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United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said he hoped the United States would continue to play an active role in defending universal human rights and support the new Human Rights Council, despite its decision not to take part in next month’s elections for the body that replaces the much-criticized Human Rights Commission.

The senior United Nations envoy to Ethiopia and Eritrea gave a farewell press conference today urging the two countries to settle their remaining differences by demarcating the border between them.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is on an official visit to Spain, welcomed a decision by Madrid today to commit Spanish police officers to the UN operation in Haiti as well as its support for a Rapid Reaction Force that will back up the UN’s mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as the impoverished African country heads toward expected elections in June.

With nearly 80 per cent of the population of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) trapped in extreme poverty and more than 70 per cent undernourished, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is appealing for $50 million to support the agricultural rehabilitation of the vast war-torn country.

Mediterranean countries will suffer from increasingly saturated coastal development over the next 20 years if current trends continue, 63 million people will lack sufficient water and desertification will worsen rural poverty and biodiversity loss, according to the grim projections of a new United Nations-backed report.

United Nations human rights officials have yet again condemned leftist rebel attacks on civilians, this time deploring the murder of two local government councillors, allegedly by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

With between 170 and 180 Iraqi academics killed since the start of the war in 2003 and thousands more driven into exile, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today called for international solidarity and mobilization in favour of education and educators in the violence-torn country.

As part of a strategic move to broaden its donor network and engage in innovative fund raising by entering the capital market, the United Nations refugee agency has teamed up with two Swiss with investment companies in a scheme that will benefit its earthquake relief operation in Pakistan.

African ministers responsible for housing and urban development have been discussing a 10-point action plan at a United Nations-backed conference in Kenya, aimed at reducing urban poverty, defusing potential social unrest, and reversing the perception that governments are not doing enough on a continent where over 70 per cent of city dwellers live in slums.

As a distinguished group of world leaders convened today to harmonize efforts in development, humanitarian assistance and the environment across all the units of the United Nations system, Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the panel, co-chaired by three Prime Ministers, to produce a stronger, more effective Organization.