Enrolment up but Iraq's schools suffering from neglect and war - UNICEF
Enrolment in Iraqi schools is up but facilities are overcrowded and crumbling, as one in every four schools need major repairs, according to a United Nations-backed survey.
Maintaining biodiversity is key to ending world hunger, UN official says
Biodiversity is vital to the productive use of the world's marginal land, but agricultural production has lost about three-quarters of its genetic diversity in the past century, leaving the world dependent on a dozen crops and a barely larger number of animal species, the Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said today.
UN receives new reports of attacks against displaced persons in Darfur, Sudan
The United Nations is continuing to receive fresh reports of attacks against internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region, where tens of thousands of people have already been killed and more than 1.65 million others are displaced.
New UN stamp promotes benefits of disarmament to children
Declaring that "the children of the world need books, not guns," United Nations Messenger of Peace and Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas today launched a new UN stamp that promotes disarmament.
Africa needs Europe's help with peacekeeping, senior UN official says
Efforts by industrialized countries to train troops from Africa in peacekeeping are welcome but cannot substitute for those nations deploying their own forces to the continent, the senior United Nations peacekeeping official said today.
UN peacekeeping level in Haiti to increase by hundreds by end October
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti, which has been operating at less than half its authorized strength, will receive several hundred new members by the end of October, a UN spokesman said today.
UN-backed Palestine Rehabilitation Forum announces development initiatives
New initiatives - from planting trees to helping businesswomen - aimed at fostering development in the Palestinian territories have been announced at the conclusion of a four-day United Nations-backed Arab International Forum held in Beirut.
Sole-sourced contracts for Iraq still at issue, monitoring board says
The International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB) on the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) has received an audit on the country's oil export sales during the first half of this year, a United Nations spokesman reported today.
Strengthening families vital to the struggle against poverty, UN official says
Formulating policies to strengthen families must be a key component of worldwide and national efforts to eradicate poverty, a senior United Nations official said today.
UN official in DR Congo to review how peacekeepers can do more with less
Following on a Security Council decision to expand the tasks of the United Nations operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the senior UN peacekeeping official is in the country today reviewing the challenges ahead.