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The Security Council today demanded that all parties to armed conflict take immediate action to protect civilians, including women and children, from all forms of sexual violence, and urged greater measures by States and the United Nations to combat this scourge.

Devastating back-to-back earthquakes have rocked the Indonesian island of Sumatra today, killing at least 75 people and leaving thousands trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings, the United Nations humanitarian wing has reported.

The two months remaining until the much-anticipated presidential polls in Côte d’Ivoire are fraught with major obstacles, including disarmament of militias and reintegration of former rebels, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned in a new report made public today.

Progress critical to stabilization in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been uneven, with some rebels being reintegrated into the national army while others continued to attack civilians, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes in a new report.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has highlighted the need to strengthen the involvement of women in peace processes worldwide, noting that nine years after the adoption of a landmark United Nations resolution on the issue, obstacles to their full participation remain.

The United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, former United States president Bill Clinton, will embark on a two-day visit to Haiti tomorrow in a bid to boost private sector investment in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Members of the independent United Nations commission charged with examining the facts and circumstances behind the December 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto have completed their second visit to Pakistan.

Poor drainage systems and garbage disposal problems aggravated the impact of a typhoon that struck the Philippines at the weekend and killed hundreds of people, the United Nations disaster prevention agency says as it stressed the need for governments to make greater investments before other catastrophes strike.

The international community must seize the momentum created by last week’s Security Council summit on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament chaired by United States President Barack Obama, a senior United Nations official said today.

The tango, spawned over a century ago in the lower class barrios of Buenos Aires and Montevideo before bursting on to dance floors worldwide, today danced itself on to the United Nations-endorsed list of the planet’s intangible cultural heritage.