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A convoy of barges carrying desperately needed aid to the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Oriental Province has set sail from Kinshasa, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today.

The next round of talks between United Nations officials and a high-level delegation from Baghdad aimed at breaking the current impasse over weapons inspections in Iraq will be held over three days starting tomorrow, according to the Office of the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

A delegation of the United Nations Security Council continued its eight-nation mission to the Great Lakes region of Africa this morning as it met for two hours in Kinshasa with President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) today elected 15 new members to the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights, including the United States, which will rejoin the UN’s main human rights body after a year’s absence.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has re-appointed four experts to serve on a panel monitoring sanctions against the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

Senior Israeli officials have not decided whether to agree to a United Nations fact-finding mission mandated to develop accurate information about recent events at the Jenin refugee camp, a senior UN official told the Security Council today.

Consumer spending in 2001 helped pull the United States out of its recession last year and was a major factor why the world economy avoided the deep downturn predicted in the aftermath of the 11 September terror attacks, according to a new United Nations report on global trade and development.

The United Nations is working to secure the release of a Somali staff member who was abducted in Mogadishu over the weekend, according to a spokesman for the world body.

New military and police specialists have been added to the staff of a United Nations fact-finding mission mandated to develop accurate information regarding recent events at the Jenin refugee camp, a spokesman for the team said in Geneva, where the mission is preparing for the trip.

With Pacific island nations and low-lying coastal areas facing a growing threat from the effects of global warming, a senior United Nations official in the Asia and Pacific region today stressed the importance of public-private sector cooperation in combating the phenomenon.