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Widespread and systematic human rights violations, grave abuses against ethnic communities, and lack of freedom of assembly and association are still the norm in Myanmar, but the international community has not responded with the appropriate creative diplomacy, and the outlook for change is grim, a United Nations expert said today in New York.

Three weeks after an earthquake devastated northern Pakistan, some 200,000 people have still not received any assistance at all, the United Nations emergency relief office reported today, underscoring the dire situation in the remote region where tens of thousands could die without urgent aid.

Expressing serious concern about the continuing hostilities by militias and foreign armed groups in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the threat to elections in the country, the Security Council today extended the United Nations Organization Mission (MONUC) there until next September, with an additional 300 troops.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the other principles of the Diplomatic Quartet today consulted on the latest violence in the Middle East, condemning Wednesday's terrorist attack in Israel claimed by the Damascus-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad and calling on Syria to take immediate action against the group.

Some 2.3 million Eritreans, about half the country's population, require some kind of food assistance because of drought and loss of production and livestock over the past four years, the United Nations emergency relief office reported today.

The new Sudanese Government should implement a comprehensive peace agreement and a new constitution without delay, while focusing on protecting and promoting human rights people, a United Nations expert on the country has told the General Assembly.

Some 10,000 participants, including 45 national leaders as well as the heads of global corporations, will convene in Tunis in two weeks' time for the second and final phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a United Nations official involved in organizing the event said in New York today.

Every child who dies of hunger in today's world is the victim of an assassination, a United Nations expert on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, said today in New York.

Members of the United Nations Security Council today condemned remarks against Israel made earlier this week by Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

With millions of people in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea dependent on food aid for survival, the country's authorities must become flexible about allowing humanitarian assistance to come in, a United Nations independent expert said today.