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The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) today witnessed the start of a process to disarm combatants from the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the government-backed Civil Defence Force (CDF).

The international community and the United Nations system today marked World Telecommunications Day, calling attention this year to the Internet's impact on a wide range of educational, environmental and health issues, but noting that access to the World Wide Web was available to only a fraction of the globe's inhabitants.

The "World Trade University" - an institute of higher learning designed to foster a broader understanding of the multilateral trading system among young people - was launched today in Brussels at the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries.

Turkey and Greece have jointly decided to initiate procedures for ratifying an international convention banning landmines, a representative of Ankara today told the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament as it opened the second part of its annual session.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today expressed concern at an outflow of hilltribe people from Viet Nam and welcomed Cambodia's decision to grant them temporary asylum.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today announced an agreement with a regional African group designed to promote food security, rural development, environmental protection and desertification control through assessments of natural resources.

Following a request from Arab countries to call an immediate open meeting on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, members of the United Nations Security Council held closed-door consultations this morning and agreed to continue discussions on the matter.

An international fund to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria will be a major tool for economic growth in the developing world, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today in Geneva.

A delegation of the United Nations Security Council currently on a mission to the Great Lakes region of Africa welcomed today President Joseph Kabila's announcement that he was lifting the ban on political parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said he would welcome any measures that would ease the impact of sanctions on ordinary Iraqis, stressing that it is up to the Security Council to take action on the matter.