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Two United Nations agencies – the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) – announced today they have developed new standards for quality health-care services for adolescents, which aim to help countries improve services for people between the ages of 10 and 19.

Nicholas Haysom, the United Nations Special Representative for Afghanistan, reiterated today the need for an impartial investigation into the deadly air strike on the Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, which resulted in the deaths and injuries of medical personnel, patients and other civilians this past Saturday.

In a meeting today with Michel Kafando, the Transitional President of Burkina Faso, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his sympathy for the lives lost and the many injured during the coup d’état that took place on 16 September 2015.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, following consultations with Chairs of Regional Groups, informed the General Assembly today of his intention to appoint Heidi Mendoza of the Philippines as the new Under-Secretary-General for the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) for a five-year non-renewable term.

The World Bank announced today that extreme poverty is likely to fall to below 10 per cent this year, “giving fresh evidence that a quarter-century-long sustained reduction in poverty is moving the world closer to the historic goal of ending poverty by 2030” – echoing a top goal set by the newly-agreed United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda.

Warning that rapid advances in genetics make “designer babies” an increasing possibility, a United Nations panel today called for a moratorium on “editing” the human genome, pending wider public debate lest changes in DNA be transmitted to future generations or foster eugenics.

The global refugee crisis is so great that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), other UN agencies and their partners today said that they are struggling to respond to and meet all the humanitarian needs they face.

Extremists will “never be able to erase history,” the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, said today, condemning the destruction of the Arch of Triumph in Palmyra.

Marking the first World Teacher’s Day after the adoption of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, senior United Nations officials appealed to the international community to value, support, and empower teachers, “for it is they who will educate a new generation of children who, in turn, will carry forward all our goals to build a better world for all.”

Marking World Habitat Day, which is observed every year on the first Monday of October, top United Nations officials today urged the creation of “Public spaces for all.”