"Applauding in acclamation, the United Nations General Assembly today appointed Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon of the Republic of Korea as the world body's next Secretary-General, to succeed Kofi Annan when he steps down on 31 December." More
"A cheap and widely available malaria drug is an effective treatment for pregnant women, scientists said on Friday.... Malaria, a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes, kills more than a million people a year, mostly young children in Africa.
"United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today launched a multi-million dollar Peacebuilding Fund to help war-ravaged countries rebuild state institutions after conflict, and act as a "kick-start" for longer term donor investment in recovery efforts." More
The UN Secretary-General's Study on Violence against Children is a landmark effort to provide a detailed global picture of the nature, extent and causes of such violence and act to prevent it. The final report will be presented to the General Assembly today. More
NYT: "Violence against women by their live-in spouses or partners is a widespread phenomenon, both in the developed and developing world, as well as in rural and urban areas, the most comprehensive and scientific international study on the topic has confirmed. In interviews with nearly 25,000 women at 15 sites in 10 countries, researchers from the World Health Organization found that rates of partner violence ranged from a low of 15 percent in Yokohama, Japan, to a high of 71 percent in rural Ethiopia."
IHT: "Nearly 60 percent of women in Ethiopia are subject to sexual violence by a partner. Domestic violence and rape account for 19 percent of disease in women in developed countries. And in Colombia, a woman is killed by an intimate partner every six days, a study from the United Nations said Tuesday.... Violence against women persists at high rates around the world, and governments are not doing enough to prevent it, according to the report from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan."
BBC: China has called for "appropriate" UN action over North Korea's claim to have carried out a nuclear test on Monday. Beijing - traditionally Pyongyang's closest ally - said it had not ruled out UN sanctions but that military action was "unimaginable". The UN Security Council is considering a draft resolution that proposes strict financial and trade sanctions.
BBC: North Korea says it has carried out its first test of a nuclear weapon. It said the underground test, carried out in defiance of international warnings, was a success and had not resulted in any leak of radiation....
Pyongyang pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 and has refused for a year to attend talks aimed at ending its nuclear ambitions. The UN Security Council imposed an embargo on the import and export of missile-related materials in July after North Korea test-fired several missiles.
NYT: "The United Nations warned nearly 90 countries including the United States and most of Europe on Thursday to prepare for more deaths from heroin overdoses because of surging opium production in Afghanistan. The 2006 Afghan Opium Survey, published by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, found production of the raw material for heroin hit a record 6,100 tonnes, almost 50 percent higher than last year. This accounted for more than 90 percent of the world's supply."