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Religious minorities in Laos remain isolated with little access to higher education, few opportunities for job promotions in the public sector and effective exclusion from decision-making processes, an independent United Nations human rights expert said today.

The Security Council today renewed for another 12 months the authorization for States and regional organizations fighting piracy off the Somali coast to enter the strife-torn country’s territorial waters and “undertake all necessary measures that are appropriate in Somalia” provided they have the transitional government’s consent.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today launched an assessment of the impact of contamination from oil across the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta in Nigeria, which has been plagued by local unrest and ecological damage in recent years.

The United Nations today appealed for more than $7.1 billion over the coming year to assist 48 million people across 25 countries whose lives have been wrecked by conflict and natural disasters, with the largest amount – over $1 billion – sought for Sudan.

On the eve of World AIDS Day, the United Nations today issued new recommendations for fighting the pandemic, calling for an earlier start to treatment for adults and adolescents, as well as urging HIV-positive mothers and their infants to take antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) while breastfeeding to prevent transmission.

A senior United Nations peacekeeping official today voiced “extreme” concern over the fate of two abducted staff members of the joint UN-African Union mission in Darfur (UNAMID), warning that the security situation on the war-ravaged western flank of Sudan continues to be unstable.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced the hope today that investigations will shed more light on the circumstances behind the bombing of a Russian train that killed 25 people on Friday night, and injured scores more.

Just a week before the United Nations climate change conference begins in Copenhagen, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today it will help release a rare live recording of Bob Dylan performing his 1962 song-poem A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall set to dramatic photographs of shrunken ice caps, barren landscapes, and devastated lives.

The renovation of United Nations Headquarters in New York is now only $90 million over its $1.876 billion budget compared with $219 million two years ago, with a good chance of returning to the black, while being on schedule for completion by late 2013, the official in charge of the overhaul said today.

The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is being observed today at United Nations Headquarters in New York with a special commemorative meeting, a new photographic exhibition and a concert by Maqamat, an orchestra of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music.