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The Security Council today authorized the temporary redeployment of peacekeepers from the Organization's operation in Burundi (ONUB) to its mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) to strengthen security and oversight for the upcoming Congolese elections.

In Spain today, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan accepted the first Seville Node between Cultures Award, and immediately pledged to donate the accompanying monetary prize to a project helping Congolese women traumatized by sexual violence.

Praising countries of the Middle East for their charitable and humanitarian work, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator called today for them to work more closely with the world body and channel more development aid through it, saying by doing so there would be greater global recognition of the contribution these States make while closer international partnerships would be a “win-win situation” for all.

With virtual stagnation on the disarmament front despite heightened global concern over the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and the risk of them falling into terrorist hands, a senior United Nations official today called for urgent new momentum, especially with regard to nuclear arms.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has informed the Security Council of his intention to appoint a Jordanian Major-General with extensive peacekeeping experience as Force Commander of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today began investigating a deadly shooting near one of its food convoys in central Somalia, in which at least one militiaman was killed and a number injured when gunmen attacked the convoy on the road to the town of Baidoa.

With 1.3 million people in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan still suffering from the effects of almost 40 years of nuclear tests and the local economy still reeling from the collapse of the Soviet Union, an exhibition has opened at United Nations headquarters to highlight the area’s plight.

Reacting to the recent upsurge in Middle East violence, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on both sides to refrain from any measures that could cause a further escalation.

With at least 10 million people dying each year from largely preventable infectious diseases and complications of pregnancy and delivery, the United Nations today marked World Health Day with an urgent call for more than 4 million additional doctors, nurses, midwives, managers and public health workers for developing countries.

In its first food airdrops outside Sudan in eight years, the under-funded United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is facing a “logistical nightmare” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as it seeks to aid up to 200,000 people uprooted by fighting in the violence-wracked south-eastern province of Katanga.