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Calling the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) a continuing threat to international peace and security, the United Nations Security Council today extended an arms and military financing embargo to "any recipient" in the country and it froze the assets of sanctions violators as the UN peacekeeping mission carried out cordon and search operations.

In a “good news-bad news” review on the gender gap in education, a new United Nations report today shows more youngsters than ever going to school, but with millions of girls still excluded, a “quantum leap” – and an extra $5.6 billion a year in international aid – are needed to reach the goal of universal primary schooling by 2015.

The United Nations is redoubling its call to Indian Ocean countries and donor nations to “really commit themselves” to setting up within the next 14 months a tsunami early warning system which, had it already existed, might have saved tens of thousands of the more than 200,000 lives lost to December’s disaster.

Economic growth in sub-Saharan African (SSA) jumped last year to an eight-year high of 5 per cent and average inflation fell to a 25-year low, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports, but it cautioned that increased growth rates have to be sustained if the greater part of the continent is to meet the United Nations goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015.

Clashes between the Government and rebels in Sudan's western Darfur region, attacks against international aid workers, rape and the persecution of its victims, abuse of children, and torture by security forces, underscored a continuing dire situation, according to the latest United Nations report on the region, which was released today.

Reacting to the latest developments in Ecuador, which has been rocked by protests and unrest, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called for the Government and the opposition to resolve their differences through dialogue.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged international finance officials in Washington to throw their weight behind proposals he is putting forward to tackle poverty, one of the main pilllars of a reform deal he has presented for adoption by world leaders meeting this September at a United Nations summit.

Faced with reluctance by Angolan families to isolate victims of deadly Marburg fever in hospitals, the United Nations health agency may introduce a temporary emergency “harm reduction strategy,” providing protective supplies to homes to stop the worst outbreak on record of the haemorrhagic disease from turning into a full-blown epidemic.

Eight more human cases of bird flu have been reported in Viet Nam, according to the United Nations health agency, bringing the total since mid-December to 41, 16 of them fatal, in the latest outbreak of a disease that in a worst-case scenario could kill tens of millions people worldwide.

United Nations efforts to preserve the world’s cultural and natural heritage, from endangered mountain gorillas to the ruined cities of ancient civilizations, has received a fresh boost from Chinese space technology.