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A child survival initiative backed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has provided millions of youngsters and almost 1 million pregnant women in Ethiopia – where two out of every five people have no access to vital health care services – with life-saving treatments, thanks to a boost in funding.

On the second anniversary of the massive car bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others in Beirut, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed today that the United Nations remains committed to helping Lebanon “uncover the truth and bring to justice the perpetrators of this despicable act.”

The world’s top female tennis player, Maria Sharapova of Russia, today became a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with a special focus on helping with the recovery efforts after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

In the wake of an appeal by the President of Bolivia for international assistance, United Nations agencies are stepping up aid to people in the country devastated by flooding, hail and freeze which have affected 200,000 and killed more than 20.

The historic pact of Latin America and the Caribbean States to maintain a nuclear-weapon-free zone, the first-ever of its kind, has withstood the test of time and should spur greater efforts to rid the world of these arms, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in honouring the 40th anniversary of the landmark agreement.

At least 30 migrants drowned yesterday when the boat smuggling them from Somalia capsized off the Yemeni coast, and the death toll may be as high as nearly 80, with the illicit shipping of people across the Gulf of Aden soaring in recent weeks, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

The entire Latin America region needs to take preventive measures to prepare for what promises to be a “difficult year” for dengue fever following an outbreak of the mosquito-borne infection in Paraguay, United Nations health officials have warned.

Some 5 million people in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) are benefiting from a five-year $20-million United Nations health project funded by the Republic of Korea to improve the health of women and children.

Some of Haiti’s poorest people can now go about their daily business free from the fear of being terrorized by armed gangs following a large-scale United Nations security operation in the Boston area of the Cité Soleil quarter of Port-au-Prince, the capital, according to the top UN commander in the country.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on the Government and the labour leaders in Guinea to step back from the worsening political and security situation in the country, which has been shaken by a month of strikes and deadly clashes and the looting of UN food supplies urgently needed for children.