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The United Nations Security Council today unanimously approved a binding resolution criminalizing the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction by such private parties as terrorists and black marketers.

An investigation by the United Nations mission in Kosovo into the alleged criminal drowning of three children, which sparked last month's large-scale inter-ethnic violence, has stalled because of a lack of evidence, a spokesperson for the UN police said today.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today appealed to all the parties in Iraq to refrain from violence, urging the United States to do all it can to seek a peaceful end to the confrontation in Fallujah and warning that violent military action would only make matters worse.

While reiterating his determination to "get to the bottom" of allegations surrounding the United Nations Oil-for-Food programme in Iraq, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today stressed that some of the issues have been blown out of proportion and the UN has been unfairly blamed for things that had been beyond its control.

United Nations Special Adviser Lakhdar Brahimi told the Security Council today he intends to quickly resume talks with Iraqis to reach agreement by the end of May on the composition of a caretaker government to succeed the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), formally bringing an end to the occupation on 30 June.

With the United Nations Millennium Declaration putting pressure on governments to halve the number of people lacking access to safe water and decent sanitation by 2015, a new report, sponsored by the UN health agency and launched today, estimates that the additional global investment needed will be $11.3 billion per year.

The world's youth are better off today than earlier generations, although many are still severely hindered by a lack of education, poverty, health problems, unemployment and the impact of conflict, the United Nations says in a new report released today, the first to examine the global situation of young people.

The Security Council today gave its backing to ideas outlined by United Nations Special Adviser Lakhdar Brahimi for the formation of an interim Iraqi Government take over from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) at the end of June.

This summer's ministerial meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) will be an excellent opportunity for countries to review efforts to resume global trade negotiations since the stalemate last September in Cancún, Mexico, UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero said today.

Fresh from delivering the first humanitarian aid to hospital victims of last week’s railway disaster in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today called for urgent extra donations to feed thousands of others left injured or homeless.