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United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today left for India for an official visit after wrapping up his programme in Indonesia, where he attended a summit of Asian and African leaders and also took part in the fiftieth anniversary commemoration of the 1955 Asian-African Conference in Bandung.

The key United Nations forum considering ways to integrate the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic growth, social development and environmental protection – wrapped up its 2005 session with agreement on set of practical policy options intended to boost global efforts to provide clean water, basic sanitation and decent housing.

While the senior United Nations envoy for Iraq continues his almost daily consultations with the top echelons of the political elite, seeking to ensure full participation in writing a new constitution, a second UN body is focusing on the lower reaches of society, aiming to improve living conditions for its poorest members.

The war against malaria in Africa can only be won if governments, communities and development partners work together against the parasitic disease that kills more than 800,000 Africans per year, the regional director for Africa of the United Nations health agency said today.

The Asia-Pacific region will continue to produce the fastest growing economy in the world this year, but it has experienced such shocks as last December's Indian Ocean tsunami and high oil prices, while a flat United States dollar and a rapidly ageing population present challenges, the regional United Nations economic and social body said today.

Greatly concerned by the rapid expansion of transnational organized crime, delegates at a United Nations forum on criminal justice have pledged closer international cooperation to tackle global economic and financial graft, as well as increasingly sophisticated criminal networks and terrorists.

Some 13,000 houses destroyed in a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) on the outskirts of Khartoum, Sudan's capital; an eight-year-old girl raped night after night in a camp in the Darfur region; and a huge shortfall in funds – such were the images the United Nations refugee chief brought back today from a five-day visit to the war-ravaged region.

Reaffirming that terrorism is one of the most serious threats to global peace and security, members of the United Nations Security Council today emphasized that "any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivations, whenever and by whomsoever committed."

The United Nations must undertake the most sweeping overhaul in its 60-year history to strengthen collective security, lay down a truly global strategy for development, promote human rights and democracy, and ensure that all of these commitments are translated into action, Secretary-General Kofi Annan argues in the current issue of Foreign Affairs.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged the international community to "again do its part," calling on donors meeting in Timor-Leste to help the tiny Asian nation continue its post-independence march towards sustainable development.