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The chief of the United Nations refugee agency called for increased international support for States such as Jordan and Syria which have made a “huge sacrifice” by hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war-torn Iraq.

As part of United Nations efforts to reform the 15-member Security Council, General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa today appointed five ambassadors, representing different regions, to move the process forward.

The top United Nations official dealing with children and armed conflict today hailed agreements reached earlier this week in France, known as the Paris Principles, aimed at ending the unlawful recruitment and use of children in warfare, but she also highlighted increasing problems for children in strife-torn Sudan.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today started providing immediate food aid to some of the worst-affected flood victims in the Indonesia capital, Jakarta, where at least 40 people have been killed and 340,000 others driven from their homes by rains which inundated thousands of houses and other buildings, including 1,500 schools.

With vaccines against the virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer, a disease that kills more than 250,000 women each year, now on the market, the United Nations health agency today stressed the tough decisions countries face before making the vaccine widely available, including cost-effectiveness, delivery and education.

Seeking to counter the potentially catastrophic impact of global warming, a United Nations body entrusted with mitigating natural disasters, such as cyclones, tsunamis and earthquakes, today called on Governments to speed up implementation of a two-year-old accord to reduce the risks facing millions of people exposed to climate-caused calamites.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today expressed confidence in the United Kingdom’s ability to respond adequately to an outbreak of bird flu at a commercial turkey farm, but warned that greater support was needed to help countries still struggling to control the virus, such as Indonesia, Egypt and Nigeria.

The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia today sentenced a Croatian journalist to three months in jail after he published the names and personal details of confidential witnesses who had testified in one of its cases.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) today began a three-day specialized training programme to help television journalists from around the region enhance their reporting on anti-poverty targets known collectively as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

A new United Nations-backed programme, bolstered by the public and private sector, was launched today to allow Arab States to achieve sustainable development in the face of both opportunities and risks posed by globalization.