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The United Nations today launched an appeal for more than half a billion dollars for southern Africa to provide life-saving assistance for 6.5 million people severely weakened by consecutive failed harvests, extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS.

Declaring that “most of the challenges we face are bigger than any single one of us,” United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today gathered together leaders of some 20 of the world’s regional organizations to forge “a new vision of global security” in the face of an “unprecedented” list of problems, above all terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

The trial of a former mayor in Rwanda began today at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), with prosecutors charging that the accused is guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, for extermination, murder and rape.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has published a digest comprising the findings of judicial and quasi-judicial bodies of the United Nations and regional organizations on the protection of human rights in the context of measures against terrorism.

The challenge of respecting the rule of law while fighting terrorism, the urgency of combating poverty in order to promote basic human rights and the need to eliminate injustices against women are high on the agenda of a United Nations rights panel that opened its annual three-week meeting in Geneva today.

Twenty organizations from around the globe – including the African Union, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), European Commission and League of Arab States – are expected to attend a meeting convened by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to examine the links between the United Nations and regional groups in confronting new challenges to international peace and security.

The United Nations Security Council today extended the UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for another year, increased its military strength to 10,800 from 8,700, and instituted an arms embargo against all foreign and Congolese armed groups in the east of the country.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today demanded that a ceasefire be respected in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, which has come under lethal fire from rebels over the past week, and said one of the main insurgent groups was disqualifying itself from any leadership role in the future of the country.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan met today with the prosecutor for the United Nations war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda amid renewed discussions in the Security Council that the post would be more effective if there was one for each court.

Forty years after a massive earthquake struck Skopje and left 1,000 dead and three-quarters of the city’s inhabitants homeless, Secretary-General Kofi Annan recalled the resiliency of its people and the outpouring of international support that helped in the reconstruction of the capital of The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.