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Voicing concern about stepped up violence in the Middle East, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has repeated his call on all parties to respect international law and ensure the protection of civilians.

In a strongly worded statement aimed at quelling violence in Iraq, the senior United Nations envoy to that country today decried recent sectarian attacks and urged a united front against those who are instigating them.

Reacting to the furor spawned by the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed widely considered to be offensive, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Doha, Qatar, today joined his voice with key Arab and Muslim leaders to urge restraint and to pledge action to foster tolerance.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is on his way to Qatar, where he will convene a meeting tomorrow in the capital city of Doha to discuss the controversy over the published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

A top United Nations envoy told the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament that he supported national dialogue as a way to accomplish the disbanding of foreign and domestic militias in the country and meet other Security Council requirements.

The main United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees reported today that Israeli forces left significant damage behind after occupying two schools in the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank town of Nablus earlier this week.

More than 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Liberia will have returned to their home villages by the end of this week, the United Nations mission in the country said today, highlighting increasing stability in the West African nation as it emerges from almost 15 years of brutal civil war.

After a second visit to the Russian Federation that included time in the troubled region of Chechnya, the United Nations top human rights official said today in Moscow that she had “very serious concerns” about Chechnya’s law enforcement system.

Twenty people arrested by the Forces Nouvelles armed opposition in Côte d’Ivoire, on charges of spying or being disloyal to the movement, have been released after human rights officers from the United Nations mission in the West African country met the military leader of the Force, UN officials said today.

The head of the United Nations organization entrusted with preserving the world’s historical, spiritual and cultural heritage has condemned the destruction of a Shiite shrine and other mosques and churches in Iraq as “an outrage for all of humanity.”