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In the wake of last week’s deadly terrorist bombing in Beirut and the ongoing negative impact of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon’s stability, the United Nations Security Council today reiterated “in these challenging circumstances” its strong support for Lebanon’s State institutions, including the Armed Forces and security services, in their efforts to safeguard the country.

Insufficient food, shelter, health services are among the top challenges displaced people are facing in Central Darfur , the United Nations relief wing has warned in a latest humanitarian update on the situation in Sudan.

Condemning in the strongest terms the ‘heinous and cowardly’ murder of Chinese citizen, Fan Jinghui, and Norwegian citizen, Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad, by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), the members of the United Nations Security Council today emphasized that such continued acts of barbarism “do not intimidate them, but rather stiffen their resolve.”

With roughly six weeks left under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – a set of eight universally-agreed goals adopted in 2000 to rid the world of extreme poverty and disease by 2015 – global leaders, diplomats and health experts are gathering at the UN today in New York to celebrate the progress made against one of the world’s leading killers: malaria.

Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would help counter the extremism behind the “abhorrent terrorist attacks" in Paris, Beirut and the Sinai, a senior United Nations official on the Middle East peace process said today, referring to last week’s bloody attacks and the downing of a Russian plane in Egypt last month.

With the ratification by Norway, following a similar action by Niger, of the International Labour Organization (ILO) protocol on forced labour, a significant step has been taken towards ending the scourge, as the agency’s binding instruments generally provide that an adopted protocol only comes into force 12 months after being ratified by two member States.

Indigenous peoples own, occupy or manage up to 65 per cent of the Earth’s land surface, yet they have largely been excluded from national plans prepared for next month’s United Nations climate change conference in Paris, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which is working to address the issue.

On World Toilet Day, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is urging broad action to renew efforts in providing access to adequate sanitation for all and work to comprehensively address the “vicious cycle” connecting poor sanitation and malnutrition, the theme of this year's observance of the Day.

Marking World Philosophy Day, the head of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) has stressed that sustainability calls for new ways of thinking about ourselves and the planet and as such, “philosophy and all the humanities will be essential.”

Transmission of Ebola has been stopped in Liberia and Sierra Leone, while Guinea is now treating a baby believed to be its last case, the United Nations Special Envoy on Ebola, Dr. David Nabarro, reported today, underscoring that his top priority is to make sure the thousands of survivors and their families across West Africa have access to the support they need.