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When leaders and decision makers from across Asia and the Pacific gather next month in Japan to discuss how to reduce disaster risks, their top priority will be to build resilience in a region that saw some 80 million people affected and nearly $60 billion in economic losses incurred by natural disasters last year.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on the Government of Paraguay to join forces with the United Nations and forge ahead in framing the post-2015 agenda for a new generation of sustainable development goals, noting that the country had “an important role to play across the board.”

Reducing violent crime is critical to sustainable development, the top United Nations anti-crime official told the General Assembly today, spotlighting that while global progress has been made in combatting the scourge, homicide levels in low and lower-middle income countries have increased by 10 per cent over the last decade.

European policymakers, healthcare workers, and parents must step up their efforts to vaccinate children against measles amid an ongoing outbreak across the continent, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said today, warning that a recent resurgence in the disease threatened Europe’s goal of eliminating measles by the end of 2015.

The Government of Afghanistan’s efforts to prevent torture and ill-treatment have shown some progress over the last two years but much more remains to be done, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed today as it released its latest report on the treatment of conflict-related detainees in Afghan custody.

Next time you feel like some cactus pear marmalade from Ethiopia but can’t make it to the town of Mekelle, check out the shelves of Italian gourmet food store Eataly.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) announced today that it is undertaking a series of urgent consultations with stakeholders in the North African country to ensure the convening of the next round of talks soon and “not let this window of opportunity slip away.”

The United Nations programme working to combat HIV/AIDS welcomed yesterday the results of a number of recent clinical studies of the effects of antiretroviral medicines on preventing new HIV infections, which were presented at a conference on viruses held in Seattle.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, today warned that Myanmar “seems headed in the wrong direction and needs urgently to get back on track” in a crucial year for the country's democratic transition and long-term reconciliation.

The United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) held a meeting at Headquarters in New York today on the role of the extractive industry in Africa.