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The United Nations is much better positioned today to help settle disputes and conflicts peacefully, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says, while adding that there is still more that can be done to strengthen the world body’s mediation capacity.

As the United Nations Conference on Disarmament ended its 2012 session in Geneva today – without breaking an impasse over its agenda, including the consideration of a fissile materials treaty – the top UN official on the issue urged Member States to continue to seek progress, keeping in mind that their national security was not solely dependent on military might.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have called on the private sector to invest massively in agriculture, stressing that this is vital to winning the fight against hunger.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Jafar Javan of the United States as Director of the United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC).

The Security Council today strongly condemned the terrorist attack that occurred in the capital, Sana’a, on 11 September that caused numerous deaths and injuries, including among the security detail of Yemen’s defence minister.

The President of the United Nations General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, today condemned in the strongest possible terms yesterday’s attack on the hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia where the country’s new President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, was giving a press conference and which resulted in one death and several injuries.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the General Assembly’s adoption of a resolution on human security, describing it as “both timely and significant,” and marking “an important milestone in a common understanding of human security at the United Nations.”

The Government of Egypt must quickly investigate allegations of torture in its courts and discontinue the trials of those whose testimonies were obtained under duress, an independent United Nations expert urged today.

Hundreds of advocates and experts on disability, as well as Government delegates, have gathered at UN Headquarters for the start of the Fifth Session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which will have a special focus on women and children.

Welcoming the election of Somalia’s new president, an independent United Nations human rights expert today called on the incoming Government and the international community to seize the chance to build a better future for the war-torn Horn of Africa nation.