UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told participants at the World Economic Forum that the United Nations will take action to address the shortage of water resources in the context of reaching global anti-poverty targets.

"Our experiences tell us that environmental stress, due to lack of water, may lead to conflict, and would be greater in poor nations...Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon."

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The head of United Nations peacekeeping is en route to the Sudan for talks with senior government officials about the joint UN-African Union Mission in Darfur.

Under-Secretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno is expected to reach the capital, Khartoum, today to begin a four-day visit, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters.

Assistant Secretary-General Jane Holl Lute is already in the African country, having visited all three states in Darfur since arriving on Friday. She returned to Khartoum today for a meeting with Mutrif Siddiq, the Undersecretary at the Sudanese Foreign Affairs Ministry.

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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced his concern at the devastation and increasing death toll left by Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh.

Media reports say that more than 2,000 people have been reported killed as a result of Cyclone Sidr, which struck the southwest coast of Bangladesh late on Thursday local time, bringing winds of more than 240 kilometres per hour and a water surge that created waves up to five metres high. The death toll is expected to climb further.

Thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed, large tracts of cropland have been wiped and hundreds of thousands of people have had to evacuate their home villages and towns and now depend on aid for basic necessities.

Ban expressed "his profound condolences to the people and Government of Bangladesh for the many deaths and the destruction involved, and the full solidarity of the UN system at this time of crisis."

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Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has nominated Belgian criminologist Serge Brammertz as the new chief prosecutor at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

From The New York Times:

Mr. Brammertz’s candidacy became known informally this summer, but he had to complete his mandate as the head of the United Nations inquiry into the killing in 2005 of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister of Lebanon. Mr. Ban also nominated Daniel Bellemare, a Canadian prosecutor, to take over the Lebanon investigation. Both appointments require the approval of the Security Council, which is likely.

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