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The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today called for better policies to conserve fish genetic resources and enhance global food security, warning of the adverse environmental and social impacts of failing to do so.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said he would seek an investigation of new allegations about the work of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), while an official from the agency supported the initiative but said on first review the claims do not correspond with its records.

A United Nations investigation found that Bangladeshi peacekeepers operating in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) used excessive force in 2005 against detainees trying to escape from their control, a UN spokesperson said today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today deplored the killing of two Lebanese Red Cross workers and the wounding of a member of delegation of clerics at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon that has been the scene of fierce fighting for three weeks.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has begun the steps and measures to formally establish a special tribunal to try the suspected killers of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, after Lebanon missed a deadline to ratify the tribunal itself.

During an unannounced visit to Mogadishu today, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs expressed solidarity with the people of Somalia while encouraging the leaders of the Transitional Federal Government to reach out to their opponents for the sake of peace and reconciliation in the war-torn Horn of Africa country.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today commemorated the 30th anniversary of two additional protocols to the landmark Geneva Conventions, calling on all States currently not party to the instruments to accede to them.

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro joined officials from the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone today in appealing for an additional $60 million to complete the Court’s work by the end of 2009.

The United Nations-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria today welcomed the recommitment of the “Group of Eight” leading industrialized nations to universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment.

A United Nations expert body today urged 11 countries to take steps to improve the situation of children and young people, noting continued discrimination and violation of their rights.