences, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today in a message to a United Nations seminar in Copenhagen.