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The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has promised to consider returning to the United Nations system of safeguards against nuclear weapons proliferation, which they abandoned in 2002, following its commitment last month to dismantle its nuclear arms programme in return for international energy and other aid.

With camps for displaced persons in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region bursting at the seams, sometimes with 50,000 to 100,000 people apiece, it is more vital than ever to reach a settlement to a conflict that has already killed over 200,000 people and uprooted 2.5 million more, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

One million Yemenis will benefit from a new five-year $48-million programme signed with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to help reduce poverty, cut malnutrition and narrow the gender gap in education.

A notorious Haitian armed gang leader who has been a principal target of a weeks-long United Nations-backed crackdown on violent crime in Port-au-Prince, the capital, has been captured in a southern town and transferred back to the city with UN logistical assistance.

Stepping up the fight against illegal fishing, which is depleting world stocks, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is leading efforts for the adoption by 2009 of a final draft for a legally binding international agreement establishing control measures in ports where fish is landed, transhipped or processed.

The United Nations refugee agency is concerned about the increase in the number of xenophobic attacks on Somalis who have fled from their war-ravaged homeland to South Africa, which the Somali Association in the country claims have left more than 400 dead in the past decade.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO) today began a campaign in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), to immunize 6 million children against measles, after the deadly disease broke out last November, affecting 3,500 people and killing two adults and two infants.

Although Israeli archaeological work for an access pathway in Jerusalem’s Old City does not threaten the Al-Aqsa Mosque and complies with professional standards, Israel should at once stop excavations and consult on a final plan with Muslim religious authorities and other parties, according to a United Nations experts’ report.

Recent agreements can potentially pave the way for progress in Middle East peace efforts after a year in which hopes seemed to be steadily diminishing, the top United Nations political official told the Security Council today, cautioning that success will require action by the parties.

The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator today called on both sides in strife-torn Sri Lanka to allow humanitarian assistance to get through to those civilians trapped on the frontlines, while also highlighting the plight of over 130,000 people in the east of the island forced to flee their homes because of the recent upsurge in fighting.