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With the world’s progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing many socio-economic ills by 2015 appearing to be too slow, the United Nations agricultural agency today proposed giving lagging countries more focused assistance.

After a recent three-day monitoring trip to Viet Nam’s central highlands to check on the well-being of Montagnards who had voluntarily returned from Cambodia, the United Nations refugee agency reported that the returnees seem pleased to be “back in the swing” of normal life.

Seeking to reap the benefits of sports for peacebuilding, socio-economic development and health, a consortium of athletes, United Nations officials, government leaders and sports federations met today at UN Headquarters in New York to adopt a policy declaration aimed at national governments around the world.

The court established by the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone to try cases of serious crimes committed during the West African country's bloody civil war was doing historic work but faced an imminent funding shortfall, the tribunal's President told the UN Security Council today.

Rising divorce rates, increased budget deficits and people living longer overall should spur countries with pension programmes to reform them by diversifying their investments and taking into account real budgetary costs, the World Bank says in a new report.

While supporting the Sudanese Government's intent to move some displacement camps, the United Nations mission in the country has again called for an end to the forcible relocation of refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Arriving in Geneva to chair a meeting on disaster mitigation, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator today announced the launch of a "first of its kind" website to track funds pledged to the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, while urging that more attention be given to the world's neglected humanitarian emergencies.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today recommended to the General Assembly that former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Manuel de Oliveira Guterres become the next UN High Commissioner for Refugees, with a three-year mandate beginning 15 June.

The United Nations refugee agency today raised concerns about the safety of more than 500 Uzbeks who fled the recent military crackdown in their country to take shelter in a rough camp in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan.

The head of the United Nations commission established to investigate the fatal bombing attack on former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said today that his team would do its very best to identify "who planned, facilitated and carried out this terrible crime against totally innocent people."