AP - Humanitarian aid groups and U.N. monitors are unable to reach large parts of Georgia due to insecure conditions despite a French-brokered cease-fire, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday.

AP - A senior Taiwanese diplomat says Taiwan is not bidding for United Nations membership this year for the first time since 1992, but is seeking representation in U.N. agencies instead.

AP - Thousands of Muslims poured into the streets of Kashmir on Thursday, demanding independence from India hours after archival Pakistan called on the United Nations to stop what it characterized as gross human rights violations in the divided Himalayan region.

AFP - The United Nations estimates that 1.56 million dollars of international cyclone aid has been lost due to the military regime's complex foreign currency rules, a top official said Thursday.

Reuters - Sudan's north-south foes have a lot of work ahead to meet a July 2009 deadline to hold elections under a landmark peace deal, the head of the United Nations mission charged with monitoring the accord said on Thursday.

AP - A Russian military convoy defied a cease-fire agreement Wednesday and rolled through a strategically important city in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which claimed fresh looting and bombing by the Russians and their allies.

Reuters - The United Nations pledged on Wednesday to hasten its cautious steps in helping Iraq rebuild, five years after a devastating bomb pushed it to pull foreign staff out of the country.

AP - Five years after bombings forced the United Nations to pull out of Iraq, the world body is back. It announced plans Wednesday to help Iraq rebuild and create jobs following complaints the government has been unable or unwilling to spend its oil riches.

AP - France plans to ask the U.N. Security Council to approve by the end of the week its six-point plan for ending hostilities between Georgia and Russia, diplomats said Wednesday.

AP - The U.N. Security Council condemned the perpetrators of a roadside bombing in Lebanon Wednesday that sprayed shrapnel through a bus and onto a nearby sidewalk, killing 18 soldiers and civilians.

AP - Thousands of Muslims poured into the streets of Kashmir on Thursday, demanding independence from India hours after archival Pakistan called on the United Nations to stop what it characterized as gross human rights violations in the divided Himalayan region.

AP - Russian troops and paramilitaries rolled into the strategic Georgian city of Gori on Wednesday, apparently violating a truce designed to end the conflict that has uprooted tens of thousands and scarred the Georgian landscape.

Reuters - The United Nations pledged on Wednesday to hasten its cautious steps in helping Iraq rebuild, five years after a devastating bomb pushed it to pull foreign staff out of the country.

AP - A U.N. agency rolled out a $214 million program Tuesday to help 16 needy places hit hard by high prices for food and oil, amid a crisis already making it hard for aid groups to provide enough food for the world's hungry.