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A United Nations expert urged Norway today to strongly reject the proposal by one of its parties to repeal key laws and policies designed to protect indigenous groups, saying its approval would represent an “enormous setback for the recognition and protection of human rights in the country.”

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said today his office is in indirect contact with Saif al-Islam Qadhafi, son of the former Libyan leader, on his possible surrender to face charges for crimes against humanity.

The number of Afghan refugees returning home has dropped substantially this year, with some 60,000 repatriating in the first 10 months compared to more than 100,000 over the same period in 2010, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.

The United Nations and Nicaragua launched a flash appeal today for $14.3 million to provide shelter, food, water and sanitation, and agricultural livelihoods to those affected by the floods that have ravaged large parts of the country for the past three weeks.

The top United Nations envoy to Haiti today voiced his concern about the political tension created by the arrest last night of one of the country’s lawmakers and encouraged dialogue to resolve any differences.

The head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today voiced deep concern over reports that one person was shot dead and three others wounded during a demonstration in the south-central province of Kasai Oriental to mark the beginning of campaigning for next month’s general elections.

Regional and global partnerships are urgently needed to combat organized crime in Guinea-Bissau and other countries in West Africa affected by the illegal drug trade, a United Nations official has said, calling for a more integrated approach in the region.

The United Nations food aid agency announced plans today to scale up its operations inside the poor West African country of Niger, where a poor harvest and insect attacks against cereals have left a million people in need of immediate support.

The General Assembly today called on countries, institutions and United Nations agencies to step up their collective efforts to eliminate the threat posed by landmines, cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war (ERW) as the number of deaths and injuries worldwide from such hazards continues to fall.

The UN today underscored the importance of preserving the world’s audiovisual heritage, stressing the vulnerability of sound and film or video recordings to destruction and the need to ensure they are saved for the future.