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The United Nations advocate for some of the world's most disadvantaged countries has expressed concern over the risk to island economies from the European Union's (EU) proposals to cut the guaranteed import price for white sugar by 39 per cent over the next few years.

With violence in Afghanistan on the rise, the senior United Nations envoy to the country is calling for cooperation between the authorities, international forces and Pakistan's Government to stem the bloodshed and provide hope for lasting stability.

As the United Nations marked the sixtieth anniversary of its founding today, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said change at the world body has never been so urgent or achievable.

Responding to Kyrgyzstan's forced return of Uzbek asylum-seekers, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today asked the country's president to stop the practice and pledged the world body's support in addressing their plight.

Reinforcing repeated warnings against the forcible return of asylum-seekers to Uzbekistan, where they could face imminent risk of torture, a senior United Nations refugee official is set to fly to neighbouring Kyrgyzstan tomorrow to seek a solution for some 450 Uzbeks there whose fate remains very uncertain.

In its latest update on the locust threat in Africa, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today called for intensified survey operations in Sudan and neighbouring Eritrea after several swarms moved across the area in mid-June.

The United Nations refugee agency has called on the Panamanian government to grant refugee status to 831 Colombians who have been living in the country under a precarious temporary status for more than six years.

Despite some “pockets” of stability, displaced persons and returnees in the strife-racked Sudanese region of Darfur still face unpredictability, threats of violence, and under-funded protection services, according a field report of the United Nations refugee agency charged with protection of vulnerable persons.

Torture is reported with growing frequency from all regions of the world and the lives of individuals and their sense of security continue to be scarred by it on a daily basis, United Nations human rights officials said today in a message ahead of the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture being marked on Sunday.

Returning ex-combatants to civilian life is critical for the success of African peace processes, according to participants at a conference on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programmes in Freetown, Sierra Leone, organized by the Government of that country and the United Nations.