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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will chair a meeting of the diplomatic Middle East Quartet – comprising the United Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States – later this week in London.

The head of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, known as UNAMID, said today that he is just as anxious as people on the ground are for progress.

The Security Council today voted to extend the United Nations mission set up to support a 2005 accord that ended the long-running civil war between north and south Sudan, and called on the parties to fully their commitments to achieve lasting peace.

The Security Council today extended until 30 April 2009 the mandate of the United Nations mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO), tasked with monitoring the ceasefire between Morocco and the Frente Polisario and organizing a referendum on self-determination.

Nearly 175 families uprooted in the violence that swept through Timor-Leste three years ago are set to return to their homes today, a move welcomed by the United Nations as a breakthrough in efforts to tackle the issue internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the young nation that the world body helped shepherd to independence in 2002.

Marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) as a United Nations agency, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has highlighted the important role of postal services, especially at a time when hundreds of millions of people have relocated from their country of origin and are anxious to share news and resources with their relatives.

The United Nations agency tasked with tackling rural poverty announced today that it will help finance a new knowledge network connecting development partners in sub-Saharan Africa.

A group of independent United Nations experts have called for urgent measures to protect those defending human rights in Colombia, following a recent surge in violence that includes killings, harassment and intimidation of civil society activists, trade union leaders and lawyers representing victims.

The new United Nations envoy to Afghanistan has just wrapped two days of meetings with United States officials in Washington, D.C., during which they expressed their full support for the world body’s efforts in the strife-torn nation.

The United Nations is aiming to have a comprehensive plan to tackle the global food crisis in place by the beginning of June, “around which the institutions and leaders around the world can coalesce,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said today.