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Warning that tensions in the Middle East are near their breaking point, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called for a “new and urgent push for peace” from all sides, including the international community, lest the people of the region be consigned to new depths of suffering and grief.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today paid tribute to outgoing United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, praising his tireless efforts to bring help and hope to those on the front line of tragedy, be they victims of natural disaster or casualties of man-made conflict.

Aware that communications can make the difference between life and mass death in a natural disaster, the United Nations today opened a four-day workshop for the Asia-Pacific region to streamline that key element in the overall strategy to mitigate the impact of natural catastrophes that it launched after the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Despite a recent increase in dangerous typhoons and hurricanes, no firm link can yet be drawn between human-induced climate change and variations in intensity and frequency of tropical cyclones, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has reported, citing a consensus of 125 leading researchers and forecasters.

The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today deplored any attempt to question or deny the Holocaust as a conference continued in Iran on the scale and nature of the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews – already dismissed as a myth by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The United Nations today signed an agreement with the Guatemalan Government to set up an independent commission to investigate illegal armed groups that have been operating in the Central American country with impunity and to help justice officials carry out criminal prosecutions against them.

The voluntary return of refugees to southern Sudan following the end of its civil war last year resumes in earnest this week with United Nations-assisted convoys from Ethiopia and the Central African Republic (CAR).

United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) today launched a joint appeal for $50 million to provide emergency food, shelter and health care to 1 million people in the Central African Republic (CAR), where rising insecurity and financial problems are taking an increasingly serious toll.

The United Nations, the African Union (AU) and the Sudanese Government will meet tomorrow to discuss how they can implement the $21 million light support package from the UN to the existing AU peacekeeping mission in the war-torn region of Darfur.

The top United Nations official in strife-torn Sri Lanka has called on both sides in the conflict to urgently protect civilians in Vaharai in the east of the island, after five days of deadly shelling that has killed an unknown number, left dozens wounded and forced thousands to flee their homes.