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The senior United Nations envoy to Liberia today opened the first of a series of six workshops aimed at strengthening the skills of immigration officers posted throughout the country, as part of efforts to improve controls in a region renowned for having porous borders.

The highest murder and assault rates in the world are undermining economic growth in the Caribbean region, according to a report published today by the World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) which blames the illicit drug trade and calls for international measures to address the problem.

In support of the International Compact on Iraq, a five-year plan for peace and development in the war-torn country co-launched today by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, world leaders assembled in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt have pledged their partnership with the Iraqi Government, with over $30 billion in specific financial commitments announced so far.

A Canadian lawyer with extensive experience in governmental ethics has been appointed Director of the United Nations Ethics Office, a key element of reform of the Organization mandated by the 2005 World Summit, a UN spokesperson announced today.

Following this week’s arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against suspects wanted in connection with the violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, ICC officials are conducting a three-day visit to refugee camps in eastern Chad to explain their work to some of the estimated 2 million people who have fled there.

No plan to resolve the Cyprus problem will be successful in the long run unless it is a local one in which every person in both communities feels their voice has been heard and they understand the ramifications of what is proposed, the head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) said today.

The United Nations today marked World Press Freedom Day by calling for the release of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalist Alan Johnston, who has been detained in Gaza since 12 March, and all other reporters in captivity.

Progress is being made in disarmament efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as the notorious leader of one of the Central African country’s largest militias announced that 500 more of his fighters will surrender their weapons this week, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country said today.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today said it was stepping up a drive to deliver food to almost 100,000 of the 365,000 people driven from their homes in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, which in recent weeks as seen the worst fighting experienced by the country in 16 years.

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today jointly called for greater funding and use of vaccine vial monitors, simple tools which warn if dosages have been damaged by heat, on the tenth anniversary of their introduction into immunization programmes.