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In Tokyo today, the United Nations Special Envoy for Myanmar joined senior Japanese officials in calling on authorities in the South-East Asian nation to begin a genuine dialogue with the opposition to resolve the ongoing crisis there.

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro has called for all those working to make inroads in global public health to pool their efforts, stating that the world already has the resources and the know-how to enable people to lead long, healthy lives.

Migrants are increasingly subject to violence and discrimination, from prolonged detention to ill-treatment from authorities, in countries of both destination and transit, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants said today.

The Security Council is likely to extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), the head of the operation said today, one day after the 15-member body held closed consultations on the issue.

An attempt to separate more than 100 young Chadian children from their parents and then take them to France for adoption was an “illegal and totally irresponsible move,” the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has made some constructive attempts to engage with the outside world, but it remains a controlled, non-democratic State in which basic freedoms are restricted and severe food shortages are common, the United Nations human rights expert monitoring the country said today.

Violence, a decaying health system and unabated attacks on schools in Afghanistan are combining to hamper progress for the country’s young people, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today.

Thanks to increased boat trips across the Oubangui river, more than 16,000 refugees have returned to their home districts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) Equateur province in the country’s northwest so far this year, the United Nations refugee agency has reported.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today hailed strides being made to “green” the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games through the use of solar power and other measures but cautioned that more should be done to address air pollution, offset greenhouse gas emissions and boost public transport use.

United Nations humanitarian agencies are helping with relief efforts in Nicaragua, where heavy rain over the past 12 days has brought flooding and landslides and devastated cropland and vital infrastructure across the country’s west.