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The top United Nations envoy in Kosovo today hailed moves to speed up the return of both refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), an essential step on the path to deciding the final status of the Albanian-majority Serbian province, which the world body has run ever since Western forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid grave rights abuses in ethnic fighting.

Traditional practices, such as forced marriages, domestic violence, and denial of reproductive rights, often play a key role in suicides of women and girls in Southeast and Eastern Turkey, while the authorities often do not implement protective laws, according to a United Nations expert who has just concluded a 10-day visit to the region.

As the death toll continues to rise in the Indonesian island city of Yogyakarta and its surrounding areas in the aftermath of a devastative earthquake, United Nations agencies continue to help Government’s efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to tens of thousands of survivors.

A senior United Nations envoy today met with leading Timor-Leste officials in a bid to restore calm as radio stations broadcast a taped appeal from Secretary-General Kofi Annan for unity after weeks of unrest and violence in the small South-East Asian country which the world body shepherded to independence from Indonesia four years ago.

Paying tribute to the thousands of men and women who currently serve, or have served, as United Nations peacekeepers, more than 60 former blue helmets gathered at the Palais des Nations in Geneva today at a ceremony in observance of the fourth annual International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.

Within the tragedy of the AIDS pandemic lies an opportunity for changing male behaviour, particularly the discrimination against women that has been spotlighted as the disease has spread, especially in Africa, the head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said today.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed a new report calling for broad steps to prevent weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) from falling into terrorist hands – ranging from outlawing them completely to convening a world summit on the issue – after receiving it from chief author Hans Blix, a former chief United Nations arms inspector for Iraq.

Voicing concern that two factions in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region missed a deadline to sign a peace accord already endorsed by the largest rebel group, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said he would consult with African Union (AU) leaders on possible follow-up measures.

The recently appointed third member of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus, Christopher Girod, has arrived in that country for a preliminary visit before assuming his fulltime official duties in July, a United Nations spokesman announced today.

Responding to a request from Iraq, the United Nations commission monitoring weapons of mass destruction in the country today released a detailed account on chemical arms there.