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The United Nations agency entrusted with curbing the spread of nuclear weapons met today to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme, a day after the major oil producer re-started activities at a uranium conversion plant, with its chief hoping the present problem is “simply a hiccup in the process and not a permanent rupture.”

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today pledged support to the representatives of 31 landlocked developing countries in their efforts to overcome marginalization from the international trading system, which, Mr. Annan said, has hampered their development efforts.

While acknowledging that the legacy of colonialism and apartheid cannot be reversed in a few years, the United Nations expert on human rights for indigenous peoples has called for better coordination of the South African Government departments handling indigenous affairs.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today praised the "spirit of mutual respect" achieved at the fourth round of the six-party talks for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which took place in Beijing.

With the 15 August deadline to complete Iraq's draft constitution fast-approaching, the senior United Nations envoy in Baghdad and the Security Council in New York today held discussions on ways the world body can support the country's ongoing political transition, including planned elections.

Iraq's seed industry has collapsed and the country is currently not able to meet farmers' needs for improved crop varieties, seriously threatening its food security, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today as it launched a $5.4 million appeal to rebuild the national seed industry.

The funding shortfall for parliamentary and provincial elections in Afghanistan has shrunk by $12 million over the past week and there is now no threat to the polls with just six weeks to go, the United Nations mission in the strife-torn country reported today.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today announced an agreement with local leaders and Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) for the release of an agency-chartered ship, its 10-member crew and its cargo after it was hijacked off the coast six weeks ago while bringing aid to tsunami victims.

Condemning the recent murder of a United States reporter in Iraq, the head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today urged that greater priority be given to improving the safety of journalists in the war-torn country.

A sharp increase in malaria cases and deaths across Ethiopia is raising fears of a major epidemic in the June to October malaria transmission season, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported today.