The joint conference of the United Nations department of public information and non-governmental organizations, which gets under way in Australia tomorrow, will this year focus on global health in relation to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aiming to attract greater participation of civil society from the Asia-Pacific region.

A United Nations human rights body rebuked France on Friday for its crackdown on Roma and urged the government to try to integrate members of the EU's biggest ethnic minority rather than send them to eastern Europe. The 18 independent experts voiced concern that some of the hundreds of Roma flown to Romania in recent weeks under what France calls a voluntary repatriation programme had not been fully informed of their rights or freely consented.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in Burundi is using handheld Personal Digital Assistants, or PDAs, to help keep tabs on the country's food situation. The technology has helped speed up the process of data collection and improve the accuracy of the organization's food security surveys.

The second annual Global Model United Nations conference, bringing together hundreds of students from more than 60 countries, wrapped up in the Malaysian capital today with a call by a senior official from the world body for greater dialogue and understanding.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan E. Rice and her staff moved this morning into the new U.S. mission to the United Nations, a 26-story solid concrete tower that is designed to protect America's diplomats from a suicide car bomb or chemical or biological weapon attack. Its completion is two years behind schedule.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday called for the rapid delivery of assistance for millions of people in flood-stricken Pakistan, as he saw for himself the devastation wrought by the recent disaster.

In the parallel world of UN climate talks, where time is measured in endless debates about commas and full stops, negotiations have been going on for three years. But with only six days' formal talk now possible before a crunch political meeting in Cancún, Mexico, in November, the only progress being made is backwards.

Posing the question, "If you had the opportunity to speak to world leaders, what would you say?" the United Nations is holding a video contest to encourage world citizens to voice their opinions to world leaders and weigh in on decisions made by members of the United Nations and become a 2010 Citizen Ambassador.