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The members of the United Nations Human Rights Council must be careful to avoid becoming divided between developed and developing countries, Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned today as he urged them to embrace the universality of rights.

At the request of the Iraqi Government, the United Nations Security Council has extended the mandate of the three-year-old United States-led multinational force (MNF) in the war-torn country by another year, until the end of 2007.

Cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases, as measured in CO2 equivalent, than transportation, and smarter production methods, including improved animal diets to reduce enteric fermentation and consequent methane emissions, are urgently needed, according to a new United Nations report released today.

Some 2,000 members of a pro-independence ethnic Albanian group in Kosovo attacked United Nations personnel yesterday in the Serbian province’s capital, Pristina, pulling down a 4-metre tall concrete barricade outside UN headquarters and hurling concrete blocks and an incendiary device at police officers inside.

Supported by the United Nations food agency, internationally renowned hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean is convening a one-week festival in Haiti aimed at using culture and the arts to encourage young people to help boost sustainable development in the Western hemisphere’s poorest country.

The enhanced United Nations peacekeeping force sent to Lebanon this summer to monitor the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah now totals 10,500 troops from 21 countries, 4,500 below its mandated maximum strength, with additional personnel arriving from Indonesia, Portugal and Italy.

Former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu will head the United Nations Human Rights Council fact-finding mission into Israeli military operations in Gaza established after 19 Palestinian civilians were killed in an attack on the town of Beit Hanoun earlier this month.

The governments of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have signed a tripartite agreement with the United Nations refuge agency that paves the way for the voluntary return home of 60,000 Congolese.

The 192-member General Assembly has fully backed a five-year reconstruction plan for strife-torn Afghanistan agreed with the international community earlier this year, stressing in particular the need to improve security in the country and also deal with the widespread drug trade.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today voiced alarm about this week’s outbreak of violence in the southern Sudanese town of Malakal, saying the clashes there are a serious violation of last year’s comprehensive peace agreement that ended a 21-year civil war.