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Faced with severe shortages of food and funding, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) this week began slashing by half its food rations to refugees in Zambia so it can stretch existing provisions over the next two months.

With the expiration of the four-month unilateral ceasefire by Communist rebels in Nepal, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights today urged all sides to avoid a renewal of the gross abuses that characterized their conflict.

Deeply concerned about the health of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today wished the leader a quick recovery.

With a build-up of armed troops along the northern border of Darfur, Sudan, the United Nations has raised the security level in parts of the province, pulling out all but essential personnel as the top UN envoy there headed to Abuja, Nigeria for the next round of peace talks on the troubled region.

More countries contributed to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in 2005 than in any year since its establishment in 1969, bringing the number of donors supporting the reproductive health and women’s rights agency up to 171, compared to the 2004 record of 166.

A United Nations team is heading today for Turkey to help investigate two deaths from bird flu and nine hospitalized cases, the first outside East Asia, but no evidence so far would suggest that the cases represent human-to-human transmission, David Nabarro, the Senior UN System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza, said today.

Reacting to an explosion against a bus carrying passengers in Kosovo, the United Nations Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK) there today said those responsible must be found and brought to justice, and stressed that violence must not impede the political process.

Welcoming political progress in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new report to the Security Council that the Government must provide for its troops so they can fully disarm foreign armed groups on the country’s territory.

Fatal attacks against United Nations civilian and military personnel stationed around the globe more than doubled last year compared to 2004 as 32 people were killed in incidents that ranged from bombings in Kosovo to ambushes by gunfire in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the world body's Staff Union said today.

The United Nations envoy for the world's vulnerable countries has hailed the entry into force of the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement as a boon to the region's four poorest States: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal.