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United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed six-party talks being held in Beijing, in an effort to defuse nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula as "an encouraging development" that he hoped would strengthen peace and stability.

A former Yugoslav admiral, charged before a United Nations tribunal with war crimes for the shelling and bombing of the historic Croatian coastal city of Dubrovnik in 1991, pleaded guilty today to an amended indictment of violations of the laws or customs of war, including murder and cruel treatment.

The United Nations refugee agency said today it has postponed the first repatriation convoy of Iraqi refugees from Iran pending a security review after last week’s terrorist attack against UN headquarters in Baghdad.

The United Nations Security Council today reaffirmed its readiness to establish a follow-on UN stabilization force to support Liberia's welcome political transition, and joined West African leaders in a pledge to ensure the full implementation of a recent peace accord signed by the parties.

The United Nations refugee agency voiced deep concern today over the arrests of Indonesian Acehnese asylum seekers outside its office in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur and called on the authorities to grant temporary protection to all civilians fleeing the conflict in the Indonesian province.

More than 400,000 Afghan refugees have returned home so far this year, bringing the number of returnees to more than 2.32 million since organized repatriation began in March 2002, about half the estimated total of those in Pakistan and Iran, the two principal asylum countries, the UN refugee agency announced today.

United Nations duty stations around the world organized silent marches today in memory of their colleagues and friends who were killed, and in solidarity with those who were injured, in the terrorist attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad last week.

Oscar®-award winning actress Angelina Jolie, Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has concluded a four-day mission to the Russian Federation by calling for all options to be kept open for refugees who do not yet wish to return to Chechnya.

Seeking to maintain stability in war-torn Bunia, the United Nations Security Council today authorized countries participating in the French-led force currently policing the tense northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to assist UN peacekeepers during the upcoming handover of authority there.

With progress toward overcoming poor economic conditions grinding to a halt in the past five years, 220 million Latin Americans - more than 40 per cent of the population - were living in poverty by end of 2002 and the figure is set to rise, according to a report released today by the United Nations economic commission for the region.