UN Top Stories

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with senior Austrian officials today in Vienna and discussed a range of issues, including peacekeeping and disarmament.

The investigation by the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon was the focus of today’s talks with Israeli and Lebanese senior military officials today.

The United Nations food aid agency has stepped in to help in southern Bolivia’s El Chaco region, where a long dry spell has decimated maize harvests, threatening an entire culture of indigenous corn growers with destitution.

An anti-corruption academy co-sponsored by the United Nations opened today in Austria with the aim of filling the rising global need for training, research and contemporary measures and techniques in the fight against corruption.

The United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) today called for the finalization of the voters’ list to ensure that electoral process was proceeding according to schedule, as the West African country heads towards presidential polls on 31 October.

The world cannot afford escalating disasters of the kind recently witnessed in Pakistan and Russia, the top United Nations climate change official said today, underscoring the need for governments to take swift action to lead the world towards a low-carbon future.

The United Nations human rights chief today added her voice to the chorus of condemnation of the killing of four Israeli citizens in the West Bank this week and urged that the perpetrators be brought to justice.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he is "very much encouraged" that direct peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders have been launched today and called for those talks to tackle core issues so that a lasting peace can be reached in the Middle East.

The United Nations political chief has voiced his solidarity with the people of Somalia during a one-day visit to the Horn of Africa nation, and encouraged its leaders to focus on governing the country.

The United Nations is moving swiftly to vaccinate 1.5 million children after a polio case was detected in an area of north-eastern Afghanistan which had been free of the disease for more than a decade.

The United Nations refugee agency today called for boosting relief efforts in the flood-hit province of Balochistan in south-western Pakistan, where some 2 million people have been affected by the recent disaster and the humanitarian situation is deteriorating.

The head of the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur today called for World Bank assistance to ensure that the "dividends of peace are made evident" to promote a sustainable peace in the war-ravaged Sudanese region.

The report documenting the most serious human rights violations committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between 1993 and 2003 will be made public on 1 October, the United Nations announced today.

The head of the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur today called for World Bank assistance to ensure that the "dividends of peace are made evident" to promote a sustainable peace in the war-ravaged Sudanese region.

Nearly 100 million children across China will this month be vaccinated against measles in one of the world’s largest such public health exercise in an effort to bring the vast country closer to eliminating the contagious disease by 2012, two United Nations agencies said today.

A senior United Nations official today called on all UN Member States to become party to the world body’s landmark convention protecting the rights of the estimated 650 million people with disabilities, which has already acquired 146 signatories and 90 ratifications.

Countries can make headway on slashing hunger, poverty and a host of other socio-economic ills over the next five years, the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said today, stressing three essential elements for progress.

Athletes, singers, actors and other celebrities are lending their voices to push for accelerated progress to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline, the United Nations announced today.

No one nation, however large or powerful, can solve all problems on its own, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, stressing that it is vital for countries to work together in partnership to tackle common challenges.

A senior United Nations peacekeeping official, who is visiting the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following the recent mass rape of civilians by members of illegal armed groups, has travelled to the eastern region of the country where the crimes were committed, a UN spokesperson said today.