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The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today announced plans to help hundreds of young survivors traumatized by this month's school massacre in southern Russia to "pick up the pieces" by supporting their psychological rehabilitation and restoring their faith in schooling.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today announced he is dispatching the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour and his Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Juan Méndez to the strife-torn region of Darfur in Sudan to recommend what can be done to protect civilians there from continuing brutal attacks by local militias.

The new President of the United Nations General Assembly today called on the media to support the world body in addressing burning global issues and help the Assembly restore its leadership role.

Countries across southern Africa are showing they have the determination necessary to win the battle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic but many started too late and hurdles remain, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa said today.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan believes that the Iraq war in 2003 demonstrated the need for the international community to address the issue of preventive action in the context of Charter principles and showed the importance of joint efforts on matters of use of force, a United Nations spokesman said today.

With the greatest number of hungry people in the world living in Asia, the region must take decisive steps to reduce malnutrition or risk losing much of its tremendous economic potential, a top official of the United Nations emergency feeding agency said today.

A new draft plan in support of Palestinian rights adopted by a non-governmental conference committee meeting at the United Nations calls for escalating pressure on Israel to end its occupation and threatens to seek divestment, arms embargoes and other sanctions in the event of non-compliance.

The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia today adjourned the already long-running genocide trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Miloševic again, this time for almost a month, to allow his recently appointed defence lawyers more time to prepare their case.

Women are often the first victims of any armed conflict, but they must also be recognized as central to any solution of that conflict, instead of being marginalized or ignored, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette said today as she opened a conference in New York devoted to gender justice in post-conflict countries.

As Burundi government forces and rebels continue to clash near Bujumbura, the capital, United Nations agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs) are constructing temporary shelters for an estimated 25,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today.