As the Central African Republic (CAR) prepares for upcoming elections, the country continues to grapple with a fragile security and humanitarian context, the UN Security Council heard on Thursday.

Deadly hostilities continued along the front-line regions of Ukraine on Wednesday, displacing civilians and damaging civilian infrastructure, the UN has reported.

The conflict-impacted people of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) urgently need much more international assistance than they are getting today, the UN’s top aid official said on Thursday.

It wasn’t an average Thursday morning in Manhattan. In the early hours, UN diplomats (and UN News) hit the streets in their sneakers – from Times Square to East River – following a route that traced the shape of “UN@80”.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are increasingly being subjected to forced displacement and land seizures, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, has reported.

The UN is monitoring the situation in Kenya in the wake of deadly antigovernment protests on Wednesday.

Most families in the Gaza Strip are surviving on one meal a day and one-third go entire days without eating as a result of Israel’s continued bombardment of the enclave, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and partners.

When Bashar Al-Assad ruled Syria, his regime was widely accused of profiting from the production and trafficking of Captagon, an illicit synthetic drug that is most commonly abused by users in the Middle East.

KABUL, Jun 25 (IPS) - It was a sunny winter day in Kabul. I decided to step out and take a stroll around my surroundings. With my long dress and hijab on, I left the house. Since I was not too far from home, I did not need the company of a Mahram, a male guard, by my side – a strict restriction placed on Afghan women by the Taliban.

ADDIS ABABA / NAIROBI, Jun 25 (IPS) - Imagine investing US$14 billion, or even slightly less, to achieve universal literacy in 17 African countries where more than half the adult population still cannot read or write. Pair that with another US$36 billion to connect Africa’s landlocked nations through 12,000 kilometres of new railway lines along priority transport corridors.