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Painting his grimmest picture yet of the humanitarian and security situation in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has reiterated the urgent need for a ceasefire, calling for “dialogue and negotiation” from all sides, while the United Nations mission in the country today reported more abductions, hijackings and tribal fighting throughout the region.

The United Nations will move some $9 billion from its Pension Fund to “passive management,” a senior budget official said today, adding that more than a dozen bids for external management have been received and are under review.

Unregulated sales – in places such as street markets and the Internet – of both internationally controlled and counterfeit drugs endanger the lives of people worldwide, according to a United Nations-backed annual report of an independent drug control body released today.

Top United Nations officials today voiced outrage at yesterday’s attack in Baghdad on the Ministry of Public Works and Municipalities while Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi was visiting the building.

Because of a critical shortage of funds, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today it would be forced to cut the vital food aid rations it currently provides to around 500,000 of the most vulnerable people in Zambia over the coming weeks.

Authorities in northern Somalia today arrested four men alleged to be part of a group that hijacked a United Nations-contracted food aid ship, but the vessel itself and its 12-member crew still remained in the hands of the pirates six miles off the coast.

The agreement to form a new Palestinian Unity Government challenges the international community to “match the courage and compromises” shown by the rival parties with “bold steps of its own,” a senior United Nations official said today.

Up to 1 billion people, nearly one in six of the world’s population, suffer from neurological disorders, from Alzheimer and Parkinson disease, strokes, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy to migraine, brain injuries and neuroinfections, with some 6.8 million dying of the maladies each year, according to a new United Nations report issued today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today condemned an attack by separatist rebels in Sri Lanka which injured senior aid officials, including one from the United Nations, and urged both sides in the conflict to halt the bloodshed and resume talks.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today hailed a recent agreement reached between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Government of Myanmar on the establishment of a complaint mechanism for victims of forced labour.