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Lethal cluster munitions are still being used in old and new conflicts around the world, from Syria to Libya, to Nagorno-Karabakh, a UN-backed civil society report said on Wednesday.

Two senior UN officials welcomed on Tuesday the war crimes conviction and life sentencing of an armed combatant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 

Levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere hit a new record of 410.5 parts per million in 2019, and are expected to keep rising this year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin on Monday.  

When UN News first interviewed award-winning Palestinian pianist Aeham Ahmad in 2016, he was a recent arrival in Germany, having fled a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. Four years on, he wants to return home, but accepts that his chances are slim.

In a briefing to journalists on Thursday, a senior UN humanitarian official in Sudan recounted moving testimony from refugees who are crossing the border from Ethiopia in their thousands, fleeing fighting in Tigray province.

Pointing to its “pioneering legislation and policies”, on Thursday the UN chief hailed the 27-member European Union (EU) as a “a leader on climate action”, that had shown that it was possible to cut emissions while achieving economic growth. 

Refugee resettlement numbers will be at a “record low” this year, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Wednesday, with only  15,425 people resettled in the first nine months of 2020, compared to more than 50,000 in 2019. 

Criminals and violent extremists are exploiting the pandemic to build their support networks, undermine trust in government and even weaponize the virus, according to a research report published on Wednesday by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI). 

The United Nations warned on Tuesday of catastrophic consequences from Hurricane Iota, the second major tropical cyclone to hit Central America this month.   

As countries work to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, they also have the chance to “get it right” on climate change, the UN Secretary-General told a virtual gathering of influential leaders on Monday. 

Maxwell Matewere, a Malawian crime prevention expert with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has been active in the anti-human trafficking field for more than two decades. Today, he trains officials throughout Malawi to prevent and combat this crime: this year alone, despite COVID-19 restrictions, his work has led to the rescue of around three hundred human trafficking victims and 31 arrests.  

With the world population expected to rise to 9.7 billion by 2050, food production will need to keep pace, and experts believe the Ocean can provide much of the sustenance we need. The second story in our two-part series on aquaculture focuses on the opportunities for significantly scaling up fish farming.

If just two per cent of the Ocean were to be sustainably farmed, the world could easily be fed, according to experts. In the first story of a two-part series looking at the opportunities and challenges facing Ocean farming, we take a look at the huge potential role of seaweed in mitigating climate change, cutting marine pollution, and achieving the UN goal of Zero Hunger.

Tony Dearsley was left stunned when he was told he could keep his lifetime pet cover – but only if he was prepared to pay an annual premium three times higher than the year before, a massive £7,410.

Not only do customers have to pay off the entire remaining cost of their contract but EE also imposes extra charges on them.

Being newly qualified or near retirement can make you a ‘mortgage misfit’...but don’t worry, the good news is that there are lenders prepared to take on borrowers who are not quite the norm.

Few organisations come out of last year’s misselling scandal with their reputations intact. The two regulators also need to do some serious soul searching.

Lifecast, which is based at Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire, has joined forces with MedaPhor, a Welsh company that has developed ultrasound training simulators.

The big four banks - HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland - are set to reveal their financial figures for 2017. And HSBC's Stuart Gulliver is likely to lead the pack.

The consequences, they say, could be dire with homes potentially losing their power supply and hackers selling stolen details to criminals.