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On 23 July 2014, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced the appointment of Ellen Margrethe Løj of Denmark as his Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS). Ms. Løj succeeded Hilde Johnson of Norway, who had completed her assignment two weeks earlier, on 7 July 2014. 

Thursday, 17 November 2016, presented an uncomely anniversary for the inhabitants of Mosul, the second largest Iraqi city, located about 400 kilometres north of Baghdad. It was one month since the Battle of Mosul began, with Iraqi government forces under Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi seeking to recapture the city from ISIL, also known as Da’esh. The extremist group has held control over the city for more than two years now, subjecting civilians there to despicable atrocities and untold suffering.

In a new report analyzing the global climate between 2011-2015, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) – the United Nations system’s weather agency – found an increasingly visible human footprint on extreme weather and climate events with dangerous and costly impacts.

“The police in the UN peacekeeping operations are there to assist the host country police,” says Priscilla Makotose, United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur UNAMID Police Commissioner, the highest-ranking female police officer in the UN system, appointed in March 2016.

Crisp uniforms and the jingle-jangle of brass filled the corridors. With them, came an extra sense of security that permeated United Nations Headquarters in New York this week. For the eleventh year running, erect posture and striding confidence was the daily modus operandi, as the Heads of United Nations Police Components amassed for UN Police (UNPOL) Week 2016, which runs from 7-11 November.

Ahead of the inaugural World Tsunami Awareness Day on 5 November, two survivors of the most devastating tsunami in recent history – a Czech supermodel and a member of the Spanish family featured in the film The Impossible (2012) – have joined the United Nations’ commemoration of the Day.