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The right to food should be respected in economic adjustment and trade liberalization policies prescribed by international organizations, which have an obligation to ensure that poor communities are not left in even greater poverty and hunger, a United Nations human rights expert says in a report released today.

The panel investigating the February assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri operated with full autonomy, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today, one day after he had transmitted its report to the Security Council.

Airplanes crashed, terrorist threats proliferated and dirty bombs were primed as 38 of the world's senior security officials wrestled with doomsday scenarios in a mock emergency exercise mounted by the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency.

Morocco has promised access for a senior United Nations refugee team that has been waiting since last week for government permission to visit sub-Saharan African migrants reportedly being held in various parts of the country, the agency said today.

Although democratic progress in Kosovo has been uneven, talks should begin now on the future status of the UN-administered province of Serbia and Montenegro, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Security Council in a letter released today.

Expressing its serious concern over the deteriorating situation in Côte d'Ivoire and condemning serious recent attacks on United Nations peacekeeping personnel, the Security Council today called on all the parties in the divided West African country to implement immediately all the peace accords they have signed.

With peace talks between the Georgia Government and Abkhaz separatists restarted, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has voiced hope that both sides will be able to agree to a non-resumption of hostilities and the safe return of internally displaced persons and refugees.

A United Nations spokesman today announced the suspension of Eurest Support Services (ESS) as a registered UN vendor which provides food to more than a third of UN peacekeepers worldwide pending the completion of an internal investigation into allegations that the company improperly obtained inside information on a contract for the world body's mission in Liberia.

Pledging further action to root out sexual abuse by peacekeepers, a senior United Nations official has urged countries contributing troops to the world body's operations to do their part to end the scourge.

The United Nations is facing its worst logistical nightmare ever as it scrambles to save the lives of tens of thousands of earthquake survivors in inaccessible areas of Pakistan in an unprecedented race against time that dwarfs efforts after last year’s Indian Ocean tsunami, the UN emergency relief coordinator said today.