Rohingya refugees more vulnerable as cooler temperatures arrive: UNHCR Cooler temperatures and an increasingly risky environment are threatening the well-being of more than 600,000 Rohingya refugees who've crossed the Bangladesh border from Myanmar, said the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Friday. UNHCR is due to distribute the first of almost 200,000 items of clothing in [...]

UN peacekeeping chief pays tribute to fallen Tanzanian blue helmets The head of UN peacekeeping operations has paid tribute to the 14 Tanzanian blue helmets killed last week by suspected rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Jean-Pierre Lacroix participated in a ceremony on Thursday in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, in [...]

Volunteering with the United Nations has taught a Kenyan lawyer the value of interacting with people from around the world: something that she says "opens your mind" and allows you to grow both personally and professionally. Ann Kamunya is currently serving with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, in Turkey, where she interviews asylum-seekers. Ann trained [...]

Listen to our daily bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, presented by Matt Wells and Dianne Penn. In today's programme: the Central Emergency Response Fund will hit a record high for pledges this year, but some crises are still missing out on funding; and: What life-lessons does volunteering for the UN teach [...]

More than two-thirds of emergency response funding going to Africa More than two-thirds of UN emergency response funding is still likely to go to alleviate humanitarian crisis in Africa.  That's according to Chief of CERF, Lisa Doughten, who said after the recent annual pledging conference for 2018 at UN Headquarters that a total of $383 [...]

Security Council unity on DPRK crucial: UN Secretary-General The UN Secretary-General has underscored the importance of international unity in addressing the nuclear threat posed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). António Guterres was speaking to reporters in Tokyo on Thursday following a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, where North Korea was [...]

A "golden opportunity" has been missed to decide the future of Syria at the end of the latest round of UN-led talks in Geneva, veteran negotiator Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday. The UN Special Envoy was speaking to journalists in the Swiss city where he has been meeting Syrian government representatives and – for [...]

The number of discarded laptops, mobile phones, televisions and other electronic items worldwide weighs as much as 1.2 million heavy-duty trucks lined up from New York to Bangkok and back. And while this e-waste, as it's known, contains around $55 billion worth of gold, silver, copper and other valuable material, only about 20 per cent [...]

Half the world lacks access to "essential health services" At least half of the world's population lacks access to essential health services, with around 100 million people forced to live in "extreme poverty" due to the cost of health care. That's the grim reality highlighted by a new report from the World Bank and the World [...]

Listen to our daily bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, presented by Matt Wells and Dianne Penn. In today’s programme:  How you can help reduce the amount of electronic waste worldwide; and: Biological weapons threat under the spotlight at the UN in Geneva.