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United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in Pakistan for an international donors' conference that is seeking $5.2 billion for relief and reconstruction after last month's devastating earthquake, today toured the hardest-hit area, declaring that the task at hand is gigantic.

The threat from migratory animals as carriers of disease such as bird flu, and the threat to them from climate change figure high on the agenda of a United Nations environmental conference now underway in Nairobi, Kenya.

On the final day of the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, Tunisia today, participating States agreed on a range of measures to broaden access to information networks and technology to poor communities.

At a United Nations meeting in Dakar, Senegal, on food problems of the Sahel – the often parched region to the south of the Sahara – humanitarian and development officials have reached agreement on the need to couple emergency relief with development activities toward a lasting solution to area’s recurrent hunger crises.

he Governing Body of the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) wrapped its latest session today, voicing "grave concern about the degradation of the situation" in Myanmar, including death threats against agency officials and the sentencing of people seeking redress for victims of forced labour.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Pakistan today for an international donors’ conference on reconstruction after last month’s devastating earthquake, declaring “we need much, much more to help the people in need” as UN staff on the ground stressed the desperate shortfall in required funding.

A United Nations human rights expert today has called on the Iraqi Government to launch an independent investigation into the recent assassination of two lawyers involved in the trial of Saddam Hussein, saying he was concerned at allegations that the Interior Ministry might have been involved.

Building up its presence in Southern Sudan in advance of what is potentially a huge repatriation operation involving hundreds of thousands of returnees to an area devastated by 21 years of civil war, the United Nations refugee agency has sent three emergency teams to open new offices in the eastern part of the region.

A veteran Jamaican trade expert, Patricia Francis, has been named new Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (ITC), a United Nations technical cooperation agency whose mission is to help to promote exports of developing countries and countries in transition.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) celebrated its 60th anniversary last night in Paris in the company of former directors, political leaders and luminaries such as anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, all stressing the vast range and importance of the agency’s work.