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With insecurity threatening to derail Afghanistan's entire political process and the country's drug production turning the old Silk Road into a new "opium-paved road," two top United Nations officials called on the international community today to beef up deployment of security forces there and provide other vital assistance.

The Liberian Government and the country's two main rebel factions have signed a ceasefire agreement paving the way for comprehensive peace talks and the proposed formation of a transitional administration in the hopes of ending the West African nation's bloody civil war, according to a top United Nations envoy.

United Nations envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, well into the second week of meetings with a full spectrum of Iraqi political leaders, said today he was discovering by the day a convergence of views on the need for the "Iraqi-ization" of the process of moving the country forward.

Divisions among Somali leaders persist, even as the reconciliation process gears up for its third and final phase of negotiating the formation of an all-inclusive government, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new report.

As the United Nations and its partners today opened the virtual "doors" of a pioneering, online global university, Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged educators to use the landmark initiative to help ensure that developing countries could finally be "full partners" in the new information and communications technology explosion.

Some 2,700 refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have returned home to the Central African Republic (CAR) in the last week, paving the way for the United Nations refugee agency to close its camp in the DRC's northeastern Equateur Province.

The governments of Iran and Afghanistan have signed a joint agreement with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees.

The Security Council today strongly backed efforts in Afghanistan to reign in lawlessness, with a particular emphasis on curbing the illicit drug trade emanating from that country.

Welcoming the signing of a ceasefire between the Liberian Government and the country's two main rebel factions, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on the parties to now build this momentum and create favourable security conditions throughout the country that will permit the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to desperate civilians.

Iran has failed to report certain nuclear material and activities and needs to quickly implement an additional international agreement in order to provide credible assurances regarding the peaceful nature of its nuclear activities, the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency reported today.