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Six months after the launch of their appeals for 2005, the United Nations and its partners still require more than half the $5 billion sought to tackle the urgent needs of 30 million people in 29 countries ravaged by war and natural disasters, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced today.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a unique global public-private partnership created three years ago on the initiative of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, today reported a rapid expansion in treatment and other services over the past six months.

Seeking to preserve the world’s underwater heritage, from wonders such as the ancient Alexandria lighthouse to historic shipwrecks to sunken cities and Stone Age lake settlements, the United Nations cultural organization today called on more countries to ratify an international protective treaty to enable it to enter into force.

The United Nations is enlisting the tools of animation from two-dimensional cartoons to computer-aided wizardry to celebrate its 60th anniversary in the Asia-Pacific region.

As the United Nations' main forum for development issues opened its policy session today, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that economic growth alone is not enough to improve the living conditions of the world's poor, even if the current robust economic growth rates in developing regions, including sub-Saharan Africa, continue.

To rebuild trust with the people of Somalia and the international community, Somali leaders must begin a serious dialogue to heal their divisions and end the controversy over the relocation of the fledgling government and its institutions from Kenya to Somalia, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new report.

United Nations General Assembly President Jean Ping has called on the international community to honour and even exceed current commitments on debt reduction, trade and aid so as to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of eliminating or reducing many socio-economic ills by 2015.

The United Nations force monitoring the ceasefire in the area between Israel and Lebanon is trying to re-establish the truce after an exchange of fire between Hezbollah militia and Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) broke out today in the Shab'a Farms area, a UN spokesman said.

The number of people receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS in developing countries has more than doubled to about 1 million in the past 18 months but still falls short of growing needs, and the United Nations health agency is unlikely to reach its goal of treating 3 million people by the end of 2005, a new report said today.

Ranging from coastal mangrove forests to desert mountains chains, and stretching from Chile to Mongolia, 22 ecosystems have been added to a United Nations programme that promotes sustainable development on a scientific basis with the active involvement of local communities.