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The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has applauded the UN Security Council resolution that establishes a monitoring and reporting system for children affected by armed conflict.

With four out of five girls never even enrolled in school in north eastern Kenya and poor access to health services contributing to low immunization rates, high malaria incidence and high risk of maternal death, the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for redoubled efforts to meet the daunting challenges.

Pushing ahead with its efforts to help Indian Ocean countries recover from the devastating effects of last December's tsunami, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has held a three-day workshop aimed at rehabilitating the fishing farm industry in Indonesia.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today it had airdropped its fourth consignment of food to some 3,000 refugees walking through forest and swamp to their home villages in south-west Sudan after a peace agreement ended over 20 years of civil war.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said to day the “brutal and barbaric” murder of two Algerian diplomats in Iraq once again made it all the more urgent for the United Nations to complete a convention against all forms of terrorism by the end of this year.

The commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Côte d'Ivoire has found no evidence of significant combat operations between Ivorian security forces and alleged assailants in two towns that reportedly came under attack on Saturday, potentially jeopardizing nascent peace prospects in the strife-torn West African country.

The Commission of Experts that reviewed the prosecution of serious crimes in Timor-Leste in 1999 has recommended that Indonesia strengthen its legal capacity, that its Attorney General’s Office review its prosecutions and that some cases be reopened as may be appropriate.

Even though the Cold War geo-political divide had faded, new threats such as terrorism now affect the stability and security of Indian Ocean countries, obliging all States to cooperate in implementing a 35-year-old United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for an end to military build-up in the region, the chairman of UN ad hoc panel has urged.

Faced with Rwandan and Ugandan delays in providing information on a variety of security and economic matters relating to neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), United Nations-appointed monitors have recommended that the UN Security Council extend DRC arms and other sanctions well beyond the elections scheduled to take place later this year.

The United Nations Special Envoy on housing evictions in Zimbabwe today briefed the Security Council on her two-week visit to the southern African country where the demolition of housing and markets have left some 700,000 people without homes or businesses.