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Despite positive steps by the Sudanese authorities towards human rights in the country’s different regions, deficiencies persist in key areas, an independent United Nations expert said today.

The Conference on Disarmament, the world’s sole multilateral disarmament negotiating forum, faces becoming irrelevant to international relations given its recent lack of progress, a senior United Nations official warned today.

Almost a month after a catastrophic earthquake struck Haiti, senior United Nations officials said today that the security situation in the Caribbean country has recovered to being nearly the same as it was before the disaster and that the thousands of additional troops and police officers requested by the Security Council are on the way.

The cultivation of opium – raw material for the world's deadliest drug, heroin – in Afghanistan could drop this year, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said today, as bad weather is forecast during the country's current growing season.

Hollywood actress and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie is in Haiti where she met with survivors of last month's devastating earthquake as well as some of the local and international aid workers assisting in the relief effort.

A new report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has found that politically and ideologically motivated attacks against teachers, students and schools are on the rise, calling for greater community involvement to reduce such incidents.

The ongoing economic and financial crises are an opportunity to implement social protection programmes in Pacific island countries that address the needs of the vulnerable, particularly of women and children, the United Nations development chief said today at the start of a conference about the impact of the global downturn on the region.

With 7.8 million people in Niger - or three fifths of the population - facing moderate to severe food insecurity, the United Nations and its non-governmental organization (NGO) partners today appealed for international aid to help the Government of the impoverished West African country overcome imminent shortages.

The latest round of United Nations-backed talks between the parties in the dispute over the status of Western Sahara kicked off today in New York state.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed his concerns about recent developments in Sri Lanka, where a defeated presidential candidate has been arrested and Parliament dissolved, to the leader of the South Asian country and announced plans to dispatch his top political official to the island nation for further dialogue.