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The top United Nations relief official has begun his visit to Sudan by calling on the Government to ensure safe and unimpeded access for aid workers, particularly those providing vital humanitarian assistance to people affected by the conflict in the country’s strife-torn Darfur region.

Marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, United Nations officials today called for steps to translate the promises of the peace process – most recently expressed at a major meeting in the United States city of Annapolis – into action to achieve a two-State solution to the conflict in the Middle East.

The number of children enrolled in primary school, the percentage of girls attending classes and the amount of money spent on education have all soared in the past decade, according to a United Nations report released today, but adult illiteracy levels remain stubbornly high and the cost of schooling in much of the world continues to limit access for millions of children.

Whether it is collaboration on Kosovo or cooperation to address common economic and security challenges, the ties between the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are stronger today than ever before, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a high-level gathering of the group in Madrid.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has appealed for $98 million to run a three-year project to feed the hungry in Indonesia, where millions of poor children across the South-East Asian archipelago are malnourished.

The Force Commander of the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) today urged a peaceful resolution of clashes in the country’s troubled eastern region, but said his troops stood ready to support Government efforts to resolve the problem militarily if necessary.

The top United Nations envoy for Somalia today discussed the ongoing crisis in the Horn of Africa nation with the country’s President and Prime Minister.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced outrage at today’s twin suicide attacks in the Sri Lankan capital, which have killed or wounded dozens of people, and yesterday’s aerial assault on a United Nations aid office in the far north of the troubled country.

The Security Council today approved the appointment of Serge Brammertz, currently leading the independent probe of the 2005 killing of a former Lebanese prime minister, as the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for a four-year term starting on 1 January.

In a major report released today ahead of World AIDS Day, observed on 1 December, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has called for paying greater attention to the link between hunger and health, pointing out that food is often cited as the greatest need by people living with HIV/AIDS.