The top United Nations relief official today called for more than $2 billion for humanitarian projects next year in Sudan, with almost half of the funds being earmarked for the war-torn region of Darfur, where violence has uprooted nearly half the 6 million-strong population. Click here for full story. The world’s first carbon neutral airline, which offsets its harmful gas emissions by investing in ecological projects, has joined a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) initiative, promoting low-carbon economies and societies, the agency announced today. Click here for full story. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a $2.1 billion loan to Iceland to help the Nordic nation stabilize its currency, restore confidence in its banking system and limit the harshest effects of the global financial crisis. Click here for full story. General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto today called for a new politics “that starts from the bottom up, not the top down” in the face of the current global food crisis of soaring prices and mass hunger. Click here for full story. The United Nations today launched its largest ever annual humanitarian appeal, seeking $7 billion for urgent aid to 30 million people in 31 countries, dwarfing by far last year’s call for $3.8 billion for 25 million people. Click here for full story. Juan Somavia was elected to a third term as Director-General of the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) today as he pledged to work to ensure social justice amid a growing series of challenges in the global economy. Click here for full story. Police raids on several hundred buildings in the United Kingdom have recovered dozens of sex trafficking victims, mostly from East and South-East Asia, and led to legal charges against dozens of suspects, according to a United Nations report released today. Click here for full story. The top United Nations human rights official called today for an immediate end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, which she said contravened international law and had deprived those living there of their most basic human rights for months. Click here for full story. Academy Award-winning actress and activist Charlize Theron said today she was honoured to go to work for the United Nations on the Secretary-General’s “UNite to End Violence against Women” campaign after being inducted as a UN Messenger of Peace. Click here for full story. United Nations attack helicopters have mounted reconnaissance flights and “are poised to respond to any and all eventualities” in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after rebel forces violated a ceasefire and seized a number of localities in some of the worst fighting in more than a week. Click here for full story. The United Nations telecommunications agency has wrapped up a high-level conference with a declaration pledging to continue its efforts in combating threats to internet security and in reducing the impact of climate change on the world. Click here for full story. African countries are making tremendous efforts towards sound macroeconomic policy convergence on inflation, budget deficits and economic growth rates, but need to mainstream regional monetary and macroeconomic objectives in their national development strategies, according to a new United Nations report. Click here for full story. Immediate action is needed to prevent the current financial crisis from becoming a “human tragedy,” resulting in political and security challenges that would overwhelm the current economic problems, warned Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ahead of this weekend’s meeting of the so-called Group of 20 (G-20) nations. Click here for full story. The United Nations agency assisting Palestinian refugees was forced to suspend food distributions to half of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents today since continued border closures have prevented the delivery of vital supplies for over a week. Click here for full story. The number of people without adequate access to food in Iraq has been slashed by three-quarters between 2005 and 2007, according to a new assessment conducted jointly by the war-torn nation’s Government and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Click here for full story. Fighting appears to have abated in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) but tension continues and the humanitarian situation remains very worrying, with 250,000 newly displaced people in urgent need of aid, United Nations officials said today. Click here for full story. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that it is facing a serious funding crisis in providing life-saving aid to over 4 million people in Zimbabwe suffering the effects of a disastrous harvest, and it has already been forced to cut rations. Click here for full story. The United States will provide more than $44 million in additional funding to the United Nations’ campaign to combat the global outbreak of bird flu, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today. Click here for full story. United Nations agencies and their humanitarian partners today called for $11.5 million to help some 650,000 victims of deadly floods in eastern Yemen to help with food, water and sanitation, health and shelter needs. Click here for full story. The United Nations-backed Global Fund announced today that it has approved 94 new grants worth $2.75 billion to projects aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Click here for full story. The United Nations is rushing relief to civilians affected by the violence engulfing the far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as the world body’s peacekeeping mission in the vast African nation reports that fighting continues intermittently. Click here for full story. The Middle East diplomatic Quartet, which includes the United Nations, today called on the international community to put its full weight behind Israel and the Palestinians in their efforts to resolve their long-running conflict after the two sides reported that current negotiations are "substantial and promising." Click here for full story. More than 24 hours after a school building in Haiti collapsed on hundreds of children during class, United Nations peacekeepers were still trying to rescue survivors from the rubble. Click here for full story. The top official of the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) has launched the first-ever glossary of national legal terminology in the West African nation’s four major local languages. Click here for full story. Using sportswear to transmit anti-racist messages and imposing penalties for teams whose players are involved in racist incidents are just some of the ideas proposed by young people as part of a United Nations project to counter prejudice in and through sports. Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for preventing the exploitation of the environment in times of conflict, stressing that protecting nature can help countries create employment opportunities, promote development and avoid a relapse into hostilities. Click here for full story. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a two-year standby arrangement for Ukraine worth more than $16 billion to help the Eastern European country’s authorities restore economic stability in the wake of the global financial crisis. Click here for full story. The head of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) today called for revising accounting and reporting standards to boost investor confidence amid the current global financial crisis, which he warned is spreading like a “pandemic.” Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is leaving today for Nairobi to attend a United Nations-backed summit aimed at ending the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where fighting continues for a second straight day despite a recent ceasefire and aid agencies are trying to assist hundreds of thousands of displaced people. Click here for full story. A team of global experts led by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will visit Japan next month as part of the latest round of assessments on the impact of a strong earthquake last year on the world’s largest nuclear power plant located in the centre of the Asian nation. Click here for full story. The United Nations refugee agency said today that some 276,700 Afghans returned to their homeland this year through its voluntary repatriation programme, 99 per cent of them coming from neighbouring Pakistan. Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Sunday that the United Nations will soon be sending an electoral team to Bangladesh ahead of next month's parliamentary polls, which he described as a “historic opportunity” for the South Asian nation Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday urged Nepal's leaders to forge ahead with rehabilitating thousands of Maoist ex-fighters as part of the ongoing peace process, as he wrapped up his visit to the South Asian nation. Click here for full story. Top United Nations officials today voiced deep concern over the plight of the hundreds of thousands of civilians caught up in the deadly fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and appealed to all sides to ensure their safety. Click here for full story. United Nations agencies and their non-governmental organisation (NGO) partners today appealed for more than $17 million to provide food, shelter, health care, water and sanitation over the next six months to some 270,000 people affected by severe floods in Honduras. Click here for full story. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has created a new short-term lending facility for countries with strong policies and good track records but which are facing temporary liquidity problems amid the current global financial turmoil. Click here for full story. The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), which settles the damage claims of those who suffered losses because of Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, today announced that it will make $889 million available to 16 successful claimants. Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived today in the Philippines, the first stop on a four-nation Asia tour that will also take the United Nations chief to India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Click here for full story. The world has recognized the strides towards peace Nepalis have made, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a new report made public today, commending the parties in the Asian country for their commitment to consolidating democracy. Click here for full story. The staged tsunami drill, “Exercise Pacific Wave 08,” will involve two days of testing the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (PTWS) – a UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) established network to promote the exchange of seismic and sea level data for rapid tsunami detection. Click here for full story. Increasing delays in the dual identification and electoral processes is imperilling the hard-won peace in Côte d’Ivoire, which is rebuilding after a brutal 14-year civil war, the top United Nations envoy to the West African nation cautioned today. Click here for full story. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced forthcoming loans for Hungary and Ukraine – the latter potentially receiving up to $16.5 billion – to strengthen both countries’ financial systems and ensure fiscal sustainability. Click here for full story. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights today begins a week-long review of the situation in Colombia amid concerns that indigenous groups continue to be forced to flee their territories by armed groups. Click here for full story. The senior United Nations envoy to Somalia has welcomed the agreement between the country's transitional government and Islamist rebels on a ceasefire to end their deadly conflict, the establishment of a unity government and military forces and the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops. Click here for full story. Survivors of this season's four devastating hurricanes in Haiti will receive a boost from the United Nations fund set up to help in the wake of major disasters, the UN relief chief has announced after visiting the struggling Caribbean country. Click here for full story. The poorest of the world's poor deserve immediate support to help them endure the global financial crisis, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other top United Nations officials said today, warning that recent hard-won progress on poverty could be lost unless concerted action is taken. Click here for full story. The United Nations humanitarian wing today called for more funding to help overcome a major outbreak of cholera in Guinea-Bissau, which has killed at least 200 people since May and shows no signs of abating. Click here for full story. From a concert in New York by world renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma to a tree-planting ceremony in strife-torn Darfur to a blood donation drive in Namibia, celebrations were held across the globe today to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. Click here for full story. Democracy will take decades to take root in Myanmar, and in the meantime tangible, step-by-step benchmarks should be set up to spur progress in the Asian country, an independent United Nations human rights expert told the General Assembly today. Click here for full story. More than 1.6 million children who – either as refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) or migrants – have become separated from their parents or guardians, and they need asylum and migration policies that take into account their special needs, a senior official with the United Nations refugee agency stressed today. Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met today with five eminent economists and the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to discuss the impact of the global financial crisis on UN efforts to achieve the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Click here for full story. Shattering previous records, nearly 117 million people in 131 countries stood up last weekend as part of a United Nations-led campaign to demand that world leaders keep their promises to halve extreme poverty and achieve the other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their target date of 2015. Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will meet with a group of eminent economists tomorrow as part of his evaluation of the impact of the global financial crisis on United Nations efforts to achieve the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Click here for full story. The senior United Nations political official expressed his hope today that talks between Israel and Palestine will both continue and intensify – in spite of the transition under way in the former country – in line with the peace process launched last year in the United States city of Annapolis. Click here for full story. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today announced that it is seeking an explanation from the Yemeni Government on recent statements that Eritreans and Ethiopians will be denied access to the Middle East country. Click here for full story. The International Criminal Court (ICC) today confirmed its earlier decision to suspend the trial of a Congolese rebel leader accused of recruiting child soldiers to serve in his militia, but ordered that he remain in detention pending another hearing. Click here for full story. The security conditions in Darfur remain so poor that the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping operation cannot operate effectively, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in his latest report on the mission, urging the parties to the conflict in western Sudan to stop fighting immediately and start working towards a peaceful settlement. Click here for full story. A United Nations-backed project worth almost $40 million is aiming to boost agricultural production and employment prospects for some 95,000 poor households in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, an area that suffers from a harsh, arid climate and low rainfall. Click here for full story. The head of the United Nations labour agency has called for bold and innovative action to avert an unemployment crisis resulting from the current global financial turmoil, which could increase the number of jobless people worldwide by 20 million. Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today spoke out against the recent killing of aid workers in Somalia and Afghanistan, condemning the murders and voicing alarm at the increasing number of attacks against humanitarian staff in both countries. Click here for full story. The head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan (UNMIS) has handed over a satellite imagery system to the team tasked with producing a border map, one of the key elements of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended the long-running north-south civil war in the vast African nation. Click here for full story. Meeting today in Canada, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and French President Nicolas Sarkozy underscored the need for swift and decisive measures to be taken on the current financial crisis. Click here for full story. The United Nations agency tasked with protecting press freedom today condemned the recent murder of a local newspaper editor in southern Thailand, the second journalist to be killed in the South-East Asian country in less than a month and the fourth this year. Click here for full story. There is no time to waste in the fight against poverty, the Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro warned as she led a gathering at the United Nations to symbolically stand up against poverty today, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Click here for full story. The General Assembly today elected Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda to serve as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms starting on 1 January next year. Click here for full story. Three university students from the United States will head to Ethiopia next month to film the work of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) after winning the first-ever online video competition organized by the agency and YouTube to raise awareness about global hunger. Click here for full story. The gap between high and low wage earners has increased dramatically in most of the world since the early 1990s despite strong economic growth that created millions of new jobs, according to a report published today by the United Nations labour agency. Click here for full story. As the eyes of the world continue to watch the ups and downs of global markets amid the current financial turmoil, United Nations officials are calling attention today to another global crisis – hunger – which affects millions daily and kills a child every six seconds. Click here for full story. The United Nations food agency partnered with the European Professional Football Leagues today to kick off a campaign aimed at raising funds and awareness of the global fight against hunger and malnutrition at a ceremony in Rome. Click here for full story. The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has almost completed its withdrawal from the Horn of Africa region, with the last group of blue helmets having returned to their home country. Click here for full story. Nearly 200 million people from over 70 countries participated today in United Nations events marking the first ever Global Handwashing Day, held to raise awareness about how a lack of effective sanitation and poor hygiene practices can bring death and disease. Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Geneva today for talks on the role of the United Nations mission in Georgia after the August conflict with Russia in the Caucasus country. Click here for full story. The number of violent attacks in Afghanistan in the last few months has been the highest since 2002 as the insurgency spreads beyond the south and east of the country, the top United Nations envoy told the Security Council today. Click here for full story. Disbursements by the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for humanitarian aid worldwide topped the $1 billion mark this week when more than $200,000 was disbursed to feed women and children in Tajikistan, which is suffering from food insecurity and a poor harvest. Click here for full story. Preliminary tests indicate that a mystery disease in Zambia and South Africa that has killed three people in the past month is caused by a virus from the family that includes Lassa fever, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) announced today, as reports emerged that a fourth case of the illness has been confirmed Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for more action over the global financial crisis following the “laudable” steps taken by major economies and international financial institutions over the weekend, voicing deep concern over the impact of the crisis on the developing world, particularly the poorest of the poor. Click here for full story. A new agreement between the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) sets the stage for the establishment of the world’s first training centre devoted to education, research and training to prevent and combat corruption. Click here for full story. The top United Nations official in Afghanistan has welcomed the changes announced by President Hamid Karzai to his 26-member cabinet, stating that they reflect the priorities set by the Government and its people. Click here for full story. A former top Rwandan official has pleaded not guilty to ten counts of genocide and other crimes at the United Nations tribunal set up to deal with the 1994 mass killings in the small Great Lakes nation. Click here for full story. The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) today urged European Union (EU) Member States to take practical steps in preventing sexual violence against women in conflict and post-conflict situations. Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the parties in Zimbabwe to step up their efforts to reach a “workable agreement” following the power-sharing deal reached earlier this month that ended months of political upheaval and set the stage for the formation of a government of national unity. Click here for full story. The top United Nations peacekeeping official is on his first official visit to Sudan’s Darfur region, where the world body is slated to field its largest mission in an effort to stem a conflict that has already killed some 300,000 people directly or from resulting disease and malnutrition, and uprooted than 2.7 million others. Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and top executives from over one dozen global pharmaceutical companies agreed today that greater efforts must be made to combat HIV/AIDS, despite significant strides that have been made in improving access to prevention and treatment. Click here for full story. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today appealed for $140 million to feed some 4 million Zimbabweans over the next six months, warning that without more funds, the agency will run out of stocks by January. Click here for full story. United Nations officials are marking the International Day for Disaster Reduction with a call to invest more to make hospitals safe in the event of natural hazards such as earthquakes and cyclones, stressing that doing so not only saves lives but is highly cost-effective. Click here for full story. A former top Rwandan official facing charges of genocide was transferred today from Frankfurt, Germany, to Arusha, Tanzania, to the United Nations war crimes tribunal set up to deal with the 1994 mass killings in the small Great Lakes nation. Click here for full story. A dysfunctional United Nations security management system, a lack of adequate supervision and training, and significant lapses in judgement and performance all played a major role in the 2007 terrorist bombings of UN offices in Algiers, which killed 17 staff members, an independent panel reported today. Click here for full story. Five community groups have been singled out for special recognition by the United Nations-backed Equator Initiative for their innovative efforts to slash poverty and conserve biodiversity. Click here for full story. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, will deliver a ruling next week on Georgia’s claim against Russia that it has breached a global pact against racial discrimination. Click here for full story. An Egyptian professor and a Portuguese author will each receive this year’s Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced today. Click here for full story. The world’s poorest people can count on the United Nations and its Member States to support them, despite the current crisis engulfing financial markets, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today. Click here for full story. Learning from the success in rehabilitating the Iraqi marshlands that some believe was the site of the Biblical Garden of Eden, United Nations-backed pilot projects are now targeting a ‘lost’ lake in Mali, a Kenyan forest that is a vital source for key rivers and lakes and land restoration in Haiti. Click here for full story. The top United Nations envoy to Afghanistan today stressed the need for a political “surge” to boost the prospects for peace in the strife-torn nation and to respond to urgent humanitarian concerns such as access for the delivery of vital food aid. Click here for full story. The International Criminal Court (ICC) today called for renewed international efforts to arrest the top leaders of the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) after a series of recent attacks in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in which dozens of civilians have been killed, scores of schoolchildren abducted and tens of thousands displaced. Click here for full story. Low salaries, lack of job security, inadequate training and overcrowded classrooms have combined to deter many willing and eligible people from becoming teachers, the United Nations warned today as it marked World Teachers' Day with a call to improve the recruitment of candidates. Click here for full story. Effective security is the key to ensuring the return home of tens of thousands of people displaced by the recent conflict in Georgia, a United Nations human rights expert said today, warning about the ongoing climate of fear faced by civilians in the region. Click here for full story. The World Bank’s funding for renewable and efficient energy projects in developing countries rose 87 per cent during the past year to nearly $2.7 billion, reflecting the growing interest and demand for environmentally-friendly sources of power. Click here for full story. The top United Nations envoy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today asked for additional peacekeepers beyond the nearly 19,000 uniformed personnel already there to prevent the vast country from slipping back into “horrendous” conflict. Click here for full story. Displaced people from Burundi's rival Hutu and Tutsi groups are being resettled side by side under a pilot project funded by the United Nations refugee agency aimed at seeking reconciliation and binding up the wounds of decades of bloody ethnic violence in the small central African country. Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern over the volatile security and political atmosphere in Guinea-Bissau, where crucial elections are slated to take place next month, in his latest report to the Security Council on the West African country. Click here for full story. The war crimes trial of a former chief of the Yugoslav army got under way today at the United Nations tribunal set up to try those accused of the worst war crimes committed during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s. Click here for full story. The United States retailer Marshalls has signed on to a United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) campaign to bring an end to violence against women. Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for collective responsibility and closer collaboration between the United Nations and Member States to protect the Organization’s staff, who, along with humanitarian workers, are facing increasingly serious threats to their safety in many parts of the world. Click here for full story. The United Nations today began three days of high-level consultations aimed at boosting foreign direct investment in the world’s 31 landlocked developing countries (LLDC) to strengthen their participation in international trade and the global economy. Click here for full story. More than a million people struck by violence in the Central African Republic (CAR), including 110,000 who have been uprooted from their homes, will receive life-saving assistance under funding announced today by the new United Nations Common Humanitarian Fund. Click here for full story. About 1,200 Congolese have sought shelter in southern Sudan in recent days to escape brutal attacks by members of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) that have included the abduction of children and the torching of homes, the United Nations refugee agency reported today. Click here for full story. The United Nations, the Myanmar Government and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which comprises the Tripartite Core Group, have stressed the need for continued assistance to the some 2.4 million people affected by Cyclone Nargis, noting that nearly half of the $482 million appeal launched in July remains unfunded. Click here for full story. With the crisis of contaminated milk products in China having driven over 54,000 children to seek medical treatment, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has issued preliminary guidance to help authorities decide on the health concerns of melamine levels in food. Click here for full story. A team of students from Lebanon and Syria has taken first place in the largest global contest for students, backed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which seeks to foster dialogue between children from different cultural backgrounds. Click here for full story. The United Nations atomic watchdog agency urgently needs greater funds and resources to carry out its multifaceted tasks, from verifying that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons and preventing terrorists from acquiring radioactive materials to spurring advances in medicine and agriculture, its chief warned today. Click here for full story. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a change of pace and direction in Afghanistan, where the worsening security situation is hampering the efforts of the Government, the United Nations and international partners to rebuild the strife-torn nation. Click here for full story. The principles and the work of the United Nations are needed more than ever as the world confronts an array of major challenges and crises, several countries told the final day of the General Assembly’s annual General Debate today, urging stronger global leadership from individual States and continued UN reform. 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