Latest News

The amount of milk lost annually from farm to market through spoilage and waste in four East African countries and Syria could feed millions of children, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) which has launched an action plan in response.

One fifth of the labour force in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United States works at least 50 hours a week, compared with less than one-tenth of workers in most European countries, the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) says in a new report.

On the heels of this weekend's assembly elections in Kosovo, the senior United Nations envoy there called for the swift formation of a new government once the polling results are finalized.

All sides to the conflict engulfing Sudan's Darfur region should take advantage of the momentum generated by international focus on the region and settle their political differences at peace talks now taking place in Nigeria, the senior United Nations envoy for Sudan said today.

New unified security measures proposed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to protect the United Nations and its workers against an escalating number of attacks worldwide will cost some $97 million.

Afghanistan's interim President Hamid Karzai holds an insurmountable lead over his rivals with almost all of the votes now counted from the country's historic election on 9 October, the United Nations-Afghan body charged with supervising the poll process announced today.

While Afghanistan has made great progress since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001, "gross violations of fundamental human rights" continue, from extrajudicial executions to inhuman detention to the frequent abuse or assault of women and girls, a United Nations expert says in his latest report to the General Assembly.

United Nations peacekeeping forces, together with Haitian National Police, have cleared the streets of Bel Air, a poor area of the Caribbean country's capital, Port-au-Prince, which has been in upheaval over the past three weeks, a UN spokesman told reporters today.

More than 340 tons of high explosives that had been subject to United Nations monitoring were stolen or looted from a government facility in Iraq, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported today.

Reacting to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's address in the Israeli parliament today, a senior United Nations envoy said he was encouraged by the leader's reiteration of support for a Palestinian State and his readiness to take "painful steps" to make it happen.