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Ahead of tomorrow’s elections, the United Nations envoy for Iraq has called on the country’s political leaders to reach an agreement on a Speaker for the Council of Representatives as soon as possible.

With the 2015 deadline for achieving the landmark Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) less that 550 days away, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today launched the final push towards the United Nations targets – many of which have been met or are within reach – and urged a strong, ambitious successor blueprint “that will leave no one behind.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today voiced deep concern after Australia handed over some 41 asylum-seekers to Sri Lanka after intercepting them at sea, and highlighted its unease with shipboard processing of protection claims.

Unable for more than a month now to deliver food and other supplies to Palestinians trapped in a refugee camp near Damascus, the United Nations agency tasked with ensuring their well-being said today it is urgently seeking to resume its humanitarian activities, warning that the civilians would likely go hungry.

Condemning this morning's attempted attack on Somalia's Parliament, the United Nations envoy to the country has called on all Somalis to unite with the authorities to thwart future attacks and “bring to justice those behind this murderous campaign” of terror that has intensified since the start of Ramadan.

West African countries and international health authorities at a United Nations-backed emergency summit have adopted a strategy covering a range or priorities, including strengthening cross-border collaboration, to combat the world's deadliest Ebola outbreak, which has killed hundreds of people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Amid fresh deadly clashes in eastern Ukraine, destruction of civilian infrastructure and “utterly reprehensible” incitement to violence targeting women and underage girls, the United Nations human rights chief today urged all sides to engage in dialogue and “turn away from the destructive path” towards which they are leading the crisis-torn region.

United Nations relief agencies and their partners working amid the ongoing turmoil and massive population displacement in Iraq are scaling up their healthcare responses, with a major polio vaccination campaign in Baghdad, and efforts to help relieve the “immense burden” on the existing healthcare system in Kurdistan.

Four years after the massive earthquake that devastated Haiti, it is time to move from a largely humanitarian approach to a development based drive, a United Nations human rights expert said today, while calling for durable solutions for the internally displaced and the vulnerable segments of the population of the island nation.

Sudan has forced dozens of Eritrean refugees and other asylum seekers to return to their home country, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said today, warning that the recent deportations are “an act of repression” and could place the lives and liberty of those expelled at risk.