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A United Nations campaign to raise awareness about hunger, malnutrition, and food insecurity throughout the school systems of South America and the Caribbean has received the support of first ladies from the region, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.

While the French Government generally respects the right to freedom of religion or belief, there are still some areas of concern about such issues as the ban on conspicuous religious symbols in public schools, a United Nations expert has found after a visit to the country.

Governments fighting the scourge of terrorism should not expel any person to countries where they risk torture and other forms of ill-treatment, a United Nations human rights expert has warned.

The General Conference of the United Nations atomic watchdog wound up its meetings today, adopting resolutions on various nuclear issues, including the implementation of safeguards in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the application of safeguards in the Middle East.

The Security Council, faced with the mandate of its peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) expiring today, extended it for one month, until the end of October.

The negotiations for the implementation phase of the United Nations information society summit have made good progress on bridging the digital divide, with the unresolved problems now confined to Internet governance and funding technological development, the head of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said today.

In a bid to capitalize on the momentum of the recently concluded World Summit that brought together the largest-ever number of leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, the President of the UN's main legislative body outlined today "an ambitious agenda" to move the Organization forward in a number of crucial areas, including peacebuilding, development, human rights and management reform.

The United Nations human rights commissioner has proposed to Uzbekistan's Government that she send an observer to the ongoing trials of people accused of plotting rebellion in the country earlier this year, to determine if they are being held in compliance with international fair trial guarantees, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today.

The United Nations-affiliated Special Court for Sierra Leone received nearly $10 million from Member States today for the next year, but the amount fell far short of the estimated $25 million needed to continue bringing to justice those accused of having committed serious crimes during the West African country's 1990s civil war.

In recognition of their efforts to use sports to promote peace and overcome regional tensions, the national cricket teams of India and Pakistan were appointed as spokespersons for the International Year of Sport and Physical Education (IYSPE) 2005, the United Nations Special Adviser on Sports said.