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Over 1,500 people have been displaced by increased fighting in the western part of Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region and very few agencies have been able to provide them with desperately-needed aid due to lack of security, the United Nations reported today.

The United Nations is currently studying a legislative decree that would give Afghan President Hamid Karzai the power to appoint all five members of the country’s Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), which is supposed to be an independent body.

The United Nations remains strongly committed to doing everything possible to help the people of Haiti but is realistic about what it can accomplish before the rainy season begins in earnest on 1 May, said a senior official with the world body.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today took note of Argentina’s concerns regarding the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) during a meeting at United Nations Headquarters with the country’s Foreign Minister, Jorge E. Taiana.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has approved a nearly $5 million internal loan to bridge an acute funding gap so that it can continue providing life-saving assistance to hundreds of thousands of people uprooted by clashes between Government forces and rebels in northern Yemen.

Nearly 58,000 farming households in Sri Lanka are expected to benefit from a United Nations-funded programme designed to improve their livelihoods, boost their incomes and enhance their participation in the marketing and selling of their products.

Nations must make more aggressive pledges to slash greenhouse gas emissions to avoid global temperatures rising by 2 degrees Celsius and prevent the worst possible effects of climate change, warned the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in a report released today.

More than 7 million people in Niger, which last week saw its Government overthrown in a coup d’état, are facing food insecurity, the United Nations health agency warned today.

With cross-border movement of unaccompanied minors reaching into the thousands, senior officials from 15 Eastern and Southern African countries are thrashing out ways to strengthen cooperation for the protection of children at risk, at a three-day United Nations-backed meeting beginning today in Pretoria, South Africa.

A pair of grassroots initiatives bringing environmentally friendly stoves and rechargeable lighting to remote communities in several countries are the recipients of this year’s prestigious Sasakawa Prize, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today.