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The General Assembly today approved a budget of $5.16 billion for the 2010-2011 period, in a move immediately welcomed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

In keeping with its ‘zero tolerance’ policy on sexual exploitation and abuse by members of its multiple peacekeeping operations and special political missions, the United Nations is making publicly available its aggregated data on such misconduct over the past three years.

After Israel’s announcement that it will allow glass into Gaza following United Nations requests to repair homes damaged during last year’s fighting, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced hope that this will pave the way for other much-needed materials to enter the area.

The United Nations refugee agency laid out its strategy today to combat xenophobia and racism, which it says triggers flight and can jeopardize its work to protect asylum-seekers, refugees and the stateless.

United Nations peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR) are stepping up their presence near a refugee camp in the country’s northeast where deadly clashes last week have increased tensions in an already unstable area.

The United Nations agency entrusted with defending media freedom today deplored the murder of journalists in Brazil, Colombia and Turkey over the past 10 days, calling on the authorities to take urgent action against such crimes, which constitute a serious threat to democracy.

With 70 per cent of Myanmar’s population dependent on agriculture, credit reform could help the Asian nation reach its full productivity potential and enhance development, Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz said after a United Nations-backed visit to the country.

Ahead of the first anniversary of the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip, a United Nations independent expert is urging Israel’s European and North American allies to use the threat of economic sanctions to pressure the country into ending the blockade and calling for the swift implementation of the findings of the so-called Goldstone Report.

Faced with widespread reports of massacres and other serious human rights abuses by Government soldiers and rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Security Council today again called on United Nations peacekeepers to “use all necessary means” to protect civilians from threats from any party.

United Nations aid agencies have begun distributing relief supplies in northern Malawi, where a series of earthquakes this month have killed four people, injured more than 300 others and destroyed or damaged nearly 4,000 homes.