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While noting “some encouraging signs” for advancing the peace process in divided Côte d’Ivoire, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned today the security situation remains fragile and repeated his appeal to the Security Council to reinforce the UN operation (UNOCI) to prevent trouble spreading to neighbouring Liberia.

A pioneering family planning doctor from Bangladesh and a major reproductive health foundation in Haiti have won this year’s United Nations Population Award, the lead agency on the issue (UNFPA) announced today.

Voicing “grave concern” over escalating violence in Iraq, especially the mounting loss of innocent lives and attacks on places of worship, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today called on community leaders to promote tolerance and pursue dialogue.

A major United Nations meeting on the Asia-Pacific region today adopted a series of resolutions towards closing an annual $180-billion financing gap in crucial infrastructure development to improve the lives of nearly 700 million of the area’s most vulnerable and poorest people.

United Nations human rights officials have called on the Nepalese Government to end its “deplorable” excessive use of force against demonstrators, including severe beatings, indiscriminate attacks on bystanders, some of them women and children, and “seriously unacceptable” detention conditions.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, celebrated its 60th birthday today, with Secretary-General Kofi Annan telling a solemn sitting that more must be done to ensure its future through wider acceptance of its jurisdiction on issues ranging from boundary disputes to genocide.

With the head of the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed ElBaradei, on his way to Tehran for talks with Iran on resuming cooperation with the nuclear non-proliferation regime, Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed today for all involved to “cool down” their rhetoric and actively search for a diplomatic solution.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has praised Saudi Arabia for the humanitarian assistance it has given to both global and regional emergency and relief operations, including almost $4 million for health and education projects for Palestinians and $2 million in reconstruction aid after last year’s devastating earthquake in Pakistan.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today strongly condemned yesterday’s suicide attack at a Muslim prayer service in Karachi, Pakistan, where dozens of people were reportedly killed and injured.

Affirming the importance of basic freedoms as well as the need for sensitivity towards other cultures, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today told a major Islamic diplomatic meeting that the crisis over the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed earlier this year reflected a trend toward extremism in both Islamic and Western societies.