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Moroccan children, especially girls, street kids and those living in rural areas, continue to drop out of school at unacceptably high rates, driven mainly by the lack of basic services such as sanitation, water and electricity, an independent United Nations human rights expert has concluded after touring the North African country.

The United Nations refugee agency announced today that it plans to resume next week the voluntary repatriation of nearly 9,000 people from the Central African Republic (CAR) back to their homes in either southern Sudan or the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Most of the estimated 12,000 people who fled across the border from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to Uganda earlier this week to escape violent clashes between Government troops and rebel forces have returned now that the fighting has subsided, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

Continuing United Nations efforts to bring stability to Timor-Leste, police officers assisted by a New Zealand Defence force unit this week arrested 17 people after coming under attack at a police post in the town of Bidau, possibly linked to gang rivalries.

Now that the Security Council has extended the transitional government in divided Côte d’Ivoire for a final year, the country’s political leadership must not delay in restarting the stalled peace process and resolving their disputes, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in his latest report on the West African nation.

Security in Lebanon has stabilized in recent months but Israeli overflights continue, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in his latest update on the United Nations Interim Force in the country (UNIFIL), where arms caches have also been discovered in the peacekeeping mission’s area of operation.

As part of ongoing United Nations efforts to make itself more efficient and responsive to national needs, Viet Nam today was selected as the first pilot country in the “One UN” reform programme, involving six UN agencies working more closely together to avoid duplication and fragmentation.

The United Nations has often failed to live up to its responsibility to promote human rights, with the ongoing killing and displacement of civilians in Darfur only the latest example of how the world has not improved its act, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today as he urged Member States, organizations and individuals to make the protection of rights a reality in every country.

Responding to the depletion of fish stocks and degradation of fragile marine habitats in many parts of the world, the United Nations General Assembly today called on States to take immediate action to reverse the situation and protect vulnerable deep sea ecosystems.

Cereal prices, particularly for wheat and maize, have surged to their highest levels in a decade, driven by poor harvests in key producing countries, fast-growing demand for bio-fuel production and supply constraints on the rice economy, according to the United Nations latest Food Outlook report released today.