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The United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo today teamed with the world body’s cultural heritage agency and leading development experts to kick off an international conference to explore ways to make globalization work for the benefit of all humankind.

With United Nations humanitarian officials calling the situation in war-torn Liberia critical, Secretary-General Kofi Annan renewed his appeal today for urgent action to deploy peacekeeping forces in the West African country, where tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting and food stocks are dwindling.

Many countries feel the internationalization of overall operations in Iraq under a United Nations umbrella is important, but a new Security Council resolution giving the world body a broader mandate is not imminent, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today.

The new head of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today announced plans to rapidly step up the global fight to eradicate polio and named a senior agency expert in SARS as his representative to spearhead the effort.

The United Nations today launched an appeal for more than half a billion dollars for southern Africa to provide life-saving assistance for 6.5 million people severely weakened by consecutive failed harvests, extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS.

Declaring that “most of the challenges we face are bigger than any single one of us,” United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today gathered together leaders of some 20 of the world’s regional organizations to forge “a new vision of global security” in the face of an “unprecedented” list of problems, above all terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

The trial of a former mayor in Rwanda began today at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), with prosecutors charging that the accused is guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, for extermination, murder and rape.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has published a digest comprising the findings of judicial and quasi-judicial bodies of the United Nations and regional organizations on the protection of human rights in the context of measures against terrorism.

The battle against the Al-Qaida terrorist organization leaves no room for complacency and countries must seek out operatives trained in making crude forms of weapons of mass destruction as well as vet charitable foundations used as conduits for money, the United Nations Security Council was told today.

Thousands more Liberians have been displaced after the rebel capture of Buchanan, the West African country’s second-largest city, and the United Nations has received reports that over 50,000 people, including some who fled recent fighting in Monrovia, the capital, are moving towards an area near the international airport.