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Thousands of people continue to flee as the latest round of fighting between Government and rebel forces in the Sa’ada province of northern Yemen enters its sixth month, said the United Nations refugee agency, which last month put the number of uprooted at 175,000 but now estimates that it could be higher.

In the wake of last week’s unrest in southern Italy, two United Nations independent human rights experts today called on the European nation’s Government to rein in the rising xenophobic attitudes towards migrant workers.

The Presidents of Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso have asked that an additional unit of up to 500 peacekeepers from Burkina Faso be added to the United Nations mission in Côte d’Ivoire to reinforce security ahead of elections intended to reunify the West African country that was split into a rebel-held north and Government-controlled south by civil war in 2002.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today appointed Tunisian film star Hend Sabry as an “Ambassador against Hunger” to help the agency fight hunger in developing countries around the world, especially in the Middle East region.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be travelling to New Haven, Connecticut, on Thursday to take part in a two-day summit of global educators hosted by Yale University, a spokesperson for the United Nations announced today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced concern for the people of Haiti as well as the United Nations staff there after a major earthquake struck off the coast of the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today snipped a blue ribbon to inaugurate a temporary new building to house the General Assembly and a large number of United Nations staff members as the world body’s New York Headquarters undergoes renovations.

The deadly attack against Togo’s national football team has sparked the condemnation of a senior United Nations official, who today stressed that the assault strikes at the heart of the values of tolerance and understanding espoused by sport.

The United Nations is seeking to virtually eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, where 390,000 infants became infected with the virus that causes AIDS in 2008, through the use of antiretroviral drugs during and after delivery.

The United Nations is helping Albania respond to flooding in the north of the Balkan country, where more than 4,000 people have already been evacuated from their homes, with up to 20,000 more threatened.