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The first few dozen Sri Lankan child soldiers released by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been placed in a transit centre that was formally opened today by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in the first stage of a new programme to prepare them for civilian life and reunite them with their families.

The United Nations refugee agency today said that it had resumed activities in Liberia, two days after a gun battle in the capital, Monrovia, killed three people and left the city highly tense.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today congratulated the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on the opening of its new House of Parliaments in Geneva.

Iraq needs some $36 billion for reconstruction for the years 2004 to 2007, according to the findings of United Nations missions to be presented at the Iraqi Donor Conference in Madrid later this month.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog is expecting to receive a copy of the recent report by the United States on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD), a spokesman for the agency said today.

The world's population increasingly favours city life, but 40 per cent of housing in urban areas can now be classified as slums, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) said in a report issued today ahead of World Habitat Day next week.

Women seafarers, found mainly on cruise ships, are a small but growing percentage of employees on waterborne transportation fleets, but they are discriminated against, sexually harassed and their special hygienic needs are generally ignored, the United Nations labour agency said in a report today.

More than 1 million girls in Afghanistan have entered schools since the fall of the Taliban, which banned their attendance, in “a testament to the courage and wisdom of the Afghan people, and the generosity of the international community,” the United Nations children’s agency said today.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed deep disquiet today by the Government of Israel's decisions to continue construction of a separation wall on the West Bank and build 600 new houses in the area, a UN spokesman said.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called upon the Forces Nouvelles in Côte d'Ivoire to resume participation in the Government of National Reconciliation, which it abandoned last week.