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The United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) activities on behalf of women’s reproductive health has drawn it into providing and expanding anti-HIV training for Latin American and Caribbean law enforcement, preventing or treating maternal birth injuries in Chad and Indonesia and rescuing a nine-year-old girl from her 40-year-old “husband” in Kenya.

The problems of a world where the poor are increasingly poor, human rights are ignored, HIV/AIDS and malaria claim millions of lives, and inequality proliferates, will only be solved through a cooperation of civil society, governments, and local leaders, the United Nations General Assembly President said today.

After warning at the beginning of last month that a funding shortfall could hamper essential preparatory work for Afghanistan’s parliamentary and provincial elections on 18 September, the United Nations mission reported today that nearly all the requested $149 million was now in hand or committed.

With an estimated 800 million adults still illiterate, two thirds of them women, and over 100 million children out of school, the United Nations today marked International Literacy Day with a plea from UN Headquarters to erase the deficit, and warnings from front line outposts of the challenges in the field.

The top United Nations envoy in Iraq today voiced serious concern over the human rights situation in the war-torn country, including allegations of extra-judicial executions, consistent reports of excessive use of force and mass detentions of people without warrants, and the displacement of populations in security operations.

The importance of so-called ‘public goods,’ such as market efficiency, knowledge for innovation and respect for the environment, in reaching sustainable economic development in developing countries, figures high on the agenda of a two-day conference ending today under United Nations co-sponsorship.

The halving of fertility rates in developing countries, and a dip in the birth rate of even the least developed ones, provides a “window of opportunity” to reaching international development goals, according to a United Nations report released today in anticipation of the coming World Summit in New York.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has a sent a letter to all United Nations staff calling for renewed dedication to the ideals embodied by the world organization after the Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC) into the Iraq Oil-for-Food Programme found both misadministration and evidence of corruption.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today stressed that cities and local authorities have a critical role to play in global progress in education, hunger, health, water, sanitation, gender equality and other areas of the development agenda to be discussed at next week's World Summit.

The United Nations is stepping up its aid to the United States in the recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina, with three UN teams already working with the Government on the ground while its specialized food, health and children's agencies are preparing to send in help through non-governmental organizations (NGOs).