The Democratic Republic of Congo's envoy to the United Nations called
on the Security Council Wednesday to intervene to stop what he called
an 'imminent' Rwandan attack on the eastern DRC city of Goma.

NICOSIA, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - A group of international statesmen known as 'The Elders' including former US president Jimmy Carter will visit the divided island of Cyprus on Wednesday to support UN-backed peace talks.

GENEVA, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - More people died from natural disasters in the first six months of 2008 than in the Asian tsunami of 2004 due mainly to the earthquake in China and cyclone in Myanmar, the United Nations said Wednesday.

NICOSIA, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Nobel peace laureates ex-US president Jimmy Carter and anti-apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu arrived in Cyprus on Wednesday to back UN-brokered efforts to reunite the Mediterranean island.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - The UN General Assembly voted Wednesday to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on whether Kosovo's unilateral secession from Serbia is 'in accordance with international law.'

The vote in the 192-member assembly on a Serbian resolution seeking support for the referral was 77 in favor, 74 abstentions and six against.

BELGRADE, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic hailed the UN General Assembly's decision on Wednesday to ask the top world court to rule whether Kosovo's secession from Serbia conforms to international law.

BELGRADE, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic hailed the UN General Assembly's decision on Wednesday to ask the top world court to rule whether Kosovo's secession from Serbia conforms to international law.

BELGRADE, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic hailed the UN General Assembly's decision on Wednesday to ask the top world court to rule whether Kosovo's secession from Serbia conforms to international law.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - The Democratic Republic of Congo's envoy to the United Nations called Wednesday for an urgent UN Security Council meeting to discuss what he called an 'imminent' Rwandan attack on the eastern DRC city of Goma.

THE HAGUE, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Survivors of the 1995 massacre in Srebenica in Bosnia on Tuesday lodged an appeal against a court decision that they could not sue the UN in the Netherlands for failing to protect the enclave.

GENEVA, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - The new United Nations human rights chief on Tuesday condemned the killing of a Somali family in her native South Africa and urged authorities to take stronger steps to stem xenophobic violence.

GENEVA, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - The new United Nations human rights chief on Tuesday condemned the killing of a Somali family in her native South Africa and urged authorities to take stronger steps to stem xenophobic violence.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - The security situation in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region is deteriorating, and the UN-African Union force (UNAMID) struggling to maintain peace there is overstretched, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday condemned the latest suicide attacks in Sri Lanka, including one which killed at least 27 people.

'The secretary general strongly condemns acts of this kind that have caused death and injury of many civilians throughout Sri Lanka,' said a statement issued by his spokeswoman Michele Montas.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called for a fourth-month extension of the mandate of the UN mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) while the parties in the recent Russia-Georgia conflict seek agreement on a cooperation framework.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Tuesday urged states to commit naval and air assets to the fight against rampant piracy off lawless Somalia, with France saying this meant that force can be used against the pirates.

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - The UN human rights chief Tuesday urged South Africa to do more to stop xenophobic violence, as Amnesty International said officials had failed to help foreigners displaced by the attacks.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - The UN General Assembly meets Wednesday to debate a Serbian draft resolution seeking support for an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on the legality of Kosovo's independence.

SOFIA, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Disagreements over the degree of autonomy to be granted to Cyprus's two rival communities are stalling talks to reunite the island, Cypriot President Demetric Christofias said Tuesday.

'It was decided that a federation with two communities would be set up,' Christofias told journalists during a visit to the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

ROME, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - The UN food agency cast doubt Tuesday on the potential of biofuels to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions while warning that their development threatens food security.

GENEVA, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Britain's development minister on Tuesday urged the United Nations to put better-qualified people in charge of relief operations, saying lives are at risk from poorly-managed aid projects.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution urging states to deploy naval vessels and military aircraft to actively join the fight against rampant piracy off the coast of lawless Somalia.

COPENHAGEN, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen called Tuesday on the European Union to strengthen its commitment to basic freedoms, and in particular freedom of expression, saying it remained under threat.

KABUL, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - The UN special representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, appealed Monday to leaders of a Taliban-led insurgency to allow aid workers to distribute food aid ahead of winter.

Eide said the militants' agreement to allow medical teams to reach children in a polio immunisation drive last month should be the basis for other humanitarian action.

GENEVA, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - The head of the UN refugee agency said Monday that the organisation would likely spend 500 million dollars (370 million euros) more this year than in 2006 as it tackles growing problems worldwide.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - The new head of UN peacekeeping arrived in Khartoum Monday for a week-long familiarization tour of Sudan including talks with Sudanese leaders and a visit to strife-torn Darfur, the UN spokeswoman said Monday.

MOGADISHU, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - A suspected bomb blast wounded an Italian UN official, killed his Somali driver and destroyed their vehicle Monday in the Somali town of Merka, a security official and witnesses said.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 4, 2008 (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Saturday condemned the attack by separatist Kurdish rebels in Turkey near the Iraqi border that killed 15 soldiers, his spokesperson Michelle Montas said.

BELGRADE, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Serbia's foreign minister charged Sunday that 'powerful and influential states' were trying to defeat a draft UN resolution aimed at challenging the legality of Kosovo's independence at the world court.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - The court in Kosovo's ethnically divided city of Mitrovica, wrecked in clashes between Serbs and international security forces earlier this year, reopened on Friday, UN officials said.

GENEVA, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - At least 80 civilians were killed and more than 100 others injured in violence in the Somalian capital Mogadishu in the last week of September, the United Nations said on Friday.

GENEVA, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - Syria has been hit by the worst drought in 40 years, endangering the livelihoods of one million people, the United Nations warned Friday as it appealed for 20 million dollars in aid.

The UN special envoy for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on
Friday urged the Security Council to provide extra troops for his
peacekeeping mission to cope with an upsurge in rebel attacks

Japan said Friday it will send two military officers to Sudan to join
UN peacekeepers overseeing a peace deal that ended a two-decade
north-south civil war.

ISLAMABAD, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - The United Nations will withdraw the children of its foreign staff based in the Pakistani capital Islamabad after last month's bombing at the Marriott Hotel, a senior UN official said Thursday.