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The team of United Nations inspectors probing the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria spent its first day in the suburbs of Damascus at the site of the alleged incident, interviewing witnesses, survivors and doctors, and collecting samples, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Lieutenant General Maqsood Ahmed as the military adviser for the Organization’s peacekeeping operations.

The top United Nations envoy in Somalia today stressed that collective and coordinated efforts from the Government as well as regional and international organizations are needed to achieve progress in the east African country.

The UN agency tasked with assisting Palestinian refugees today called for restraint from all parties after receiving confirmation that one of its staff members was shot and killed by Israeli forces this morning.

The United Nations labour agency today launched a new tool to help countries eliminate children’s involvement in slavery, child prostitution, drug trafficking and other types of the worst forms of child labour by 2016.

Strengthening ecosystems is key to helping local farmers in Africa adapt to climate change and ensuring that they produce enough food to meet people’s nutritional needs, participants decided at the end of an international United Nations-organized conference in Kenya.

Following talks with United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane, the Syrian Government has affirmed it will grant access to UN inspectors, beginning tomorrow, to sites in the suburbs of Damascus where chemical weapons were allegedly used last week.

“Deeply concerned” by renewed armed clashes in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as attacks on civilians and United Nations peacekeepers based there, the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes called today for an immediate end to the fighting and strongly urged all regional authorities to observe maximum restraint.

The head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) today deplored the death of two civilians killed in demonstrations in Goma, the main city in the vast country's strife-torn eastern region, and has called for an inquiry into the incident.

United Nations humanitarian agencies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) strongly condemned the attacks that killed and wounded a number of civilians today as fighting flared between Government and rebel forces near the eastern city of Goma, and urged the parties to “take all precautions” to avoid such acts, and to allow access to relief workers.