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Amid new signs of unrest in Myanmar, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today renewed his call for talks between the Government and the opposition, as his envoy prepared to head to the country's capital.

Calling it a blatant violation of Nepal's obligations under international law, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today expressed grave concern over the fate of 18 Tibetan asylum seekers deported to China despite urgent appeals from the agency and human rights groups not to expel them.

The head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today challenged the leaders of the world’s richest nations meeting at the G-8 summit next week to adopt a “tide-turning approach” to the global AIDS crisis or else face the opprobrium of allowing millions more people to needlessly suffer and die.

Expressing “extreme concern” over the fate of 18 Tibetans whose return is being demanded by China, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has called on Nepal to release them instead into the agency’s care until their claims can be ascertained.

In order to further consider the best way forward on a new plan proposed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resolve the situation in Western Sahara, the Security Council today extended by two months the mandate of the United Nations mission responsible for organizing a referendum in the territory.

A former senior Yugoslav intelligence agent was transferred from Serbia to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague today to face charges of crimes against humanity for murder and ethnic cleansing of Croats and Muslims in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the court said.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is distributing cereal and legume seeds to Eritrean farmers to help restore their productive capacity after they were hit last cropping season by the worst drought in 10 years.

Signalling its “utmost concern” at the fighting and atrocities in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations Security Council today authorized the deployment of an international emergency force to help stabilize the situation in the country’s volatile north-east, where ethnic fighting has killed more than 400 people.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed the agreement signed between the Government of Venezuela and the opposition Coordinadora Democrática, and pledged continued United Nations support in helping the country to find peaceful solutions to its problems.

The top United Nations human rights official today applauded the unanimous decision by the Security Council to authorize the deployment of an international emergency force to the Ituri district of in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).