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A former Bosnian Croat general who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for taking part in a massacre of Muslim villagers in the early 1990s will be set free next week after the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia today quashed nearly all of his convictions.

With the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) posing a threat to international peace and security in the region, the United Nations Security Council today extended the peacekeeping mission in the Great Lakes country until the beginning of October.

With peace talks between authorities in separatist Abkhazia and the Government of Georgia at a near standstill, the Security Council today unanimously extended the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) until the end of January 2005 to maintain stability along the ceasefire lines.

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) today announced plans to open an investigation into the situation concerning Northern Uganda, where the country's Government says rebels are committing atrocities, a United Nations spokesperson reported today.

United Nations relief agencies are teaming up with the Government of Burundi to help fight a meningitis epidemic in the country's north, where 24 cases were confirmed last week.

With more than 23 million people in Bangladesh affected by devastating floods that could yet worsen after already killing at least 275 people and damaging or destroying over 12 million houses, United Nations agencies are rushing in aid ranging from essential medicines to food to water purification tablets.

In a bid to boost forestry, food security and agricultural biodiversity in the world’s poorest countries, the Netherlands has pledged €20 million (euros) over the next four years to a new initiative undertaken by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Rome-based agency announced today.

Two people at a voter registration site in eastern Afghanistan were killed in a bomb blast today, prompting the top United Nations envoy in the country to voice his anger at the attack.

The United Nations today said the severe shortfall in funding for its humanitarian programme in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is forcing cuts in its deliveries of vital rations to millions of hungry people.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today held several meetings in Ghana in preparation for the West African summit he will open tomorrow on re-starting the deadlocked Côte d'Ivoire peace process.