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Voicing concern at the escalation of fighting in Nepal with its mounting toll of civilian casualties and human rights abuses, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on the government and communists to end their conflict and offered his good offices in helping to reach a solution.

Warning of an "extremely serious" threat of a desert locust plague in northwest Africa, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today launched an urgent appeal for international donor help to prevent an even greater upsurge over a vast swath of territory stretching from Morocco and Algeria down into Niger.

The Zambian Government is reporting that 1,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have crossed into its territory since last Thursday because of fighting by Maï-Maï rebel militia elements in southeastern DRC, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said today.

The United Nations refugee agency has opened a fourth safe camp inside Chad and is close to setting up a fifth to help the tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees who have crossed the border to escape conflict in Darfur.

Calling on governments to promote and protect breastfeeding, two United Nations agencies today jointly launched an international plan to promote the practice and secure children's health.

Kicking off a United Nations campaign to reduce the number of refugee camps in Pakistan, the country's Shalman camp in the North West Frontier province has closed after the last of its residents returned to Afghanistan.

United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland today condemned the killing of an aid worker following an ambush in Somalia's northwest last Friday.

Responding to exchanges of fire along the Israel-Lebanon withdrawal line, a United Nations envoy today called on the parties to avoid a further deterioration of the already tense situation.

A dozen developed countries will ask for transitional exemptions to the ban on the ozone-destroying and highly toxic pesticide methyl bromide as delegates gather for a three-day United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting starting tomorrow in Montreal, Canada.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Adviser on Haiti, Reginald Dumas, will leave post-conflict Haiti tomorrow to attend a meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in the eastern Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, Mr. Annan's spokesman said today.