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The head of the United Nations health agency today warned the world’s leading industrial countries that the international community must guard against any shortfalls in its campaign to confront a potential flu pandemic.

From the Caucasus to the Caribbean, from Armenia to Addis Ababa, the United Nations labour agency today marked World Day for Safety and Health with over 100 events worldwide, focusing this year on HIV/AIDS as an occupational safety and health issue.

In yet another humanitarian crisis arising from Colombia’s four-decade-long civil turmoil, hundreds of people are fleeing heavy fighting between the army and one of the Andean country’s irregular armed groups in the south-western department of Nariño, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said today it has “no serious concerns” over the conditions of around 200 Montagnards who have returned to Viet Nam from Cambodia, as a senior official from the agency visited Hanoi and agreed with the Government to continue joint cooperation to resolve the issue of the ethnic minority.

The United Nations Security Council today issued a ringing condemnation of all violence committed against civilians during armed conflict, directing its strongest language at attacks on women and children, and pledged to ensure that all peace support operations employ all feasible measures to prevent the scourge.

States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention, ending their meeting at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva today, decided that the next review of the treaty's effectiveness, and any actions that need to be taken to strengthen it, will open in the same Swiss city this November.

Unless rebel attacks against United Nations and other relief operations in a northern sector of Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region stop immediately, the world organization will be forced to suspend all assistance to 450,000 vulnerable people living in the area until safety can bee assured, a top UN official warned today.

The top United Nations relief official for the Horn of Africa, on a week-long mission to the drought-stricken region, today arrived in Ethiopia, where 1.7 million people are currently receiving food aid due to the humanitarian crisis affecting the country's pastoral and agro-pastoral areas.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to change the course of a Siberian oil pipeline to eliminate risk to the UN World Heritage site of Lake Baikal, the world's oldest and deepest lake containing 20 per cent of Earth's surface fresh water.

United Nations Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery Bill Clinton said today that despite substantial progress in reconstruction following the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, formidable challenges remain and the former United States President called on all involved in the recovery process to sustain their efforts.