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Violent protests in Abidjan over a proposed peace accord and the general climate of insecurity in Côte d'Ivoire have forced the United Nations refugee agency to suspend all its operations in the country.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has signed an agreement with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which will provide $12 million to fight AIDS in Argentina over the next two years.

United Nations monitors continued their probe in Iraq today with visits to missile installations and other sites.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has so far found no evidence that Iraq has revived the nuclear weapons programme it had eliminated in the 1990s, the head of the UN agency told the Security Council today, while stressing that more time was needed for a conclusive assessment.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, said today that UN weapons inspectors should be given the necessary time to do their job in Iraq, but stressed the need for a proactive approach by Baghdad in cooperating with the UN.

The United Nations top humanitarian envoy for southern Africa has warned that the food security situation in Malawi remains fragile and slight gains made to avert famine could be easily eroded by a combination of HIV/AIDS, late rains and floods.

Two United Nations military observers from the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) were confronted today by a Kuwaiti military border guard at a checkpoint near Abdaly, a few hundred metres outside the UN-monitored demilitarized zone in Kuwait.

Faced with shrinking work forces and longer hours, fire fighters, police, paramedics and others in the public emergency sector are under increasing pressure to cope with rising crime, violence and accidents, according to a new report by the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO).

Even with international attention galvanized by high-stakes security issues - from Iraq to the Korean peninsula - social activists must make sure that the plight of the world's poorest people and weakest countries is not abandoned, United Nations Secretary-General said in a message to the World Social Forum, under way in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

The United Nations top envoy for the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire visited residents in an Abidjan shantytown to investigate reports of beatings, threats and other ill-treatment at the hands of armed groups.