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Amid a proliferation of well-funded and well-organized transnational criminal activities in Africa, the Middle East and beyond, the United Nations Security Council today adopted a resolution spotlighting its concern over the ties between cross-border crime and terrorism and called on UN Member States to ramp up efforts in combatting the two activities.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that there is reason to be “cautiously optimistic” about defeating the Ebola crisis in West Africa, as he made a series of visits to countries most-affected by the unprecedented outbreak, which has sickened some 18,000 people and killed close to 7,000 others throughout the region.

In eastern Ukraine, the situation remains ‘extremely serious’ for more than 1.7 million children affected by the escalating crisis, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today as it appealed for funds to continue its humanitarian response in the country.

Continuing violence and multiple attacks in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have sown widespread fear and sparked displacement of thousands of people, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) reported today, amid appeals for humanitarian access to help those in distress.

In a report issued today, the Human Rights Division of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has said there is reason to believe that at least 11 civilians were killed and several other serious rights abuses were committed during an attack by opposition forces on Bentiu, the capital of Unity state, in October this year.

The United Nations agencies responsible for human rights and refugees are voicing concern today over the health and well-being of 13 Vietnamese Montagnards who have been hiding in the Cambodian jungle for more than seven weeks with no access to assistance or protection.

Condemning “ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights” in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution today by which it would transmit a UN-backed report probing such violations to the Security Council.

The United Nations’ top official in West Africa has strongly condemned a series of attacks in north-eastern Nigeria which reportedly left over 30 people dead and resulted in the abduction of some 200 others.

A fire engulfed a United Nations warehouse in Guinea today that contained medicines and laboratory materials used for the fight against Ebola, causing no casualties but “a regrettable loss” in supplies, which the UN mission there vowed to quickly replace. An investigation into the fire was underway.

Iraq will not be obligated to deposit 5 percent of its oil proceeds into a fund set up by the United Nations to pay compensation for the 1990-91 invasion and occupation of Kuwait, a decision Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed in light of the “severe security and humanitarian crisis” confronting the Iraqi people.