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The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire has postponed the start of militia disarmament in response to factional leaders who said they needed more time to raise awareness among their followers about the scheduled process whose starting deadline was to have been yesterday.

Terming the living conditions of Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip “deplorable and getting worse,” a senior United Nations regional official has warned that vital public services are in danger of collapsing if a solution is not found soon to the crisis arising from the cut-off of international funds after the formation of the Hamas-led Government.

Just following the start of European Union-led talks with Iran over its nuclear ambitions, the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today announced that its report on nuclear verification in the country has been circulated to the Agency’s member States, which will convene next week in Vienna.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan was briefed by his Special Envoy for Timor-Leste today as a stronger United Nations presence there looked increasingly likely following the recent outbreak of violence in the small nation that the world body shepherded to independence from Indonesia four years ago.

In a case that the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been following closely, six soldiers from the national armed forces were given life sentences of hard labour for crimes against humanity after their convictions on charges of mass rape were re-examined and confirmed.

A delegation of United Nations Security Council members visiting Sudan and neighbouring countries held talks today with officials in North Darfur for talks on security, humanitarian issues and gender-based violence.

Counter-terrorism, the promotion of democracy worldwide, efforts to assist children living in poverty and the threat of bird flu were among the many and varied subjects explored live on the air as an unprecedented gathering of radio hosts from across the United States broadcast from United Nations Headquarters this week in an initiative that brought a first-hand account of how the world body works to millions of listeners across the country.

Employing examples drawn from the headlines and from popular culture, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged a group of high school graduates in New York to use their education for the good of others, aware that their actions can reverberate across the globe.

The United Nations Special Representative for Somalia, Francois Lonsény Fall, has held a series of high-level talks in Nairobi to discuss the political situation in the Somali capital Mogadishu, and what humanitarian assistance is needed by the people affected by the recent fighting there.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will lead a $30 million, five-year programme aimed at controlling the sales and trafficking of small arms in West Africa, where more than 8 million illicit weapons are in private hands, representing about half of all the small arms held illegally in the continent, the agency said.