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The Security Council today authorized the establishment of an African protection and training mission in Somalia to help defend the troubled country’s Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs).

Welcoming the recent ceasefire in Gaza, members of the United Nations Security Council today called for an end to all aspects of violence and terrorism throughout the region, the President of the 15-member body said.

The United Nations General Assembly today adopted a resolution effectively kicking off a diplomatic process aimed at promulgating a new international treaty on the global trade in conventional arms – a move immediately hailed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan – as it acted on a series of resolutions adopted at the recommendation of its Disarmament and International Security (First) Committee.

With violence, fighting and rebel attacks spreading terror and uprooting scores of thousands of people in the north-western Central African Republic (CAR), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today called for urgent international funding and a presence on the ground to support its emergency feeding operations.

The fragile life-line for 110,000 Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad is stretching even thinner as the security situation deteriorates, with fighting between Government troops and rebels forcing humanitarian agencies to reduce staff to the bare minimum, United Nations agencies warned today.

The United Nations today honoured the tens of thousands of volunteers from both developing and industrialized countries who over the past 35 years have supported the Organization’s peace, relief and development initiatives around the planet, as well as the millions of others who daily offer their humanitarian services.

Identity and document fraud, staged security incidents, fake medical reports and bribery are among the main subjects on the curriculum for United Nations staff working in resettlement programmes for African refugees as part of an intensified battle against scams.

United Nations agencies are rushing relief supplies for victims of floods and mudslides in the Philippines, where at least 526 people have been killed, more than 1000 wounded and 740 reported missing in the wake of Typhoon Durian, which totally destroyed 80,000 homes, damaged more than 150,000 others and affected 1.5 million overall.

The United Nations crime-fighting agency and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have launched a series of guidelines to help countries make their criminal justice systems more effective and honest as a vital element for the maintenance of stable and democratic societies.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today opened a major logistics hub in Ghana as it expands its network of depots to ensure that it can respond rapidly to simultaneous humanitarian emergencies around the world.