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Tapping emergency relief experts from Governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around the world, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today announced the appointment of a group that will advise him on the use of a new fund designed to bring immediate relief to victims of disaster.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, strongly backed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, has called for a new round of grant proposals from countries striving to combat the three scourges.

The United Nations refugee agency said today it has begun preparations to register thousands of internally displaced persons next week in the conflict-ravaged Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where almost 200,000 people have been driven from their homes in the last six months because of fighting between the Government and Mai Mai rebels.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said today that it had re-established a presence in western Côte d'Ivoire following January's violent destruction of the premises of several humanitarian organizations in the town of Guiglo, which led to the departure of most humanitarian staff and UN peacekeepers.

The United Nations General Assembly today marked 20 years since the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the most severe in the history of the nuclear power industry, with officials calling for more action to address the health and other challenges faced by Belarus, the Ukraine and the Russian Federation, the countries most affected by the catastrophe.

A caucus of developing countries showed its muscle on the United Nations budget committee this evening by pushing through a draft resolution that would effectively slow a series of reform proposals aimed at overhauling the world organization's management structures which was put forward by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who immediately voiced regret at the vote and vowed to continue trying to forge an agreement among UN Member States.

United Nations preparations for the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese following the end of a 21-year-long civil war in southern Sudan moved a step forward this week with a “Go and See” visit by a small group of refugees in Uganda to their home villages.

An owl, the symbol of wisdom used by Aztec wisemen, a 3,000-year-old sculpture of an ear of corn, and stone image of a pregnant woman are among a new series of icons that will symbolize the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on T-shirts, posters and banners in Latin America.

The head of the United Nations agency that protects ownership of intellectual property today welcomed the creation of a fund to boost the involvement of indigenous and other local communities in efforts to protect their cultural knowledge and arts from misuse in the world market.

With both the Government and rebels in Sudan’s Darfur conflict violating United Nations resolutions, the Security Council should move swiftly to impose further sanctions, expand an arms embargo, and consider setting up a no-fly zone for government planes, according to the latest report from a panel of experts.