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A United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People will be held in Qatar next week in an effort to ease the social, economic and humanitarian emergencies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory stemming from the Israeli occupation.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Nepal has appealed to all parties in the south-eastern Terai region of the impoverished country to allow safe passage for food convoys, warning that transport strikes and violence have severely disrupted aid deliveries and threaten the health of hundreds of thousands of people, including children.

The situation in Sudan, the problems involving Somali refugees and the challenges facing Africa’s Great Lakes region topped the agenda today during talks between Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki in Nairobi.

Certain army elements in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continue to harass and terrorize civilians in the east of the vast country while renegade forces who refuse to join in the demobilization and reintegration process have engaged in rape and other “intolerable violations,” the United Nations mission reported today.

The top United Nations peacebuilding official today said that fresh initiatives, bolstered by millions of dollars in resources and drawing upon the capacities and experiences of numerous agencies of the world body, are poised to aid post-conflict countries in consolidating stability and avoiding a relapse into violence.

Pressing ahead with efforts to rebuild war-damaged educational institutions in Côte d’Ivoire, the United Nations peacekeeping mission there today facilitated the donation of scores of books to a university library in the north.

The countries overseeing the structure and management of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are making “very good progress” towards agreement on a definition of the crime of aggression, the head of a key working group told a press conference at United Nations Headquarters today.

The top United Nations envoy to Iraq visited Saudi Arabia today as part of his ongoing efforts to muster regional support to bring stability to the war-torn country.

The months-long outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in Kenya appears to be in decline after more than 500 suspected cases, 169 of them fatal, there and in Somalia, the United Nations health agency reported today. In Somalia continued conflict is hampering control measures.

A high-level United Nations-backed body promoting a five-year development plan for Afghanistan wound up a two-day meeting in Berlin today with a commitment to more aggressive and determined efforts to rebuild the war-torn country, ranging from improving security to easing poverty to fostering human rights.