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Poland has presented the United Nations with a gift of a sculpture of Artur Rubinstein playing piano, commemorating his presence at the world body's founding in San Francisco almost 60 years ago.

Delegates preparing for a United Nations-backed conference on information technology later this year have agreed on a set of concrete targets to help bridge the digital divide between developed and developing countries.

Greece introduced the traditional Olympics resolution into the United Nations General Assembly today calling for a truce during next year's summer games in Athens, and Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the measure took on added significance with the event returning to its ancient homeland.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan went into a third day of bilateral meetings with world leaders today on the margins of the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, conferring with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Latin America’s largest country, and President Alfred Moisiu of Albania, one of Europe’s smallest.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today expressed “grave concern” over the reported abduction and trafficking to neighbouring countries of Afghan children, some as young as four, and called on the government to use “the full weight of the law” against those found responsible.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today sent out an appeal for $7.7 million to assist some 13 million people in Ethiopia, including rural populations in southern region whose needs, it said, are “particularly critical.”

Gearing up for the meningitis season, the United Nations health agency today appealed for funds to purchase six million doses of an inexpensive new vaccine to enable African countries to build an emergency response stockpile.

The centrality of the United Nations to solving the world's multiple crises was the keynote theme as the General Assembly's annual high-level debate moved into its third day.

Insecurity and lawlessness, often as a result of arbitrary rule by local factions and continued drug trafficking, remain top concerns in Afghanistan as the worn-torn country seeks to build national government institutions, according to a statement issued after a high-level meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today ordered a temporary redeployment of United Nations international staff from Iraq in a downsizing effort prompted by the security situation after last month's terrorist attack in Baghdad that killed 22 people, including top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.