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The top United Nations human rights official appealed today for more international attention to be focused on Yemen and the plight of Yemenis as deepening insecurity and “utterly intolerable” violence in the country continue to wreak a terrible toll on civilians.

Five years after a massive earthquake killed 200,000 people in Haiti, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is appealing for funds to continue momentum towards building more resilient communities that will withstand future disasters.

The Human Rights Division of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) issued a report today saying there are reasonable grounds to believe that at least 353 civilians were murdered and another 250 wounded in attacks in the capitals of Unity state and Jonglei state between 15 April and 17 April last year.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that it has received reports of significant civilian displacement in Sudan's North Darfur and South Darfur states.

West Africa’s political landscape remains delicate as nations across the region continue to grapple with insecurity, terrorist threats and tensions ahead of a busy election cycle, the United Nations senior official there told the Security Council this afternoon.

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today convened in Geveva its second ever high-level meeting on Ebola vaccines access and financing, to review the current status of clinical trials and plans for Phase II and Phase III efficacy trials.

Making an impassioned appeal for tolerance, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for understanding among all communities to heal the tensions within societies – a particularly poignant plea following yesterday's horrific attack on the staff at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and in the face of ongoing sectarian violence across Africa's Sahel region being fuelled by Boko Haram.

The Security Council today called on the authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to “swiftly approve” plans to begin joint operations between the Congolese military and the United Nations peacekeeping force to “neutralize” a rebel group with a long history of heinous crimes in the eastern regions of the vast country.

Top United Nations officials yesterday attended a special screening in New York of the movie Selma, about the historic struggle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s marches from Selma to Montgomery Alabama that led to United States President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon looked forward to a “year of opportunity,” as he briefed the 193-Member United Nations General Assembly on his priorities for 2015, and called for transformative global action that would ensure sustainable development and human dignity for all.