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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the extension of a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine and, with continued deep concern about the situation there, urged all sides to honour their commitments and work within a political process.

To triumph over maternal mortality, initiatives must focus on adolescent girls, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said, ones that allow them to go to school, marry whom they choose, shield them from harmful traditional practices and provide them with appropriate family planning services.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today adopted a lion cub in Nairobi National Park as a sign of support for efforts against the trafficking of animals around the world, following a week of high-level United Nations discussions on the environment.

An Arabic-speaking Chinese woman? A Mandarin-speaking Malagasy lady? A Spanish-speaking Portuguese gentleman from France? At first glance – or “listen”– all this might seem a bit strange, since the subjects come from cultures that are quite different from the languages they have chosen to speak and develop an expertise in.

Some 16,400 people fled their homes in crisis-riven eastern Ukraine during the past week, bringing the number of displaced within the country to 54,000, according the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Amid the ongoing violence in the Central African Republic (CAR), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the UN Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) and the World Bank, is working hard to re-establish primary public services in the country, such as the payment of civil servant salaries.

Two of the World Heritage mausoleums destroyed in Timbuktu have now been rebuilt through a partnership with local communities, the United Nations cultural agency said, adding that it will need an additional $8 million to finish the rehabilitation of the site and of libraries that could again store hundreds of thousands of Malian manuscripts.

The United Nations health agency and partners are working with the Governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to control an outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, an official today said, announcing an international meeting next week to agree on a coordinated regional response.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today that up to 10,000 people from predominately Christian communities in northern Iraq have fled their homes this week amid the ongoing violence in Mosul.

With the close of the Millennium Development Goal era just months away, and work already beginning on a successor agenda to reign in poverty and put the planet on a sustainable course before it is too late, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today the “timing could not be better” for the launch of a strong UN body tackling all issues relating to the environment.