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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Envoy for Darfur has wrapped up his mission to Sudan with a visit to the war-torn region, where he urged the parties to stop the violence in order to pave the way for a political settlement.

The top United Nations human rights official has voiced regret over today’s execution in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, of the two co-defendants of former president Saddam Hussein.

A United Nations assessment mission will head to the Central African Republic (CAR) within the next fortnight to consider whether blue helmets should be sent to stabilize the troubled country and its neighbour Chad in the wake of recent clashes between rebels and Government forces in both countries.

States who have signed on to the United Nations international bill of rights for women must continue to press for an end to gender-based violence, a senior UN official today told experts gathering in New York to evaluate compliance with the treaty.

Running the equivalent of two marathons a day in some of the harshest conditions on Earth, three young athletes have pounded approximately two thirds of their way across the Sahara Desert in a United Nations-backed bid to raise awareness of the burgeoning global water crisis.

The senior United Nations envoy to Afghanistan has welcomed a Presidential decree confirming the appointment of 40 new police officials to the country's national force as a step towards stability.

The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) today announced plans to deploy a second group of 10 military staff officers to Darfur to support the African Union Mission (AMIS) in the troubled region.

United Nations agencies today speeded up crucial relief operations for tens of thousands of Somalis displaced by the recent fighting between the Ethiopian-backed transitional government and Islamic groups, with a one month supply of food being distributed to 6,000 people stranded near the border with Kenya.

Mortality rates in China’s least developed rural areas, where just under half the country’s 1.3 billion people live, are four to six times higher than urban areas, accounting for three quarters of total mortality, and the Government should give priority to ensuring universal maternal and child health care, according to a United Nations-backed report launched in Beijing.

A proliferation of standards and codes relating to the growing and supply of foods has generated increasing challenges for developing countries to penetrate markets in richer States but good agricultural practices can also help the developing world cope with globalization, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which wants to help create a “win-win” solution for all parties.