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Since its adoption in 2001, an international action plan to counter illegal gun trafficking had caused unprecedented government activity in the fight against the scourge, but the weapons continued to cause human misery, destabilize States and squelch development, the top United Nations disarmament official said today as he opened a planning meeting for a review of progress on the issue.

As investigators began probing the death of the senior military official leading the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Haiti, a 58-year old Brazilian general who was found dead today in Port au Prince, UN officials praised his legacy of peace.

Staff of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) have begun interviewing more than 600 Sudanese being held in three detention centres on the outskirts of Cairo following last week's fatal demonstrations.

Winter in northern Pakistan has come late but with a vengeance, unleashing three days of rain and snow this week that is adding to the misery of survivors of the 8 October earthquake, grounding relief flights and causing landslides that cut off road access to many affected areas, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) reported today.

Millions of people are on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa because of droughts and conflict, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today, as it called for urgent humanitarian assistance for the impoverished region.

A newly-refurbished camp will open on Monday for internally displaced Roma populations in Kosovo that are enduring unhealthy lead levels in their present dwellings, the United Nations Mission in that province (UNMIK) announced today.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is sending an emergency team to drought-stricken areas of Kenya this week to pinpoint how many more people in this Eastern African nation need food aid.

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has reported that the military situation in the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) separating the two countries continues to be “tense and potentially volatile,” about a month after Eritrea demanded the pullout of UN personnel of certain nationalities.

Expressing concern about the latest postponement of Haiti’s elections, the United Nations Security Council today urged the Transitional Government and the Provisional Electoral Council to announce definite dates for the voting, with the first round to be held no later than 7 February.

The independent expert on contemporary racism for the United Nations Commission on Human Rights will visit to Switzerland next week investigate allegations of racial discrimination and xenophobia and the measures put in place to combat them, the Commission said today.