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Member States of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) are set to convene next week in Geneva for their fifty-sixth annual assembly, when they are expected to discuss key global public health issues.

With Congolese parties signing a ceasefire agreement today for the northeastern region of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Security Council to consider quickly deploying a multinational emergency force to help stabilize the volatile situation in the town of Bunia.

United Nations officials turned their attention to the problem of Iraqi refugees today, calling for the return of or compensation for up to 1 million people displaced internally by Saddam Hussein, and preparing for the repatriation of up to 500,000 exiles from outside the country.

The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator flew into Iraq today and asked the United States authorities to address the lack of security, which has been seriously impeding UN abilities to deliver badly needed humanitarian aid.

The United Nations Security Council welcomed the ceasefire agreement signed today for the volatile Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as well as the efforts by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to address the urgent humanitarian situation in Bunia.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on world leaders today to provide the resources necessary for putting families closer to the centre of public policy in the effort to solve social welfare issues ranging from ageing and migration to fighting AIDS.

A United Nations human rights expert called on the Government of Pakistan today to stop further violence between tenants and a Ranger unit at military-controlled farms in Okara to fully investigate the killing of a farmer earlier this week and to punish the perpetrators.

The United Nations labour agency has negotiated a formal understanding with Myanmar for the establishment of a facilitator to assist possible victims of forced labour in the south Asian country.

The top United Nations human rights official today called on the United States and its coalition partners to ensure the immediate protection and integrity of mass grave sites in Iraq in order to preserve evidence of serious human rights violations committed by the ousted government.

The provisional local authorities in Kosovo were today excluded from United Nations delegations to three forthcoming international meetings after the provincial assembly passed a resolution that the top UN official there called "divisive" and against the spirit of avoiding a return to Kosovo's violent past.