The World Health Organisation routinely spends about $200m per year on travel expenses, figures show - more than what it doles out to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

US President Barack Obama is warning that the "moment may be passing" for a two-state solution to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict.

Ukraine has filed a case against Russia at the United Nations' highest court, accusing Moscow of illegally annexing Crimea and illicitly funding separatist rebel groups.

Nearly half a million children will face starvation in north-eastern Nigeria next year and 80,000 will die unless they receive treatment, amid the humanitarian crisis created by Boko Haram's Islamic uprising, the United Nations' children's agency has warned.

An international member of the United Nations' medical team who was infected with Ebola in Liberia has died despite "intensive medical procedures", a German hospital said today.

The German magazine Der Spiegel says the US National Security Agency secretly monitored the UN’s internal video conferencing system by decrypting it last year.

Gunshots rang out and residents fled burning homes today as security forces in western Burma struggled to contain deadly ethnic and religious violence that has displaced thousands of people.

The United Nations' top envoy in Ivory Coast told the world body there was "only one winner" of the recent presidential election - and it was not the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.

A new legal agreement committing the world to curb greenhouse gas emissions is unlikely to be completed before the end of 2011, two years later than originally envisaged, the United Nations' climate chief said.

World leaders agreed today to a new plan to fight global hunger by helping poor countries feed themselves, but refused to say how much they were willing to give.

The United Nations' most powerful body will meet next week to discuss a report that accused both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Iran today announced it was testing its first nuclear power station, adding to fears over its long-term atomic ambitions.

Keira Knightley has become the new face of a campaign by human rights charity Amnesty International.

An American aid worker badly injured by a landmine in Somalia will meet today the Irish pilot who rescued him for the first time.

Russia's envoy to Nato warned the alliance today against overstepping its mandate in Kosovo and said Moscow might be forced to use "brute military force" to maintain respect on the world scene.

Rocker Bono charity auction to help fight AIDS in Africa has raised a near-record breaking $42.6m (€29m) - far more than organisers were expecting to fetch.

The UN Human Rights Council today refrained from criticising the Sudanese government for atrocities in the western Sudan region of Darfur.

Washington's new anti-terrorism law could end up violating international treaties protecting detainees, with some provisions denying suspects the right to a fair trial, a key UN rights expert said today.

The Government has pledged an additional €1.5m to the United Nations' World Food Programme as part of an agreement signed in Dublin today.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney has paid $2.8m (€2.2m) to a landmine charity after pulling out of its fundraising concert causing the event's subsequent cancellation.

Oscar-nominee Naomi Watts is joining the fight against Aids by becoming the United Nations' latest celebrity envoy.

European governments are bolstering their defences against bird flu, faced with a growing number of dead swans and the risk that migratory birds – which begin returning north next month – could bring the disease from Africa.

The Government has formally signed up to United Nations' Global Patient Safety Challenge.

The hope contained in the communiqué issued after the G8 summit yesterday is in stark relief to the devastation and death visited on London by the terrorist bombs.

Trocaire has predicted that the international community will fail to meet its target of halving the number of people living in poverty globally by 2015.

HERE’S a sort of plain man’s guide to the politics of the Budget.

THE Arab League chief pledged support for Sudan's government before an emergency meeting on the violence that has killed thousands in that country's Darfur region.

WITH clarity of voice and affable manner, Lord Butler of Brockwell delivered his damning verdict on the failings of intelligence over Iraq.

Peter Ustinov was remembered today as a great actor and humorist who made a difference to the world through his good works for children.

Survivors of Iran’s earthquake scavenged the rubble for their battered belongings and desperately jostled for aid handouts as the death toll rose to 28,000, with even more feared dead.

ORGANISED crime gangs in Dublin, Limerick and Cork will be the first targets of wide-ranging legislation planned by Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

THE Pentagon mobilised 15,000 fresh troops for duty in Iraq as the US military announced yesterday it had found large caches of weapons, including missiles, near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.

The United Nations' special envoy to Iraq, Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello, has died after today's horrific bomb blast.

SO, it seems we’re a little bit divided about the Iraq war, but we have our minds made up about our own Government.

US SECRETARY of State Colin Powell told a Senate panel yesterday that what appears to be a new statement from Osama bin Laden shows why the world needs to be concerned about Iraqi ties to terrorism.

BRITAIN dramatically beefed up its military force last night as 30,000 troops prepared to travel to the Gulf for war against Iraq.

AUTHORITIES across western Europe, including Ireland, are bracing themselves for a flood of cheap heroin onto the underground market as agencies in Afghanistan report a staggering rise in opium production.

Iraq has accused the US of "unprecedented extortion" by taking the only copy of Baghdad's arms declaration to the UN Security Council.

Islamic leaders vow to maintain stance AFTER a landslide victory in Turkey’s elections, a party with Islamic roots yesterday pledged to maintain the nation’s pro-Western stance, quickly moving to soothe worries that the crucial ally would undergo a radical shift toward Islam.

US president George Bush warned the UN General Assembly yesterday that America would go to war against Iraq unless the UN forced Saddam Hussein to disarm.

Israel will not cooperate with the United Nations' fact-finding mission to inspect Jenin.

United Nations' top human rights body has voted to send an urgent mission to investigate Israeli-Palestinian violence.

British military officials say foreign troops could begin arriving in the Afghan capital of Kabul as early as next week.