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The United Nations Security Council today extended for one year the mandate of the International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) probing the 2005 terrorist attack that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on both the Government and opposition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to shoulder their responsibilities to democracy to ensure a full transition to peace after last year’s historic elections intended to set the seal on decades of civil war and factional fighting.

More than 400 Haitian gang members have been arrested since the beginning of the year in operations by the Haitian National Police (HNP), backed by United Nations police and military to crack down on violent crime, UN officials reported today.

The United Nations Special Envoy for Darfur and his counterpart from the African Union held talks today with representatives of the war-torn Sudanese region’s Arab tribes and leaders of its civil society groups as part of ongoing efforts to revitalize the peace process and end the bloodshed that has led to the killing of at least 200,000 people since 2003.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today spoke out against escalating violations of the 2002 ceasefire between the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and called for them to return to the negotiating table.

Almost 9,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have gone back home to southern Sudan since the start of the year under the joint plan by the United Nations, the Sudanese Government and the Government in Southern Sudan to promote returns as part of the comprehensive peace agreement ending the country’s long-running civil war.

The Security Council today welcomed the removal by Greek Cypriots of a wall in the long-running buffer zone dividing the island into northern and southern segments, voicing hope that similar confidence-building measures will lead to the resumption of talks aimed at reaching a durable peace deal on the Mediterranean island.

Continuing a diplomatic tour of the Middle East to try to address the region’s hotspots, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has arrived in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, where tomorrow he will address the Summit of the League of Arab States.

The United Nations Human Rights Council today adopted a resolution without a vote which called for two urgent fact-finding missions to be dispatched to the occupied Palestinian territory, voicing concern that previous attempts to investigate potential human rights abuses had been hindered by Israel.

It is crucial that both Israel and the Palestinians take steps to reduce tensions in the Middle East in order to advance the peace process, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Jerusalem today after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.