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The United Nations human rights office in Uganda has called on the Government to fully respect the independence of the judiciary after the intrusion of armed police at the High Court in Kampala, the capital, condemning it as a “blatant interference with the independence of the administration of justice by the executive branch.”

The United Nations mission in Kosovo is arranging dozens of outreach meetings focused on the integration of minorities and good governance as the Albanian-majority Serbian province which the world body has run since Western forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid ethnic fighting nears a decision on its final status.

Summary executions, enforced disappearances, mass arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment and torture of civilians for their political affiliations as well as rape continued at an alarming rate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in a climate of total impunity in the second half of 2006, according to the latest United Nations report on the issue.

The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) today announced that after nearly eight years in makeshift camps, a number of Roma families have begun to return to south Mitrovica thanks to a combined UN and non-governmental organization (NGO) project that is also placing them in new homes.

The United Nations refugee agency today launched a $56.1-million appeal to help more than 125,000 southern Sudanese refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) return home this year and reintegrate into their communities in a region where two decades of civil war uprooted some 4.5 million people.

Up to 68,000 young children in Mauritania, already threatened by malnutrition, will have their rations reduced or cut completely at the most critical time of the year unless substantial new contributions are forthcoming, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today.

Although the percentage of fish stocks assessed as depleted or on the verge of depletion has remained steady over the past 15 years, several species fished on the high seas outside the reach of national jurisdictions are in danger of overexploitation, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned.

The head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency has again called for a “timeout” on the Iranian nuclear issue to allow for talks, with Iran suspending uranium enrichment and the international community suspending sanctions over a programme that Tehran says is for producing energy but which critics maintain is for making nuclear weapons.

A veteran British police officer with wide experience in international law enforcement has taken over as the new United Nations police commissioner in Kosovo after his predecessor was asked to resign following the deaths of two people in a clash with pro-independence demonstrators in the Albanian-majority Serbian province.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that it is facing increasing difficulties in contracting ships to deliver urgent food aid to hungry Somalis following the hijacking of one of its chartered vessels, now in its 10th day, off the coast of the East African country.