Latest News

International wheat prices have hit record highs during the past three months, pushing the domestic price of bread and other basic foods in poor countries beyond the reach of many locals, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today.

Responding to Syria’s strict adherence to new visa restrictions for Iraqis wishing to enter the country, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today urged the creation of a “humanitarian” visa for Iraqis fleeing violence in their homeland.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced disappointment at the decision of Nepal’s interim Government to postpone Constituent Assembly elections scheduled for next month, stressing that the people of the Himalayan country deserve their opportunity to express their political aspirations.

The senior United Nations envoy to Somalia today hailed a decision by the country’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to endorse the recommendations of the recently concluded National Reconciliation Congress on political inclusion.

Myanmar needs to take major steps towards democratizing, protecting human rights and accelerating its national reconciliation process, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling authorities’ recent use of force against peaceful demonstrators in the Asian country “abhorrent and unacceptable.”

The number of asylum-seekers and migrants arriving by boat in Greece has spiked dramatically this year, leading to overcrowding and serious hygiene concerns in the country’s detention centres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today.

The military head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) met this week with Government and former rebel army leaders to discuss aspects of the implementation of the Ouagadougou political accord between rival political groups in the divided West African nation.

The head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today started a 10-day trip to Africa to jump-start renewed efforts to assist countries that are not on track to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight targets to slash poverty and other ills by 2015.

The United Nations has announced plans to collaborate in organizing a series of concerts next week in New York at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust as part of the Daniel Pearl World Music Days named for the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in early 2002.

Cholera is continuing to spread across Iraq and dissemination to as yet unaffected areas remains highly possible, with more than 30,000 people having already fallen ill with acute watery diarrhoea, according to the latest update by the United Nations health agency.