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The General Assembly’s budget committee has approved a set of proposals to strengthen the capacity of the United Nations to mount and sustain peacekeeping operations at a time when the number of blue helmets deployed around the world is the highest in the world body’s history.

The population of African and Asian cities will double by 2030, adding 1.7 billion people, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says in a new report which calls for addressing rising urbanization by helping the poor.

The main challenge facing the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission in the next year is to transform its plans and strategies for Burundi and Sierra Leone into tangible results on the ground in the two countries, the incoming chair of the body said today.

A senior United Nations peacekeeping official said today that the world body is stepping up its preparations for the heavy support package to the war-ravaged Darfur region of Sudan, while efforts are under way to establish a hybrid UN-African Union force.

Increasing the number of qualified male trainers in gender training for security personnel is one of the key conclusions of an online expert-group discussion hosted by the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) and its partners in Santo Domingo.

Spotlighting the deteriorating conditions facing some 1,400 Palestinians who fled Baghdad and are stranded in camps on the Iraq-Syria border, the United Nations refugee agency today called for international assistance to alleviate their plight.

Violence between guerilla groups in Colombia has forced approximately 1,000 people to flee the eastern Arauca region over the past year and a half, the United Nations refugee agency reports.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Government of Iraq have concluded an agreement on reconstructing the Al-Askari Holy shrine in Samarra, badly damaged by attacks last year and earlier this month.

Warning that recent violence has set back the Middle East peace process, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged media professionals and civil society representatives attending a United Nations-organized seminar in Tokyo to “explore creative approaches to spreading the message of peace and coexistence in these troubled times.”

The United Nations agencies at the forefront of the battle against hunger announced today that six African Governments and the UN have agreed on a road map to tackle the root causes of rising hunger across the drought-plagued Horn of Africa, warning that the next major crisis could force more than 20 million people into needing emergency assistance.