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As the international community marks the 28th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling for greater support for the process of recovery and sustainable development in the affected area, and efforts to prevent any future nuclear disasters.

The tide has turned on malaria, with mortality rates for children in Africa down by half, but a stronger surveillance system is urgently needed to prevent new outbreaks and resurgences, United Nations officials today warned, marking the sixth annual World Malaria Day.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today appointed Aurélien Agbenonci of Benin and Laurence D. Wohlers of the United States as his Deputy Special Representatives at the newly-created United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).

Continued international support for the efforts of the Government of Myanmar in the areas of democratization, socio-economic development and national reconciliation will be vital, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, noting that despite positive changes, the country faces a number of serious challenges.

Announcing that more than 50 partners are now on board its partnership initiative to fight against neglected tropical diseases, tuberculosis and malaria, the United Nations intellectual property agency today hailed the watershed achievement as a significant step towards helping more than one billion people overcome such maladies.

The reconciliation deal reached by rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas will be implemented on the basis of previous commitments such as the recognition of Israel and non-violence, a senior United Nations envoy was told today.

Despite unprecedented political momentum to fight rape in war zones, sexual violence remains a global crime affecting women, men and children in more than 20 countries, a senior United Nations official announced today urging greater action at the regional and national levels.

Stepped-up rebel attacks, clashes fuelled by local political rivalries, and mass displacement sparked by the abuses of a pro-Government militia have again left long-troubled Darfur at a crossroads, said the United Nations peacekeeping chief today, appealing to the Security Council and its African Union (AU) counterpart for political support to move the warring factions towards lasting peace.

While some 80 percent of children around the world, or 110 million infants, are receiving life-saving vaccinations each year, “one in five – more than 22 million children – not being vaccinated is too much for us,” according to the World Health Organization at the start of World Immunization Week 2014.

Scientists in a United Nations-backed collaborative have cracked the genetic code of the bloodsucking tsetse fly in a breakthrough that brings new hope to the fight against one of the most devastating livestock diseases spread by the insect.