The fight to win back the youth from the clutches of radical Islamists is being waged in cyberspace and on social media, the head of a regional organization promoting Muslim solidarity has said. Hameed Opeleyeru of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation or OIC spoke at a UN Security Council debate on "combating extremist ideology". The [...]

Mobile operators worldwide are looking to bring more than four billion people into the internet era. Through an industry association known as the GSMA, they are working with governments and other partners to reduce barriers to access, such as network coverage and cost. Leaders in the field of information and communications technology (ICT) are in [...]

Listen to a bulletin of news and features from United Nations Radio, with Jocelyne Sambira and Matthew Wells. Today: 60,000 people have been killed by criminal and armed groups in Sub-Saharan Africa in the past decade; And agriculture is the main focus of day 3 of the UN's climate conference in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Increasing taxes on tobacco is an "effective and important measure" for governments to prevent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), also known as chronic bronchitis. That view is expressed by Nils Billo from the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the latest WHO estimates, currently 64 million people have COPD and that the disease could become [...]

Agriculture is a fundamental part of global efforts to combat the impacts of climate change, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The UN agency is calling for a transformation of the sector that will see more sustainable management of water and other natural resources Boosting agriculture can also help to reduce poverty and [...]

In the past decade, armed groups have been responsible for 60,000 deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, according to the head of UN peacekeeping operations. Herve Ladsous made the remarks at an event to mark the tenth anniversary of community violence reduction (CVR) programmes in peacekeeping. These community-driven programmes aim to combat insecurity and include mediation [...]

Central African Republic "still one of most dangerous places on earth" The Central African Republic's recovery is continuing slowly, but the country remains one of the most dangerous places on earth for children, UNICEF has announced. Latest data from the UN agency indicates that ongoing insecurity – including renewed violence in October – has left 850,000 people [...]

Small island states are pushing for the implementation of a UN-backed international climate agreement aimed at keeping global temperature rises to below 2 degrees Celsius; that's according to the Minister of Environment and Energy in the Maldives archipelago. The international community is currently meeting at the COP22 summit in Morocco to discuss how to put [...]

Food production in war-torn Syria has hit a record low and has left nine million people wondering where their next meal will come from, the United Nations has said. More than five years of civil conflict and unfavourable weather conditions in parts of the country have made it increasingly difficult for farmers to get access [...]

"Pop-up public spaces" combined with what have been described as "democratic three-dimensional tools" are proving an effective way to engage poor communities in urban design. That's the view of Pontus Westerberg, of UN-Habitat, the UN programme for sustainable cities. He is the manager of the Block by Block initiative, a collaboration between UN- Habitat and [...]