AFP - Nearly a quarter of a billion people escaped slums in the past decade, but the housing effort was outstripped by population growth and rural exodus to the cities, the United Nations said.

AP - Spanish actor Antonio Banderas has been named a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador for the fight against poverty, the United Nations Development Program announced Wednesday.

AP - Opposition grew Wednesday against a proposal to ban the export of Atlantic bluefin tuna, with several Arab countries joining Japan in arguing it would hurt poor fishing nations and wasn't scientifically justified.

Reuters - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday criticized Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman for releasing information about what Ban said was a confidential telephone call between the two men.

Reuters - Members of the U.N. Security Council want an outside investigation of charges of widespread diversion of U.N. aid to radical Islamist rebels in Somalia, Mexico's U.N. envoy said on Tuesday.

Reuters - The new United Nations special envoy to Afghanistan praised President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday for revoking a decree that barred foreign observers from a U.N.-backed electoral watchdog.

AP - China, Japan and Russia helped defeat a U.S.-endorsed proposal at a U.N. wildlife trade meeting Tuesday that would have boosted conservation efforts for sharks, expressing concern it would hurt poor nations and should be the responsibility of regional fisheries bodies.

Reuters - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon suggested in a new report on Afghanistan that the United Nations is ready to continue informal talks with the Taliban but the contact must be discreet, diplomats said.

AP - North Korea should let farms produce freely and allow food to be sold in local markets because the communist government cannot provide enough food for its people, a U.N. human rights investigator urged Monday.

AP - Surging demand for shark fin soup among Asia's booming middle classes is driving many species of these big fish to the brink of extinction, a marine conservation group said Tuesday.