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A “silent” food crisis is looming in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with over 3.8 million people – nearly half its total – suffering from hunger, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) warned today.

While the peace accord leading to elections in Afghanistan next year is largely on track despite considerable obstacles, a conducive environment still does not exist and the international community must address the threat of insecurity in the country for several years to come, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s says in his latest report.

As lack of security continues to cause deep concern among United Nations humanitarian agencies in Iraq, while not as yet hampering their efforts, the world body is stepping up its political assistance to the new Iraqi Governing Council in writing a new constitution and holding elections.

Stressing the critical need for a political solution to settle the dispute over Western Sahara, the Security Council today extended by three months the mandate of the United Nations mission there, and called on all the parties to work with the UN, and each other, towards acceptance and implementation of a new peace plan.

Two United Nations reports on human rights violations occurring late last year and earlier this year in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) point to instances of cannibalism, systematic killing, rape and looting, and unprecedented violence arising from the proliferation of rival factions.

Condemning all acts of violence and expressing great concern about the serious breaches and violations along the withdrawal line between Lebanon and Israel, the United Nations Security Council today extended for six months the mandate of the UN force monitoring the situation in southern Lebanon.

The United Nations top envoy for internally displaced persons (IDPs) today voiced grave concern about the deteriorating plight of the hundreds of thousands of civilians driven from their homes by weeks of deadly fighting in Liberia and called for swift action to ensure their protection and assistance.

As members of the United Nations Security Council consider a draft resolution that may soon send a multinational force to quell the violence in Liberia, UN relief workers inside the country’s war-ravaged capital warned today that conditions are critical, with food and water supplies running dangerously low, and fuel and equipment shortages continuing to hamper aid distribution.

The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) today convicted a Bosnian Serb doctor of extermination and persecution of Bosnian Muslims, but acquitted him of genocide, and sentenced him to life in prison.

Hailing the first-ever meeting of Asian and African regional organizations as a real opportunity “to build a strategic bridge across the Indian Ocean,” United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for multilateral cooperation as the only way of meeting the challenges of the present age.