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Demand for United Nations-led peacekeeping operations is likely to continue over the next five years and may even start to rise again as individual countries reduce their defence spending and fresh crises and conflicts emerge, the outgoing head of UN peacekeeping has said.

Economic governance, globalization and the role of the United Nations topped the agenda during a one-day visit today to Argentina by General Assembly President Joseph Deiss.

United Nations officials today urged the world to recognize the right of indigenous peoples to control their intellectual property, saying they need help to protect, develop and receive fair compensation for their cultural heritage and traditional knowledge.

The steps recently announced by President Barack Obama of the United States to strengthen his Government’s capacity to help prevent genocide and other mass atrocities are “promising” initiatives, said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Top United Nations officials have expressed their condolences to the family of the former Finnish prime minister, Harri Holkeri, who also served as President of the 55th session of the General Assembly.

The United Nations is moving on two fronts to counter the worsening food crisis in the Horn of Africa, with an immediate infusion of food in an area where 640,000 children alone are threatened with acute malnutrition, and longer-term steps to spark an agricultural recovery.

Sixty indigenous families in Colombia are selling handicrafts in the capital, Bogotá, to cater to an influx of fans attending the ongoing youth soccer World Cup tournament as part of a United Nations-backed initiative to alleviate poverty.

The Security Council today expressed grave concern over what it said was a serious deterioration of the economic and humanitarian situation in Yemen amid worsening security, including the threat from Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Several United Nations agencies and their partners are calling for greater cooperation to tackle the threat posed to the world’s forests from extreme weather events and natural disasters.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in the Republic of Korea’s capital, Seoul, after a three-day visit to Japan, where he said he had drawn inspiration from Japanese people’s resilience in the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident that struck the country in March.