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Born in the aftermath of the atomic bomb horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and amid a proliferation of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, a little known but vital United Nations committee that probes the effects of radiation is celebrating its 50th birthday, proud of its past achievements and eager to face the challenges of a new century.

United Nations human rights experts today called on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to suspend the scheduled execution for alleged treason of a prisoner reportedly tortured and then sentenced to death without a trial.

United Nations partnerships with the private sector aimed at speeding up relief aid for areas in crisis took a further step forward today with the inauguration of a disaster response team (DRT) to cover emergencies in Latin America and the Caribbean.

As the United Nations General Assembly today opened a special meeting on AIDS, Secretary General Kofi Annan urged participants – including a dozen heads of State and numerous ministers – to unify their efforts to fight the disease especially as it affects young women, who globally suffer double the infection rates of young men.

Nations solemnly observed the International Day of Peacekeepers in New York today amid calls for the release of seven Nepalese soldiers who are being detained following a clash in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which killed one of their countrymen also serving with the world body’s operation there.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today condemned a recent fatal attack on Nepalese United Nations peacekeepers serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and urged the release of those detained after a confrontation with armed militias.

With the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory looking extremely bleak and predicted to worsen in the coming months, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been compelled to revise their appeal for aid to Palestinians upwards by 80 per cent from $215 million to $385 million.

With violence decreasing markedly in Timor-Leste over the past 24 hours although youth gangs are still on the streets, United Nations agencies today stepped up aid for 100,000 people uprooted by weeks of turmoil aggravated by the dismissal of a third of the armed forces in the country which the UN shepherded to independence from Indonesia in 2002.

A United Nations special envoy today urged international donors and civil society to mobilize resources to stop tuberculosis (TB), a disease that, while curable, continues to kill at least 5,000 people every day.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on the international community to involve HIV-infected people more closely in the fight against AIDS.