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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for the reinstatement of Fiji’s “legitimate authority,” following the announcement that the leader of last December’s coup d’état has become Prime Minister of the country.

The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and the country’s national police have arrested a gang member wanted in connection with the killing last November of two blue helmets serving with the peacekeeping operation.

Tanzanian Foreign Minister Asha-Rose Migiro today became the third person – and second woman – in history appointed United Nations Deputy Secretary-General when she accepted the post offered to her by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Darfur heads to Sudan and neighbouring Ethiopia tonight for almost a week of talks and meetings with officials from the Sudanese Government, the African Union (AU) and other groups to discuss how to find a lasting solution to the conflict that has left at least 200,000 people dead and displaced more than 2 million others.

Continuing United Nations efforts to make the world body more transparent, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who took the rein on 1 January, has already submitted his financial disclosure form to the Ethics Office, his spokesperson said today, adding that he encourages all senior officials to be similarly open.

The United Nations, which fields nearly 200,000 people from well over 100 countries rotating through its peacekeeping missions every year, is determined to reinforce its policy of zero tolerance and remains constantly vigilant to fight the scourge, a senior official said today.

The chief United Nations spokesperson today voiced the hope that Israel and the Palestinians would exercise restraint in the light of some recent positive developments and avoid violence such as yesterday’s Israeli military incursion into the main Palestinian West Bank town of Ramallah.

Meeting today for the first time since last week’s heavy fighting in Somalia, which may have given the Transitional Government of the long-troubled country the chance to establish its full authority, the International Contact Group for Somalia – which includes the United Nations – called the current moment “a historic opportunity.”

Margaret Chan, a Chinese doctor who played a key role in United Nations efforts to prevent bird flu from mutating into a deadly human pandemic, took office today as head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), vowing to improve the health of Africans and women worldwide – and pledging reform but not upheaval.

Citing “glaring flaws” in the trial of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who was hanged on Saturday, and his co-defendants, an independent United Nations human rights expert has called on the Iraqi Government to halt the other executions and overhaul its judicial system to comply with international law.