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Voicing concern at reports of harassment of political opponents in Belarus, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today reiterated his call for the release of journalists, opposition candidates and their supporters detained after recent presidential elections.

With the world’s population slated to top the milestone 7 billion mark by late 2011, the new head of the United Nations agency that helps countries use population data for policies to reduce poverty pledged today to focus on the largest global youth generation ever.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today lauded the launch of a website for the permanent memorial honouring the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, calling it an important step forward in making the memorial a reality at the United Nations Headquarters complex.

The United Nations launched the first World Interfaith Harmony Week today with a broad range of activities around the world, including interfaith breakfasts, film screenings and talks featuring the active participation of civil society, UN entities and other intergovernmental organizations.

The United Nations human rights chief has offered Haitian authorities technical assistance for prosecuting crimes committed during the 15-year rule of former president Jean-Claude Duvalier, who returned to the country last month from exile.

The Government of Liberia, with support from United Nations agencies, will launch a week-long measles vaccination campaign on Wednesday targeting all children in Nimba County, which hosts over 30,000 refugees who fled the political turmoil in neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire.

United Nations officials, including its human rights chief, today voiced alarm at the high number of casualties amid the protests in Egypt, while calling on the country’s authorities to heed the demands of the people for democratic reform and respect for human rights.

The United Nations, its humanitarian partners and the Sri Lankan Government launched a joint programme today to help hundreds of thousands of people in the north of the Indian Ocean island recover and rebuild their lives after the end of the decades-long war with Tamil separatists.

Top United Nations officials led a visit by 150 eminent personalities and representatives of 40 Governments today to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest and most notorious of all the Nazi death camps, to combat denial of the Holocaust of millions of Jews and others during the Second World War.

The top United Nations relief official said today that Kenya’s humanitarian challenges, most of them the result of recurring drought and rapid urbanization, can be addressed through measures that ensure that communities have the capacity to adapt to changing weather patterns.