UN News Centre

Marking 50 years since the world first came together to discuss the peaceful uses of outer space, government leaders, policy makers, civil society representatives and space experts will gather at a United Nations forum in Vienna from Monday to explore the future course of global space cooperation for the benefit of humankind.

Countries in the Near-East and North Africa, where chronic water shortages are sure to worsen due to climate change, must take pro-active steps to become more resilient against droughts, the United Nations agriculture agency said on Friday.

Though the past 12 months had been the most encouraging in terms of advancing the peace process in Mali, security challenges still pose a dangerous threat, with civilians and security forces still being attacked, the top United Nations peacekeeping official told the Security Council on Thursday.  

As the Yemeni port city of Hodeida continues to come under attack from Saudi-led coalition forces on Thursday, seeking to drive out Houthi rebels who control the city, the United Nations and humanitarian partners are rushing to provide life-saving assistance to thousands of vulnerable families there.

By Philip Smucker   At the newly-established “50/50” fast food restaurant on the tree-lined streets of Herat, in the west of Afghanistan, business is brisk as deliveries are whisked away, on the back of motorbikes to hungry customers across the ancient city. 

Expressing solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, the United Nations envoy in the country has expressed hope that the temporary ceasefires marking the final days of the holy month of Ramadan in the war-battered nation, will lead to the lasting peace that Afghans so badly “want and deserve.”

Older people are increasingly subject to financial abuse, in many cases by their own family members, a United Nations human rights expert warned on Thursday.    

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the Taliban’s announcement of a three-day partial ceasefire during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, urging all parties concerned “to seize this opportunity and embrace an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.”

Weapon-toting intruders at a hospital in war torn Central African Republic (CAR) drew grave condemnation from the United Nations humanitarian coordinator on the ground, calling it “an outrageous violation of international humanitarian law.”

Unless there is a change of course, the amount of plastic waste in the world’s oceans will outweigh the fish that live in them, by 2050, said the United Nations Secretary-General on Saturday, declaring that the world now faces a “global emergency” over the oceans.

An India-United Nations fund aimed at supporting sustainable development for low-income nations marked its first anniversary on Friday, with 22 projects having already been approved in 25 partner countries.

One month after the start of an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), United Nations health experts on Friday reported “very strong progress” in the response to the disease.

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC), on Friday, decided to acquit Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, former Vice President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and head of a rebel group in the country, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has called for more accountability for human traffickers in Libya, after the UN Security Council on Thursday added six individuals accused of leading smuggling and trafficking networks in the country, to its Sanctions List.

After four consecutive poor rainy seasons that brought Somalia to the brink of famine, the country is now seeing near-record rainfall, and with it, flooding that has already displaced hundreds of thousands of people, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.

In a single round of voting on Friday, the United Nations General Assembly elected five new non-permanent Members of the Security Council, who will each serve two-year terms on the body that sets the UN’s whole peace and security agenda.

From carrying your own water bottle, to volunteering for a local clean-up, everybody needs to do something to stop plastic pollution from getting into the world’s oceans, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his message for World Oceans Day.

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for “calm and restraint” on Saturday, following violent clashes between demonstrators and riot police in Mali’s capital Bamako.

Nearly 3.7 million Afghan children are missing out on school, due to on-going conflict, grinding poverty, and discrimination against girls, according to a new report from the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF.

The United Nations Security Council on Friday failed to adopt two competing draft resolutions; one produced by Kuwait, in response to the killing of dozens of Palestinian protestors in Gaza, and the other tabled by the United States, which vetoed the initial resolution saying it was “grossly one-sided” against Israel.