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Israel and Hizbollah must respect their ceasefire, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today during a visit to the headquarters of the United Nations force in southern Lebanon, where he also paid tribute to the hundreds of UN personnel who have lost their lives in the war-ravaged country.

With poppy cultivation a serious and growing problem in Afghanistan, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has lead a workshop for members of the counter-narcotics commissions of both houses of the country’s National Assembly.

The Security Council today unanimously voted to extend the appointment of a Ugandan judge serving on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) so that the case she is currently presiding over may proceed without interruption.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed the recent signing of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group notorious for committing atrocities against civilians.

United Nations agencies are rushing aid to Nepal following recent monsoon rains that spawned flooding and mudslides in the western part of the country.

United Nations Goodwill Ambassadors and renowned international football players Ronaldo Luiz Nazariode Lima and Zinédine Zidane along with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) today issued a joint statement supporting plans to build a cleaner, healthier, energy-efficient public transport system in South Africa in time for the 2010 World Cup.

The newly established United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) kicked off its work this weekend with an initiative by UN police to raise awareness in the small nation about traffic rules and regulations.

The top United Nations aid official in Chad, which is home to hundreds of thousands of Sudanese who have fled the violence in neighbouring Darfur, warned today of a regional “humanitarian disaster” unless the two African Governments put their differences aside and work together to stop the escalating militia violence.

The United Nations hopes to soon double to 5,000 the number of its troops in southern Lebanon, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today in Israel on the latest leg of his diplomatic tour of the Middle East to increase support for full implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 that ended the recent month-long fighting.

The two leading presidential candidates from last month’s historic elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have agreed on a joint plan to investigate the deadly clashes that broke out after the release of preliminary results and to prevent violence from recurring during the runoff poll, the United Nations mission in the country reported today.